Utóirat 2013/2

I would like to especially focus on a unique feature of Zalotay’s architecture. Possessing an extraordinary clarity, sense of purpose and toughness when phrasing the theory of his concept or projects its macrostructure, the inner correlations, Zalotay still creates the details of forms with a high degree of inner intuitiveness and expressivity.

Zalotay’s architecture represents a special type and quality: he is able to draw attention to the cosmic meaning of architecture even without the mythical features of his struggle. According to ancient astrologers, architecture as a profession is governed by Saturn just like all those in close association with the material, the earth…

In 2002 a French broadcasting company shot a film about buildings of certain European countries selected by themselves. Switzerland would have been represented by the house designed by Elemér Zalotay, but the Swiss were so much astonished at this choice that they managed to talk the team out of shooting, which in turn reignited…

Meeting the local observatory for earth satellites in Szombathely moved me so deeply that I looked up its designs in the archives of Vasiterv. I came upon the architectural documentations of this building that are also displayed here on the walls, including those of statics and the craziest fittings, which I used for an exhibition in Felsőszolnok…

Relying upon Le Corbusier and the arche-socialist Charles Fourier, Zalotay’s argument was so crystallized, clear and simple that it could not be reacted to anyway. Not even if it had occurred to someone that Jules Verne who had been so much sensitive to fantasies showed a kind of elementary revulsion of the utopias of cities…

Elemér Zalotay was born on 30th of October, 1932 in Szentes. He graduated from the Budapest Technical University in 1957. In 1962 he presented his concept of the ribbon house in the periodical titled Interbuild in the article Corb plus. Inspired by Le Courbisier’s idea of the „integrated dwelling units”, this design went beyond…

You had already been a famous individual – should I not say, infamous back in those days – behind your back because of the Russian manufactories of prefab houses, with your idea of the ribbon houses which had been sawn off owing to political reasons. András Kovács also recorded on celluloid tape among „tough guys”, that was regarded…

Necessity as a designing programme describes the history of architecture in the modern age as a shadow. The shape and direction of this shadow kept changing with the historical periods, defining those who are needy, according to the recognized or supposed needs and the jurisdiction presently attributed to architecture…