Detached House, Gödöllő

Architects: Zoltán Horváth, Márton Benedek, Balázs Juhász
Text: Sándor Csontó
Photos: Nóra Bereczki

Architect Péter Kaffka designed a complex in Gödöllő in 1940 to contain three houses for a company of well-known Budapest-based artists. Using means of Hungarian folk art,  and yet reaching beyond it, the complex included a long single unit auxiliary building, a circular modest sized weekend house as well as a hunter’s lodge. Up until 2014 the latter was destroyed by fire, and the detached house presented here was built on its site. The arch of its axis resembles the tail feathers of a swallow.  The materials used are simple: quarry stones, timber and glass. The mass and the structure of the roofing, which is the organizing principle of the entire building, nestles onto the masonry evoking the tectonics of the quarry rampants. We can access the lower level opening into the back garden via a few steps on the southern side. In the left foil the spacious living-room doubling as a dining area opens into the deck with large glass expanses. The roofing bending outward is supported by thick timber columns. Timbers preserved in good conditions from the roofing of the old house have been integrated into that of the living-room, the timber inlay and the light above the dining table.

Leading architect: Zoltán Horváth
Architects: Márton Benedek, Balázs Juhász
Structure: József Demjén
HVAC: Árpád Szöllősi
Electrical engineering: József Mihalovics
Ladscape, garden: Mónika Mandel