Text: Gábor Czeiner

Zalotay Elemér: Gyűrűház, Szombathely, 1968, Reprodukció: Hajdú József

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 then as an extraordinary company. With this kind of professional background of yours it had been quite an achievement that you all of a sudden turned up in the staff of an architects’ team in the countryside, in Vas county. We had great expectations looking forward to your activities there as we knew we had someone special to deal with. From the very first moment it was clear for us that your ideas, work style and creative processes are difficult to fit into the hierarchy of the designers’ team with its fixed numbers of designs to be completed by inner and outer deadlines. And this is how it happened. A large number of conflicts ensued. However, brilliant achievements were made even so as a result of your strong will. Astonishing for the average people, your individual solutions made huge storms in the management and the specialist-designing field as well.