Tivadar Mika House, Budapest

Architect: Kristóf Szmetana (Jenő Marton, 1909)
Text: Eszter Götz
Photos: Tamás Bujnovszky

Specialized in turning and metal polishing, the Mika family immigrated here from Moravia and had their workshop on the edge of the Jewish quarter of Pest at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. In 1909 Tivadar Mika had a house built there in the style of Parisian Art Nouveau commissioning architect Jenő Marton to design a three-storey residential building on the street front of the rather narrow deeply wedged plot. In 2004 when the building deteriorating for decades and divided up into many apartments was purchased by an American investor with Hungarian origins, the local authority had already sentenced it to demolition. However, civilians protecting the district turned out to be quicker than the investor, and thus managed to have the building registered as a protected historic monument. The former home of Tivadar Mika was restored to its former glory in the autumn of 2012.

Architects: Kristóf Szmetana, Ágoston Barkács – Archimánia Kft.
Structure: Nándor Bürger
Technical and electrical installations: Ottó Siklódi – S-Patrik Kft.
Interior design: Mónika Frey
Main contractor: Róbert Gelle – Toff Trime Kft.
Facade: László Samu, Zoltán Jurányi – Horizont Bau Kft.