2012/2

Thanks to its membership, on May 17th 2012 I became the chairman of the Association of Hungarian Architects – a now 110 years old widely appreciated association. I assumed this honourable duty for four years with the aim to pass it on to someone of the young generation who is able and qualified to keep the Association going. During these four years our organization must be renewed, which is my belief and ambition as well.

This exhibition presents with an unparalleled richness some interiors of Hungary designed in the interwar era by designers and architects with artistic standards preserving a long-forgotten world of items of interior design.

It is the merit of Kenneth Frampton’s critical regionalism that made reviews a condition and guarantee of objective consideration which tried to find the balance between the avantgarde Zeitgeist and local attachments. But is it modern to ponder about avantgarde now?

A house that Makovecz succeeded in building but which he could never move in. The afterpiece of the drama of architecture – somewhere above the oeuvre and beyond it. A chance to understand, now we can take an exam after having failed it in front of us.

Let us build the future from the past – this could be the motto of the reconstruction of the former Spetz House designed by Judith Botos which is triply true. Firstly, because the house built by Ferenc Povolny embodies the French revolutionary architecture in the „characteristical.ly Hungarian flourishing” of Classicism.

Designers had an extraordinarily difficult task here when modernizing an existing complex with access to only a fragment of the allocated site. The fact that modernization still has been successful and thus a total of 550 children can learn in an appropriate building is owing to the efficient and professional cooperation of the teachers, architects and builders, starting from the designing programme based on the pedagogical programme till the completion.

The Mayor’s Office in Budakeszi has a history of many layers, each of which proves to be rich in consequences when we approach them. The ten years up to the birth of the building may be interpreted as a process of reduction in more than just one sense of the word.

As the greatest invention of its past 35 years, the Czech Technical University (CVUT) has found a home for its architectural faculty in the academic district in Prague. The campus in Dejvice district has been evolved and developed with academic and training functions now after the construction of the Students’ House and that of the National Technical Library.

ECC in the year 2003 accomplished the long-term cultural ambition which earned Graz – along with Vienna – the title of the centre of Austrian contemporary arts primarily with the events of the Styrian Autumn. In 2005 the city was awarded the title the Capital of Design by the UNESCO, owing to which the buildings needed for for education, healthcare and sports also generated contemporary top-achievements.

The fame of Pécs has been more established since 2010 when it was the European Cultural Capital. The motorway from Budapest was completed, along with the House of Sciences, the Kodály Centre and many facelifted squares and public buildings.

At perhaps one of the most exposed sites of Budapest, Ferenciek Square is situated at the mouth of the road leading to Elizabeth Bridge. This is where the twin buildings of Klotild Palace were erected at the turn of the century as the motif of a gate to the city.

A francia alapítású, de mára európaivá szélesedett, kétévente megrendezett EUROPAN Nemzetközi Építészeti-Városépítészeti tervpályázatnak célja az, hogy egy európai szintű hálózaton keresztül segítsen az önkormányzatoknak abban, hogy a legbonyolultabb helyszíneikre friss és előremutató, az adott helyzetet legjobban megoldó tervek szülessenek.