People’s Opera Reloaded

Besides the Music Academy, Erkel Theatre was also restarted to join the cultural circulation of Budapest with the primary mission to offer the young generations high-standards performances and thus to introduce them to the world of opera and ballet. The forerunner of Erkel Theatre, People’s Opera was built in 1911 as the largest theatre of Budapest…

A Baroque Tale

Standing next to the castle of Fertőd, this special building was used for 150 years as a granary and still preserved the puppet theatre favoured by the aristocracy in the Baroque era, which is a unique one in Europe. This marionette theatre was opened in 1773 in honour of Queen Mary Theresa with Philemon and Baucis, the single marionette opera…

The Harmony of Contrast

Bearing stylistic features of Romanticism and the Neo-Romanesque style, St Maur’s college was built after designs by Gáspár Fábián and Andor Pilch in 1929 and was used by the University of Pécs in this function till 2008, when its reconstruction and extension was begun. From September, 2010 it has housed the administrative centre and the rector office…

Reflections

In 2003 the French minister of Culture published a contest to house the newly established Louvre museum in the regions of France. It was only the youngest region, Nord-Pas Calais which submitted applications, simultaneously for five cities of which Lens, the former mining centre was selected. For the 2005 tender for the museum building more than…

Strictly Installed

Designed by Pedro de Ribera, the military barracks was built in 1720 in Madrid to accommodate about 600 soldiers and 400 horses of the royal guard of Philip V. Abandoned in 1969, the building now temporarily houses cultural establishments and is going to be completely revived to change its military function to that of culture after the tender-winning…

Everyone is an Architect

The Calvinist church in Helvécia has been born as a building sounding the praises of God as the fruit of the inner spiritual motif driving and moving the faithful, leaders of the community, their pastor, sponsors and builders. Each participant is simultaneously a creator contributing to it either via donation, organisation and enthusiasm, by drawing the plans…

Diminutive Axe of the World

Designed by Kiev-based architectural group rDS Bothers, the silhouette of the chapel is taken from traditional ukrainian wooden church tower. Surroundings of pinewood forest conditioned vertical shape of the chapel encompasses a small floor area which is compensated by high interior space. A square floor plan, thanks to tilted walls, twisted at an angle…

Tradition, Nature, Harmony

Large and exceptionally cultivated garden becomes natural part of nearby pine forest and its southern edge defined by S-shaped lake with grassy banks makes beautiful surroundings of the family house. And the Teahouse is just part of this carefully designed scenery. The inner space of the teahouse could be adjusted by the sliding doors…

Order – House

Social and economic transformations taking place in the past few decades, and especially the losses affecting villages first of all entailed the loss of traditions. As a result of changing social and economic tendencies the traditional vernacular culture of the peasantry and thus the uprooting of self-sustaining rural communities after millennia…

The Sanctuary of Methuselah Trees

Some of the ancient, 7 million years old trees found in summer, 2007 in Bükkábrány are exhibited in the Ipolytarnóc Fossils Nature Reserve, whilst the four trees transported to the Herman Ottó Museum in Miskolc have proven sensational enough to house a new science wing here. Relying upon the power full call of the Methuselah trees…

József Borsos and the Early Modern Architecture

József Borsos is a major architect of the 20th century in Hungary. His name is connected with such Debrecen buildings as the University Church, the Mortuary Building, the Stadion and the Swimming Pool as well. The exhibition explores the social background of these developments and the significant role of István Vásáry mayor…

The City as Time Machine

The 7th edition of the Architecture Film Festival Rotterdam (AFFR), the major festival in the field of film and architecture all over the world, will be held from 10 to 13 October. More than 100 films on current trends in urban design and architecture will be screened in the LantarenVenster cinema in Rotterdam, Holland. Disused buildings.