Architecture Around the Year

The 120th Anniversary of the Association of Hungarian Architects Text: András Krizsán DLA In 1902, when Cifrapalota, one of the best known buildings of Hungarian Art Nouveau was completed in Kecskemét, twenty-four Hungarian architects decided it was necessary to found an association in order to defend the interests of Hungarian architectural art. Hopes associated with […]

Noble Ambitions, Fine Ideas

The first decade of MÉSZ Text: Ákos Moravánszky 1902, the foundation year of the Hungarian Asssociation of Architects (MÉSZ) was halfway through the peaceful, almost 5 decade long belle époque era between 1867 and 1914. Architects, the majority of whom significantly contributed to te evolution of Budapest into a global capital city, made a decision […]

Chapters from the History of MÉSZ between 1902 and 1948

Text: Eszter Baku, Éva Csernus The structure of MÉSZ had been based on the management, boards and disciplinary council as late as the post-war era, with close cooperation that was a firm foundation allowing for settling and managing both artistic/cultural issues and the representation of interests taking on new and new tasks. These three pillars […]

Individualist Hungarian Social Realism

An Invisible Story Text: Ádám Sylvester After the war the vast number of construction and building projects required large architects’ offices run by the state. Most of the young professionals had not yet been hostile to this, and construction became a most important factor, which policy focussed on intensely, and it has also turned into […]

„English” Hungarian Architects

Ernő Goldfinger’s Cooperation with MÉSZ Text: Ábel Mészáros The Goldfinger scholarship is an exceptional episode of the history of architecture in the Kádár era. After the war Ernő Goldfinger initiated in 1946 with Pierre Vago, Hungarian-born French architect to found UIA, the international association of architects, which right after its foundation elected him as its […]

Prestige and Identity

Reception of the Activities of Iparterv in the early Kádár Era Text: Péter Haba The overall professional and social reception of Hungarian architecture after 1956 was defined in a strange way by a special field which otherwise tends to fall outside the focus of attention of the wider public. The segment of designing industrial investments […]

Master School 1953–2023

Text: János Golda With its existence of seven decades, the Master School falls within the grey zone between the contemporary present and canonized past. It is not yet part of the official history, and we hardly remember it. Since 1970 it is its 16th cycle coming to an end in the summer of 2022, including […]

Posthumous Bow in Respect

Posthumous Ybl Prize Text: Barnabás Winkler In 2010, after an initiative by architect Barnabás Winkler, the Association of hUngarian Architects recognized the oeuvre of 17 Hungarian architects with a posthumous Magyar Ybl Prize which was originally founded as one of the state recognitions of arts in a decree of the Ministerial Board on November 6th […]

120 Years in the Service of Architecture

At the end of our jubilee compilation we publish a data base to show who have been the leaders of the Association of Hungarian Architects (MÉSZ) since its foundation 120 years ago, and also present the Architects’ House which is the headquarters of our organisation, survey the activities of MÉSZ in the international context of […]