An Introduction to the Memorial Issue Devoted to István Medgyaszay

Text: György Szegő
Photo: Archive photo ©  István Medgyaszay’s Memorial House

The career of architect István Medgyaszay was defined by the objective phrased by Ödön Lechner: “There has not been such a thing as Hungarian form, but there will be.” His personality was genuinely and highly innovative as such. Whilst studying at the University of Technology in Vienna, he also attended the master courses of Otto Wagner to be continued in Paris, where he found his place with the studio of François Hennebique who was a pioneer of ferro-concrete structures. Back in those days these locations were actually the laboratories of the latest innovations and technologies. The uniquely individual and characteristic modernism of Medgyaszay was the dress rehearsal for a genuinely new architecture. The Medgyaszay conference organised in September 2017 and our selection of articles published in the column titled Post Scriptum of the present issue of our periodical are tiny little and yet important moves of the imposing research work targeted to survey and explore an impressive alternative of modern Hungarian architecture both within the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy and beyond.