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 first managing secretary. His ever more and more significant works, schools, residential and public buildings, large town-size highrise complexes made him one of the most significant, internationally acknowledged master of brutalism, the late-modernist trend of architecture in the 1960s; the Royal Academy of Arts included him as its member in 1971. Ernő Goldfinger, who lived in relative richness in England, contacted his friend from is youth in the late 50s, Tibor Hübner Sr. who worked as an architect in Hungary with an idea to provide professional practice for young Hungarian architects after graduation in Great Britain. This was officially facilitated by an agreement between the profesional organisations of the two countries, RIBA and MÉSZ. Between 1961 and 1965 4-4 architects travelled to Britain on 4 occasions, and later one and two young architects had the opportunity to take part in the programme. Thus a total of 19 Hungarian architects had the chance to work in the United Kingdom thanks to Goldfinger’s help.