Fabó Beáta - Gall, Anthony: I came from the East to a City of Great Palaces. Károly Kós, the early years 1907-1914 (Budapest, 2013)
Kós' First Steps as an Independent Architect
H Perspective view, sketch design Magyar Iparművészet, 1908.3. IB page 54 : Small studio cottage - Dining room and Hall watercolour, private collection ■ page 55: Small studio cottage watercolour, private collection KÓS1 FIRST REALISED DESIGN KÓS' PARENTS HOUSE IN KOLOZSVÁR/ ClUJ-NaPOCA, 1907-I908 Mother's request, Winter of 1908 14s you know, son, the house in Brétfű is small and is not meant as a permanent home, just as a holiday cottage.’ 7 know. What, then, do you want, Mother?’ ‘This is what I was about to say: I want to build a house. A properfamily residencefor all year round, in Kolozsvár.’ ‘A house? Where? On whose lot? With what money, Mother?’ ‘We have a lot to build on. You know, the neighbouring one, the corner lot I was bargaining for back in the summer. It's a beautiful, large lot, almost an acre in size. I've bought it and we can build the house there.’ ‘Well, maybe. That’s right. But it still takes money to build, Mother dear.’ ‘This is what yourfather has also said to me... that a handful of buttons won't buy me a house.’ ‘Beautifulprospects, Mother. What more do you want?’ ‘To start with, I want to know the price of the construction of a house with three of four rooms for us. Can you tell me?’ ‘Sure, sure. Butfor that I first have to have the plans for that house.’ ‘Of course you do. And that's just what I was going to ask you to do. To make the plans. If you have the time ’K0S I99,: 79~8a First sketch designs, a small house in the country with a studio, an artist's house, Winter 1907-1908 ‘I had a few versions of the plans ofa family home that I had made back in the autumn (in fact in the winter of 1907-1908 ed.), with especially my parents in mind. It was more of a distraction than work - two large rooms (a dining hall and a so-called studio) and three smaller ones, with the adjoining bathroom and kitchen, with an attic to make more room for all of these. I dug up these sketches now! KOS 1991:80-These sketches survived in two different versions, as a set of watercolours (presumably this is the earlier version, made probably about late 1907, now privately owned) and as a black-and-white ink version, published in Magyar Iparművészet (Hungarian Applied Art), in Issue 3,1908. The plans reworked, 1908 ‘Then my mother and I would transform, modify and, mainly, reduce these plans: ‘Let's not have a cellar under the house, it's cheaper and more simple to make cellars in the hillside behind the house’, I suggested! I don't need the servant's room’, said Mother, until finally we agreed, ‘This is just right! And so it happened. Mother was the daughter of Károly Sivet, ‘the whimsical Frenchman’ - once she set her mind to having a house with a garden in Kolozsvár, she would have her way. 56 Sketch design, rear view with garden, Magyar Iparművészet, 1908.3. Perspective view, sketch design Magyar Iparművészet, 1908.3.
