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
The final building Small Country House with a Studio' belongs to a genre of artists' studio homes, with such precursors as Akseli Gallen-Kallela's studio home in Finland and William Morris' Red House. The design considers the vegetable garden, the orchard and the outbuildings integral parts of an artistic composition. The underlying tectonic principle of the design employs the tower and the gable roof as individual compositional units (as also seen in the design for Crow Castle). The dining hall and living room on the ground floor are situated around the oak stairs as a core, which made it possible to create the little alcoves. Kós created detailed designs for the interior, including the furniture, making extensive use of Hungarian mythology. Both the exterior and the interior of the building were, in turn, created as per this version of the design, yet Kós made numerous modifications when he redesigned the house on the basis of his parents' needs. He turned the stairs to face the other way, while the lighting and the shape of the ceiling of the studio are different from the original design. When Kós was staying in Kolozsvár/Cluj-Napoca, he would stay in the ‘bedroom’ at the back of the upper floor. The twenties saw minor additions, such as the glazing of the veranda. The main elevation of the building was damaged during World War Two. It was partially renovated after 2000. H Studio, watercolour private collection 60 The Kós family in the Brétfű garden, 1961 Béla Kós The completed building, circa 1920 private collection The House today László Alapfy
