Magyar Hírek, 1987 (40. évfolyam, 1-23. szám)
1987-06-27 / 13. szám
THE HUNGARIAN NATIONAL STYLE IN ARCHITECTURE An interwiev with Imre Makovetz, architect hurt' Makovetz is currently the best-known Hungarian architect, although he does not design highrise housing estates or great hotels in Budapest that guarantee success from the start. And yet many articles are published about each of his works, whether they be a home at Sárospatak, a holiday camp in Visegrád, or a village community hall back of beyond at Zalaszentlászló. Each of his buildings is original, and attractively individualistic. The last time there was a major and fairly successful drive by Hungarian architects to develop a national style was around 1900. After a long gap the revival of such efforts is linked to your name. I should rather say that this drive achieved success for the first time around 1900. A demand had existed since the early part of the last century, the beginning of the reform age. Like most of the nations of Europe, the Hungarians also became intensively interested in delving into their origin. The idea that the ancient heritage of the Hungarians as well as the living folk-art must be made generally known and elevated into the world of high culture was based on that interest. The great age of Hungarian architecture around the year 1900 fitted into this process, and that was when a national architectural style was born. In the wake of Ödön Lechner, István Megyasszay, Károly Kós, Zrumetzky, Torockai Wiegand, a special Hungarian national architecture developed by the early 1910s. The building of the Museum of Applied Arts in Budapest, designed by Ödön Lechner, is generally regarded the starting point of that architectural age. It is one of the most magnificent works of the age. I know many people criticised it for its eastern motives. One must, however, keep in mind that the idea of the Scythian-Sumerian origin of the Hungarians was taken seriously at the time and that Lechner tried to find the ancient Hungarian motives of building structure, linkage of space and decoration by reaching back to the buildings of western India. The reason Lechner became absorbed in that was to try and save values of the past, which could give an impetus to the architecture of his time. This did happen. The next step was folk motives on buildings designed by his followers. The leaded windows of the Marosvásárhely cultural palace display Hungarian historical events even now and I should also mention the town-hall of Szabadka, but also any of the major Hungarian towns, such as Debrecen, Szeged, Kecskemét. There are Hungarian style buildings of the time in each of them. As 1 said before, this boom was part of a general intellectual flowering which was ended by the Great War. Then the Hungarian style found itself in a depression from which it has not emerged to this day. During the Horthy era the Bauhaus and then the Neo-Baroque overshadowed it,, after the Second World War the myth of mass-production followed, the prefabricated box-like monstrosities, spelling uniformity right through the world. How did you, under such circumstances, turn into an architect devoted to the national style? I did not intend to become an architectural theorist. In the early years I only opposed prefabrication. And I am still convinced that prefabricated high-rise building has more drawbacks then advantages. They really should look at the part played by four square-meter kitchens or sixsquare-meter small rooms in the deterioration of marriages, in the proliferation of divorce, or in the growth of alcoholism. My idea of work was to design homes that people could be happy in, and not housing for pay. The f irst of your works that attracted international attention was the cultural centre of Sárospatak in 1965, rated by the International Federation of Architects as one of the ten best works of that year. This would mean success anywhere in the world. And yet, you lost your job. How did that happen? No, I did not get the order of the boot, it just became impossible for me to continue working where I was employed at the time. The Hungarian building industry lived under the spell of massproduction. The aim was to build as much as possible, and that could be done fastest by buildings of extremely simplified structure erected in a simple, stereotype manner. I, on the other hand, designed a building of complicated structm’e, but of world standard. On could not do that in a slapdash manner. They declared that the plan could not be executed, that I should rework it. I was not willing to do that. So they did not pay. A whole office, many men and women, were not paid for a year’s work. I had to resign. The business went to the courts. Who built the cultural centre eventually? The corner balconies of the completed living-house The same construction firm. The building already stood while lawyers were still arguing in court that it was not possible to build it as designed. Let us go back to you starting to design buildings ■in the national style. I already mentioned that I did not set out to be an architectural theorist. This period in my life started perhaps, when the elders of Zalaszentlászló a small village with barely one thousand inhabitants, asked me to build them a Village House. They had little money. I went to see them. Since I grew up in County Zala, I tried to do all 1 could. They had little money for the building, but were ready to contribute all of the labour. As it was to be built from materials that the locals had used for centuries, it was natural that I should also incorjrorate traditional building motives. 1 completed the plans and submitted them for approval. Nothing happened for a year, they neither approved nor rejected them. Then I said I would start without a permit, forgoing my fee. 1 did my share of the actual construction work as well. We completed the house within a few months. A fair few of the young architects look up to you as their example. I am fond of and a little-bit envious of the young people of today. Compared to our lot they do all right. They do not have to start work in huge design offices, working with several hundred people, as we had to in our time. They can immediately form partnerships, cooperatives, and soon enjoy incomes, that protect them from giving up their individuality and ideas even if for only a while. In Keszthely, for instance, one such designing and building cooperative established by young people is engaged on reshaping the High Street, and they are making a very good job of it, as I could see for myself. I believe you also established a summer camp for students of architecture. The camp has been held annually for the past eight years. Students submit plans, and the makers of the best of these come together for a few weeks. Perhaps the main function of this camp is to teach students to work in a team, something which — who knows why — is not done at the university. Talented young people decide which of the plan they would work out that summer by voting. Are you a satisfied with your life and work? I think I will always be a grumbler. But 1 think this is as it should be. ISTVÁN POKOKNY The living-house under construction at Sárospatak 30
