Prakfalvi Endre: Architecture of Dictatorship. The Architecture of Budapest between 1945 and 1959 - Our Budapest (Budapest, 1999)
by Emil Zöldy was completed in the area bordered by Honvéd utca and Balaton utca. Although the strictness of the “framework style" development, whereby an unbroken row of buildings is erected without spaces between their sides, is somewhat relaxed here, which is reminiscent of cosmopolitan(l) architecture, the block still “made a significant contribution to providing the neighbourhood of our governmental area with a big-city image worthy of a Socialist capital,” observed Tibor Weiner, albeit that he found the seven-story high building somewhat too tall. Although the flats were built to the formulaic plans following the principles observed throughout the country, in size they were 20 per cent larger than the average in recognition of an environment special to a capital city and the needs of its specific residents (i.e. senior army officers and ministerial staff). A characteristic creation of Hungarian Socialist Realism is the building that now houses the Hungarian College of Applied Arts (originally the Ministry of Popular Education and Culture) at Ho. 9 Zugligeti út in district XII (Zoltán Far- kasdy, Jolán Limpek, Olga Mináry, Géza Mészáros, 1953— 54). A contemporary reviewer applauded the building for "... importing from Dabas the mood of rural mansions into the capital city...” (The method was called archaising in the professional jargon of the period.) After a congress held to promote the “advancement” of Hungary’s architecture (1951), the Association of Hungarian Architects assessed the performance of the design offices’ architectural departments in terms of “artistic evocativeness”. The work done by the team led by Lajos Gádoros was commended (1953) for not having turned out one single work appearing to be derivative of a Classicist style. The police headquarters in Csepel designed by György Szrogh was also appreciated (23 Szent Imre tér, district XXI, in the vicinity of the “Nyiri” post office), although it was a matter of dispute whether the building expressed the fundamental difference between a Socialist and a capitalist police force. The layout of the interior was found to be of a high standard. (Across the square is a party office block designed by Károly Wiechinger.) The Dubbing Studio built to plans by Lajos Gádoros and István Mühlbacher did not provoke much disagreement, as it was found that “its interior and exterior are both adequately designed; on top, or perhaps precisely because, of which the building is a perfect expression of its inner contents.” The question to 48
