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
B The Chamber of Trade and Commerce in Kolozsvár/Cluj (unrealised) has strong parallels with the Városmajor design Magyar Építőművészet, 1910.12. The school complex is located near the Városmajor park, along an important thoroughfare leading to the Déli (Southern) railway station. The well-chosen scale and size provides a suitable transition between the park and the richer urban texture of the residential area made up of apartment blocks. A special technical problem was posed by the fact that there was an eight metre drop between the two ends of the building lot. The kindergarten, residential block and school, placed one after the other along the street are characterised by well articulated elevations. The individual blocks are connected and separated by a veranda, which makes it more comfortable to move from one building to the other and still allows a visual connection between the street and the park behind the building. The school is another good example of Kós' characteristic architectural solutions: the small front courtyard created between the building and the street, the combined use of many different forms, the unification of the tower and the adjoining wing into one elevation, a variety of steep gables, the (semi)circular tower and the small, slightly jutting balcony with the wooden trelliswork on the first floor of the residential block. Simularly monumental main elevation designs can be seen in the unrealised project for the Chamber of Trade and Commerce of Kolozsvár/Cluj (1909) and the Public Works Complex in Marosvásárhely/ Târgu Mures (1909). 150 Detail showing the subsequently demolished street-gate, circa 1910 Magyar Építészeti Múzeum The school circa 1910 BFLXV.17.d.328j.n.
