Fabó Beáta - Gall, Anthony: I came from the East to a City of Great Palaces. Károly Kós, the early years 1907-1914 (Budapest, 2013)

Influences

UNIVERSITY YEARS, 1904-1907

Kos' university colleagues (1904/1905- 1906/1907)

Based upon documents held in the University archives, BMGE Archives (Budapesti Műszaki és Gazdaságtudományi Egyetem Levéltára, A M. Kir. józsef-Műegyetem oklevéljegyzéke) place of birth in parenthesis

Colleagues for the entire three years (1904/1905-1906/1907):

József Hornyik Jr. (Kecskemét)

István Csáti (Selmecbánya)

Dezső Csorna Győr-Sopron county),

Dezső Freund (Budapest)

Dénes Györgyi (Budapest)

Ödön Hochholtzer (Budapest)

Pál Klenovits (Budapest)

Károly Machlup (Budapest)

Béla Marschalkó (Gömör county)

Mátyás Märtz (Pécs)

Szvetiszláv Putnik (Fehértemplom)

János Prokisch Jr (Budapest)

Tibor Révész (Budapest)

Zsigmond Róth (Trencsén)

Lajos Schlichter Jr. (Győr)

Jenő Schmítterer (Budapest)

Rezső Szömörkényi (Temesvár/Timisoara) Dezső Zrumeczky (Pest county, Pusztainárcs) Gusztáv Weller (Zágráb)

Colleagues for some of the years István Lénárd (Szabadka)

Aurel Neubauer (Temesvár/Timisoara) János Sarlót (Arad)

László Tóbiás (Szeged)

Emil Wieszner (Budapest)

Dezső Benedek (Becs)

Sándor Molnár (Békés county)

Béla Tauszig (Budapest)

Walter Crane visited and opened exhibitions in Kolozsvár/Cluj-Napoca and Budapest in the year 1900.

Walter Crane (1845-1915), artist and craftsman Gordon Craig (1872-1966), graphic artist and stage designer

John Ruskin (1819-1900), writer and painter William Morris (1834-1896), artist and craftsman

‘However, I couldn't quite get to grips with the lifeless science of technology and so after two years - much to the annoyance ofmy parents and at the cost of having lost one year of studies -1 switched to the Faculty of Architecture. I had a heavy hand but with great effort I eventually became good at drawing. I also had trouble with the theoretical subjects, while asfor planning my excellence was soon acknowledged by my teachers andfellow students alike. In my third and fourth years I was awarded at each student competition and won scholarships for the holidays’.

‘Of the thirty-strong team onlyfive of us werefrom the countryside (one of them a Serb, another one a Croat), all my other colleagues had come from Budapest. A third of these were Jews, two thirds Germans from Buda from assimilatingfamilies or Hungariansfrom Pest of German origin. The only exception was Dezső Zrumeczky, who was a Hungarian from Pest of Hungarian origin!K0S 1991:41

‘At the end of the second year there was an exam that would single out the good seed and send the poor ones packing. Thisfilter in our case set apart one third of the students in my year as unsuitable!KOS m,: 4SKós and his university colleagues 1906

private collection

The first steps towards folk architecture

In 1906, when he was in his third year, Kós won second prize at the Wellisch Student Competition with his plans for a Well-house in Hungarian style, The money that came with the prize made it possible for him to visit the Torockó (Râmetea), Aranyosszék (Aries) and Kis-Küküllő (Tärnava-Micä) valley regions of Transylvania in the summer. In August he made his Design for a Small country House - an Experiment in Székely Folk Style. In this design, a pyramidal tent-like roof closes a simple rectangular plan. The building is made up of the assemblage of natural stone, a log structure and the shingled roof. The floor plan is constructed of a series of rooms arranged around a central dining hall. The fireplace shared by the dining hall and the entrance hall, which functioned similarly to the ‘hall’ popular in English architecture at the time, is an important feature of this as well as numerous later designs by Kós. This design is one of the fundamental works of his architectural oeuvre. Both its content (style) and its resolution (a novel graphic approach) designate the direction Kós would then follow for several decades. The original of this invaluable design was rediscovered in 2008.

First encounter with the Arts and Crafts Movement of England

T would copy (in the Museum of Applied Arts) the folk-tale illustrations of Walter Crane and the drawings of Gordon Craig; I came across the work of the early woodcutters and I liked them a lot/.../

Through books and journals I became acquainted with the movements, aims and works of contemporary art, I found out about Ruskin and Morris, the architects of residential buildings of the time and the typically English residential architecture!KOS I99,:42~44'

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