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
to buy its furnishings. The plot was divided into smaller plots and let out to eight enterpreneurs providing cheap entertainment, who started to build their cabins and kiosks in late 1908. The buildings of the zoo and the animals were insured for fire - the estimated value given by the insurance company (Austrian Elemental Insurance Inc.) for 1907-1913 was 11,864 crowns for the buildings and 51,890 crowns for the animals covered. 1908 The transformation and renovation works continued throughout 1908, so the need arose to provide shelter for the workers. The ex-Giraffe House was transformed into a workers' hostel, temporarily housing the construction management offices as well. As for the service buildings, this year saw the completion of a residential unit for 18 wardens, a stable including a coach house and repair workshop, a kitchen building with ample storage facility and an ice pit. Several unused buildings were demolished and the landscaping was also carried out. Five new staff members were hired. The meeting of the city council ruled in early 1908 that the current circus building with the wooden frame was to be demolished by the tenant, Mátyás Beketow, who should build a new, iron-framed one next to the entertainers' territory. It was ruled on 10th July by the Council that from the year 1909 the zoo should bear the name of Zoological and Botanical Garden, and its general landscaping, drainage, plumbing and lighting plans were also approved. As for the lighting infrastructure, the management accepted the offer of the Austro-Hungarian Lamp Gas Company and the council granted a further 712,000 crowns for the works. A ‘shortlist of committee members practically overseeing the works was drafted and its members appointed in two week's time. When proposing that such a subcommittee be appointed, the council noted, ‘we intended to make sure that the subcommittee was made up of members who are personally interested in the functioning of the zoo and whose professional background enables them to help the construction and functioning of the Garden and, moreover, they represent all the districts of Budapest’. Following their proposition, the subcommittee finally had zoologists, botanists and architects among its members. Its chair was Dr Tivadar Body, head of the financial and economical department, while the other members were Dr Béla Feleki (lawyer), Alajos Hauszmann (architect, university lecturer), Dr Ferenc Heltai (writer, later mayor of Budapest), Dr Aladár Kovács, Dr Imre Légrády (journalist, editor), Dr Adolf Lendl (zoologist), József Márkus (mayor of Budapest 1897-1906), Dr Kornél Neuschloss (architect), Dr Hugó Preyer (lawyer), Aladár Telkes (bank manager), Gyula Ullmann (architect) and Dr Vilmos Vázsonyi (lawyer). Kornél Neuschloss suggested that Károly Kós and Dezső Zrumeczky be commissioned to plan the buildings and overseeing the construction work. The folk-based style represented by the two fresh graduates from the technical university was not a far cry from the officially supported trend in architecture at the time. As described by Adolf Lendl, ‘Most of the buildings were designed by architects Károly Kós and Dezső Zrumeczky, who had previously been on a study trip abroad. Not only did they take into consideration the zoological program of the renovation, but used a lot of originality when designing the individual buildings all in different styles - some of them with a Hungarian design, others relying on patterns and ideas from the home country of the given animal’. The subcommittee started functioning with a series of study trips. When justifying their request for support, these trips were needed ‘in order to study some of the larger zoological gardens abroad with regard to their layout, the placement of the animals, the materials and structure of the cages and kennels and all other pertaining questions’, and asked for 5000 crowns for the purpose. In August, the group split into two teams, who set off in two different directions. One included Dr Tivadar Body, Dr Adolf Lendl and Dr Kornél Neuschloss. The other was made up of Dr Zoltán Rátonyi, Gyula Végh, architect in charge of the construction works, Károly Kós and Dezső Zrumeczky. Unfortunately their exact itinerary is unknown, we only know the route they followed while in Germany. In the zoos they visited, they took notes, made photographs and consulted with colleagues. In late 1908 or early 1909 Gyula Végh completed the plans for the landscaping and the footpath network of the Budapest Zoo. The first task at hand was to design a well-proportioned park with a sensible network of paths. When transforming the scenery, they made an attempt to keep all the existing valuable trees, while with the planting of new ones the first guideline was to choose native Hungarian trees and the second one to be able to present to the public as many easy to introduce foreign trees as possible. One of the first problems to tackle was to alleviate the unpleasant effects of the neighbouring railway line. The trains rattling by the zoo day and night would constantly puff smoke and shower soot over the trees of the park. The visiting committee found the answer in the Hamburg-Stellingen Zoo, which provided the inspiration for them to raise the part of the terrain nearest the railway line creating a hilly impression, which also made it possible to put to use the amounts of soil brought up when deepening the lake bed. The trees planted on these elevations were less sensitive to the air pollution from the trains, while the hilly terrain was more pleasant to the eye and suggester more space than there actually was. The idea of placing large towering rocks in the landscape to make it more varied came likewise from Hamburg, but the visit to Berlin also brought useful insights. The House of Small Rodents and the Pheasant House were modelled after buildings in the Berlin Zoo, but ‘their style was chosen by our architects from the homeland of wooden towers M The old Giraffe House FÁNK fotógyűjtemány H A building from the Magdeburg Zoo, discovered amongst the Budapest archives, after 1903. BFL XV.17.d.328 KT szor 56 1! Buffalo and Bison House FÁNK fotógyűjtemény 73
