Prakfalvi Endre: Architecture of Dictatorship. The Architecture of Budapest between 1945 and 1959 - Our Budapest (Budapest, 1999)

created by the solid wall-mass of the corner enclosing the unbroken glass surface of the stairwell. The double (asymmetrically positioned) double gate-surface of the main entrance is given the appropriate emphasis. The interior design is in tune with the spirit of the external appearance,” was how architect and industrial designer Gyula Kaesz described the building. In the undoubtedly magnificently elegant lobby there was placed Dezső Győri's aluminium bas-relief commemorating the trade union martyrs of the labour movement. In a similar spirit Pál Vince prepared plans, based on the reconstruction of another ruined Eclectic building (10 Bécsi utca, district V), for the head office of the National Institute of Architectural Design for the Heavy Industries (later Iparterv or Manufacturing Industrial Design). The storey added to the building in 1959-60 was also designed by Vince. A contemporary review was quick to observe that “its external appearance shows no signs that an office concerned with the design of buildings for heavy industry, that key sector of our socialist five-year plan, is hidden behind its walls, which is probably the greatest defect of this frigid, bleak construction."

In November 1947, a closed tender was issued for a large-scale construction meant to be representative of the period - the MÉMOSZ Headquarters (84/A Dózsa György út) in the newly emerging trade union district. Synthesising the principles of modern architecture, the building is an emblematic representative of how the style found expression in Hungary. Ten designers, all members of MEMOSZ, the Federation of Hungarian Architects, were invited to participate. The specifications of the project were so far “unknown and unique” criteria. The building was expected to provide the appropriate communal spaces for the membership to serve as a base for their social and cultural activities. Provisions were to be made for the commercial operation of a cinema-cum-theatre and a restaurant, and for the involvement of non-member audiences. The authorities issuing the tender-invitation intended to give the greatest possible freedom to the designers in order to enable them realise the most “up-to-date” ideas and thus to create plans for a building worthy of the construction industry workers’ organisation through perfectly fulfilling all the functions of a trade union headquarters. Blueprints lifted out of the competitors’ materials were consolidated, and what became the street front was designed by Lajos Gádoros (Gonda). His associates were Imre Perényi, Gábor

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