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

Office block of the Ganz Railway Carriage Factory

ca (named for a leader of the Social Democrats between the wars; the street, later renamed Korvin Ottó utca, eventually became Pacsirtamező utca). The earlier of the two (standing by the Post Office) was built in 1950 to plans by Ferenc Kiss, while the later one, designed by József Körner, was constructed in 1951-52. What Aladár Sós, a contemporary reviewer, found most objectionable was that the “high-rises” blocked out the view of “the delicate undulations of the hills,” a feature of prime significance in the overall effect of the Buda landscape. This fragile charm, as Sós argues, could easily fall victim to the street rows prescribed by the development plans and the ill-proportioned cubes of the huge, isolated blocks with their predetermined sizes. (It is worth recalling here what today’s visitor can see in the area - an enormous, kilometre-long block accommodating the population of a small town and cutting across the view of the hills.) The designers, explains Sós, had to use “architectonic” stratagems to rectify the ill-conceived proportions of the building, not to mention the fact that the method of arrangement in itself was in stark contrast with the ideal of a Socialist Realist cityscape, which would have required a homogeneous, serene and impressive mass of street fronts along a major thoroughfare. The height of the first building was hardly divided by the architect who took no more than a “diffident," symbolic step in the direction of minimal segmentation. Opposed to this was the apportioning of the second faqade, with which a bold statement of “political and aesthetic

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