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

The headquarters of the Office of Materials IN FULL SPLENDOUR ON 1 MAY 1950

that was quite soon branded as obsolete and thus to be discarded.

The major sources of modern architecture between the two world wars sprang from the work of the Bauhaus and Le Corbusier. Although pillar frames made of reinforced concrete provided much liberty in terms of floorplan, which enabled the designer to freely put the interior partition walls wherever they were needed, structures remained rationally adapted to the function of a given building. The fagade, stripped of ornamentation, was made to conform to the floorplan. The segmentation of the facade was created by strip windows, detached buttresses and pillars. The faqades of apartment blocks and, even more frequently, public buildings were provided with stone coating. Another important element was the recessed garret. What the architect was expected to provide, mainly in accordance with Bauhaus principles, was a modern framework of sufficient and minimally required living conditions in order to discharge his or her social duties.

The practical implementation of these principles in Hungary can be observed, among others, in the following: the villas of Buda (Lajos Kozma, József Fischer, Máté Major, Farkas Molnár), the group of apartment houses (Béla Hoffstätter, Ferenc Domány) in Szent István-park (38-42 Pozsonyi út, district XIII), the Post Headquarters at 75-81 Dob utca (Gyula Rimanóczy), the Financial Centre at 5-6 Szabadság tér, district V (László Lauber, István Nyiri), the Office of Industrial Materials at 66-68 Fő utca, district II (István Janáky, Jenő Szendrői) or the hospital at No. 4 Kútvölgyi, district XII, designed by Elemér Csánk (Rottmann).

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