Veszter Gábor: Villas in Budapest. From the compromise of 1867 to the beginning of World War II - Our Budapest (Budapest, 1997)

the master bedroom with a thirty-square-metre en-suite bathroom. There was another bathroom on the first floor for the children. (The villas built earlier were also equipped with bathrooms, but their much smaller size still put them into the category of subsidiary rooms). A winter garden completed the ground floor boudoir, in compliance with a fashion that established itself generally in middle-class villas around the turn of the century.

The predominance of neo-Renaissance influence in villas had worn off by the beginning of the 20th century, and was replaced by English style, which can be defined by a number of features. Closeness to nature became very important again. The part played by vegetation around the building and the interrelation between building and garden acquired greater weight and simple, natural building materials like wood were favoured. Local traditions were brought to life again, for example in the structures and forms of so-called folkloric architecture. (Small-sized villas were especially suitable for this kind of design.) However, it must be said that the type of villa built “into” the garden as if the latter was a natural continuation of the house remained exceptional in Hungary while becoming very popular in Germany through the work of the architect Hermann Muthesius.

The new owners no longer followed the stiff formal constraints regulating the Renaissance villas; instead, they had houses built according to their personal conceptions. The Renaissance villa (as well as, to a much lesser degree, its neo-Renaissance counterpart) was conceived as a mathematical system, as the spatial formulation of a world concept. By contrast, the English- style manor house was meant to be a shell protecting the privacy of those living in it. The Renaissance villa was built independently of the peculiarities of its owners, who at worst would simply not understand its systemic order; it was therefore fit to house anyone. The English-style house, similarly to a tailored suit, really fits only the person it was made for. Any change is likely to spoil a Renaissance villa by upsetting its system, while the English- style building remains itself no matter how many transformations it undergoes, for flexibility is its most fundamental feature. (Only a small number of neo-Renaissance villas were built in Hungary according to strict formal principles, and it must be admitted that the extensions undertaken in general within twenty-five years fol22