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

Villas for the lower classes - the experimental project of Napraforgó utca

A new type of exhibition was inaugurated a few weeks ago along Paraséti út; the works exposed are houses. A building contractor undertook the construction of a whole street of villas and presented them to the public. The street was named after the sunflower, and this name is also symbolically loaded. The gigantic windows of these modern buildings are ready to welcome the life-giving rays of the sun, from which ever direction they may come, each house being built in such a way as to catch cis much light as possible. Sunshine, fresh air, cleanliness and simplicity, and the practicality and health derived from all these are qualities essential to modern life. The houses in Napraforgó utca, to the construction of which the very cream of modern-day architecture, from Róbert K. Kertész to Farkas Molnár, has contributed, are intended to satisfy the urban-dweller’s craving for nature and privacy in a manner both appropriate and inexpensive. This noble endeavour cannot possibly be thwarted even by those who do not care for new-style architecture. Let us only mention that most of the villas have already found an owner. (István Genthon, Napkelet, 1932)

On the 9th September 1931, the inauguration, by under-secretary of state at the Ministry of Education Róbert K. Kertész, the president of the Budapest Board of Public

General view of Napraforgó utca taken from Pasaréti út in 1931. The villa in the left foreground was designed by Gyula Wälder.

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