Modernism and the Soviet Layer

The twentieth century was hard on Hungarian buildings and hard on the people who built them. Two world wars, the Treaty of Trianon, a siege, a revolution and four decades of one-party rule each changed what was built, who paid for it and what it was meant to say. This chapter covers the stretch from the modernism of the 1930s to the end of communism and the reaction against it. It reports what was built and what became of it, and it does not take sides on the political arguments that surround some of these buildings. Names, dates and attributions are given from general knowledge and flagged where they should be checked.

Modernism Between the Wars

In the 1920s and 1930s a number of Hungarian architects adopted the clean, functional forms of the international modern movement: flat roofs, plain walls, large windows, reinforced concrete. Budapest has many villas and apartment blocks from this period, often hard to spot unless you look for them (check which neighbourhoods have the best examples). Some Hungarians worked abroad. Marcel Breuer, born in Pécs in 1902, studied and later taught at the Bauhaus in Germany and became known for his tubular steel furniture and later for buildings in Britain and the United States (check the details). He is a reminder that Hungarian talent often found work outside Hungary.

War and the Siege of Budapest

The siege of Budapest, from the end of 1944 into February 1945, caused enormous destruction (check the dates). Buildings on both banks were damaged, the Castle district was badly hit, and every Danube bridge was destroyed (Chapter 5). The rebuilding that followed was partly restoration and partly replacement, and the decisions taken then still shape what visitors see.

The Soviet Layer

1956

The 1956 revolution and its suppression damaged parts of Budapest, especially areas where fighting was heavy (check which). Repair and rebuilding followed, and some damaged blocks were demolished and replaced. The architectural story of 1956 is mostly one of lost and altered buildings, and of later memorials.

Makovecz and Organic Architecture

Imre Makovecz (1935 to 2011) was an architect who rejected the concrete modernism of his time and developed what is usually called organic architecture, using timber, curving forms and symbolic shapes (check the dates). His buildings, including churches and community centres in towns and villages, are often compared with the earlier folk revival of Károly Kós (Chapter 7). He also designed the Hungarian pavilion at the Seville Expo of 1992 (check). His work is admired by many and criticised by others, in part because of the politics associated with him, and visitors are best served by looking at the buildings themselves.

The Statue Park

After 1989 many monuments from the communist period were removed from public squares. A number were gathered in a park on the edge of Budapest, now called Memento Park, opened in the 1990s (check the dates and the architect). The park is an unusual solution to an awkward question: what should a country do with the monuments of a government it replaced? It keeps them visible but removes them from places of honour.

Exercises

Next chapter: Beyond Budapest: Eger, Pécs and the Provinces, which looks at what the regional towns reveal that the capital does not.