Browsing by Author "SIMON, Mariann"
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- Deeply Embedded in Tradition. Interpretations of regional roots for modern Hungarian architecture in the 1960sPublication . SIMON, Mariann; LACZÓ, DánielSigfried Giedion’s seminal paper of 1954 on new regionalism was first mentioned in Hungary by János Bonta in his opposition at the Congress of the Association of Hungarian Architects in 1961. He referred to it as an acceptable way of adaptation to the local conditions, to meet the given place, landscape, nation and circumstances. This was the first and the last case when this expression occurred in Hungary in the coming decades. However, the question of how to relate modern architecture to the local conditions was kept on the agenda during the 1960s. In the discussions, the reference point was never the region or the place, but tradition. Even though two parallel approaches can be detected. The representatives of the first trend referred to folk architecture tradition and proposed the detailed analysis of the Hungarian peasant buildings as an authentic source. The other source or rather model was Finnish architecture, which could develop a special but at the same time European modern architecture. Modern Finnish architecture was also rooted in folk tradition and the connection between Hungarian and Finnish art and architecture could be detected back to the turn of the century, which as a ‘special relationship’ made this approach even more plausible. The paper discovers the two parallel approaches – both looking for tradition – but based on different interpretations and leading to different conclusions. We present the protagonists, architects and ethnographers, and follow how these concepts appeared in theory, in architectural reviews and in realised buildings during the 1960s.
- Specific Architecture Rooted in thr Country. Survey on Vernacular Architecture and Tourism DevelopmentPublication . SIMON, MariannAfter the failed revolution in 1956 an intensive development began around the Lake Balaton in Hungary. It was a manifestation of political détente but was driven also by the economic interest, as an investment in tourism. The new regional plan included a survey on monuments, which was extended also on vernacular built heritage. The paper presents the findings of the survey and compares them with the planned and realised buildings, and with the architects’ manifestations. The investigation includes public buildings which gave the bulk of building activity in the first period, but it analysis also the awardwinning designs of weekend houses submitted for a competition in 1958. The research concludes that while decades later some architects remembered this time as when ‘the spirit of the vernacular was in the air’ the buildings were not fully in tune with this statement, against the previously welldocumented built heritage. The duality of placeform and product-form that is of tradition and technology – or vernacular and modern – was interpreted by the majority of architects as either/ or problem. by the middle of the 1960s this battle ended with the victory of technology.