Organic,pecs

HUNGARY, IMRE MAKOVECZ, PECS GROUP

HUNGARY- HUNGARY IS SITED IN A REGION OF EUROPE ATTAINED BY THE WAVE OF TECHNICAL CIVILIZATION WITH A STILL LIVELY ANCESTRAL FOLK ART. THIS CIRCUMSTANCE OFFERS THE POSSIBILITY TO CREATE A PECULIAR NATIONAL STYLE BY SYNTHESIZING BOTH CULTURAL COMPONENTS, FORWARDED BY A PARTICULAR SENSITIVITY ARISEN IN THE CENTURIES OF ENDANGERED NATIONAL EXISTENCE. AFTER 1945, MODERN, NEW ARCHITECTURE APPEARED TO BE EXCLUSIVE IN HUNGARY. AFTER 1950, THE "SOCIALIST REALISM" STYLE FORCIBLY CREATED BY POLITICAL DECISION INVOLVED TRIALS “ WITH VERNACULAR, ARCHAIZING CONSTRUCTIONS

BUT THIS TREND DID NOT LAST LONG. MODERN ARCHITECTURE BECAME A HUGE SUCCESS IN 1960s, WITH ALL STRUCTURES BEING BOX-LIKE. EVERY BUILDING HAD A CURTAIN WALL FACADE, WITH NO CULTURAL OR SOCIALLY RESPONSIBLE DESIGNS.AFTER 1960, TWO TRENDS REPRESENTING DIFFERENT APPROACHES HAVE ACTED. ONE IS TECHNICISM INCORPORATED BY HOUSING ESTATES BUILT 'WITH PANEL STRUCTURES CRITICIZED FOR THEIR RIGIDITY. THE OTHER IS THE TREND OF "POPULAR POST-MODERNISM" ATTEMPTING A REVIVAL OF FOLK TRADITIONS – A RESPONSE TO PECULIAR HUNGARIAN CONDITIONS.

• MASS PRODUCTION OF HOUSES TO A CERTAIN EXTENT RELIEVED HOUSING SHORTAGE IN CITIES, BUT THE PROBLEMS CAUSED BY THESE WERE MANY, AND ARCHITECTURE LOST IDENTITY

• SOME ALTERNATIVE APPROACHES TRYING TO COMBINE THE ADVANTAGES OF MASS PRODUCTION AND NON WASTAGE OF MATERIALS WITH UNIQUENESS INCORPORATING IDENTITY OF SITE WERE ALSO TRIED..ARCHITECTURAL EXPERIMENTATION AND INNOVATIONS HAPPENED..ONE SUCH ALTERNATIVE CAME FROM IMRE MAKOVECZ.

Organic Architecture• Forms resembling what is found in Nature• Organic architecture is a philosophy of architecture which promotes

harmony between human habitation and the natural world through design approaches so sympathetic and well integrated with its site, that buildings, furnishings, and surroundings become part of a unified, interrelated composition. (Ref: Wikipedia)

• Frank Lloyd Wright coined the term• Organic architecture is also translated into the all inclusive nature of Frank

Lloyd Wright’s design process. Materials, motifs, and basic ordering principles continue to repeat themselves throughout the building as a whole. The idea of organic architecture refers not only to the buildings' literal relationship to the natural surroundings, but how the buildings' design is carefully thought about as if it were a unified organism. Geometries throughout Wright’s buildings build a central mood and theme. Essentially organic architecture is also the literal design of every element of a building: From the windows, to the floors, to the individual chairs intended to fill the space. Everything relates to one another, reflecting the symbiotic ordering systems of nature

Sir Georg Solti Matyas Rakosi, Hungary's Stalinist Dictator, Is Buried In This Extraordinary And Unprecedented Mortuary Chapel. The Winged Doors Of This

Architectural Cave Open To Reveal A Timber Simulacrum Of The Human Torso. The Dead Rest In Caskets Where The Heart Would Be, If This Building, Designed By Imre

Makovecz, Was Alive. On Quiet Days, And With Candles Flickering, It Is Easy To Imagine The Building Breathing.

• Materials are natural stone, whitewashed brick masonry, thatched roofing.

• Interiors exhibit daring carpentry timberwork; inside and outside we find expressive forms deduced from Hungarian rural architecture, individually Interpreted.

HE DESIGNED BUILDINGS FOR SUMMER CAMPS IN FORESTS, IN A NATURAL ENVIRONMENT, TRYING TO INTEGRATE NATURE. OUTSIDE COATINGS LOOK LIKE BARK OR HIDES OF ANIMALS. THE HUT OF THE TOKAJ YOUTH CAMP (1978), CARPENTERED BY THE YOUNG PEOPLE THEMSELVES UNDER HIS GUIDANCE, LOOKS LIKE A PERCHING BIRD FROM OUTSIDE, WHILE ITS INNER, UNCONCEALED FRAMEWORK SUPPORTS THE VAULT WITH STRETCHED WINGS. HIS MOST SUCCESSFUL BUILDINGS ARE THOSE EXPLOITING HIS MOTION TESTS. AMONG THEM, THE FINEST IS THE MORTUARY IN THE FARKASRET CEMETERY, WITH CODESIGNER GABOR MEZEI. THE TIMBER RIBS REMIND ONE OF THE GREAT WHALE ABDOMEN:

HOWEVER APPROPRIATE THE DIRECT, NATURALIST REFERENCES TO NATURAL ORGANISMS SEEM FOR THESE EXCEPTIONAL BUILDINGS, A CORRECTNESS OF THIS METHOD TO SOLVE ACTUAL, EVERYDAY PROBLEMS SEEMS DOUBTFUL. THESE DOUBTS WERE DISPERSED BY THE RECENT HOUSE OF CULTURE IN SAROSPATAK, ESPECIALLY THROUGH THE RAISED ATTRACTION BY TIMBERED INNER SPACES. THE BUILDING RECEIVES ITS VISITORS WITH RAISED BROWS, EYES OPENED ,WIDE, OPEN ARMS. THE BUILDING ASSUMES A FRIENDLY, HUMAN FACE WHICH, TRANSPOSED INTO THE CONVENTIONALIZED STRUCTURE, ELICITS THE DESIRED EMOTIONAL RESPONSE. HOUSE OF CULTURE IN SAROSPATAK IS ONE OF THE MOST SIGNIFICANT CREATIONS OF RECENT HUNGARIAN ARCHITECTURE.

• The Hungarian Pavilion, 92 World EXPO, Sevilla, Spain, lies along a north-south axis. Inside, two walls stretch across the building's diagonal. Each wall is three metres apart from the other. Seven towers stand on top of this double wall. To the west of the double wall can be found all those areas that project what Western Hungary is like, while the eastern section naturally represents Eastern Hungary. At the same time, the wall constantly talks. Its voice is sometimes louder or softer, but it is always saying something.

• Built from wood carved in folk styles and bearing a gray slate roof, it seems inspired by village churches but leaps beyond any one model with an exuberance that recalls Antonio Gaudi.

• The interior is divided, one portion symbolizing Hungary facing the West, with a simplified Baroque church front. Pass through that facade and one finds Hungary facing East, the wall exploding with undulating Slavic-style facades (more gray slate) and carved portals. There is also a "Tree of Life" on the Western side, a jumble of roots and branches with a glass floor so that visitors can see the whole thing.

• The 22-minute tour is reinforced with pungent Hungarian folk music and vivid lighting and, on the Eastern side, a film and video show of the sort inescapable at this latest and most high-tech of international expositions

real upswing in Hungarian architecture was born through a group of young architects in Pecs. Their methods were not those of the Post-Modernists; they were not selecting elements of past architectural styles and applying them randomly; but an architecture of social purpose and quiet contemplation. Their sense of responsibility is shown by attempting to tackle the most difficult problems, the revival of panel houses, hopelessly schematic blocks of the Paks housing estate (1973-78). These experimental, so-called "Tulip-houses" raised arduous debates because the ornaments came from folklore of Hungary. Playful, curved loggia sidewalls and displaced building blocks were more effective to lend expressivity and liveliness to the building. In the mournful battlefield of standard buildings, the most successful work of the young architects from Pecs is a school complex in Kaposvars. The most promising and perspective creations are those with a character defined by the original, natural construction design experimented on self-made models rather than by natural-organic Ornaments.

• GEORGY CSETE

•Search for native architecture•Peasant architecture•Powerful symbolism of folk culture