Napraforgó street 15 (original number 17.)

Architect: Ferenc Farkas Molnár

Pécs, 1897 – Budapest, 1945, architect, painter and graphic artist, outstanding personality of avantgard architecture

He continued his studies between 1915-1917 at the painting faculty of the College of Fine Arts, than attended the Budapest Technical University. In 1921 he became the member of Bauhaus in Weimar and continued his studies there. He was the pupil of Walter Gropius among other teachers. In this period he was an active graphic artist. In 1923 he organized the first exhibition of Bauhaus where he displayed the plan of his house which became famous as „Red cube”. From 1924 he worked beside Georg Muche and Marcell Breuer. In 1924 he designed type plans for terraced houses, with plans also for internal furnishing. He manufactured his practical, smooth-surface, flexible furniture of low space requirement partly in Hungary.
After returning to Hungary he graduated at the Architectural Faculty of Budapest Technical University. He was one of the founding members of the Association of Hungarian Book and Advertising Artists, of the Hungarian Workshop Association. He took part in the activities of the scenic workshop „Zöld Szamár Színház” which continued the traditions of Bauhaus. He published articles in numerous art periodicals (Tér és Forma, Magyar Iparművészet, Új Föld, 100%).
In 1929 Gropius invited him to the Frankfurt congress of the International Congress of Modern Architecture (CIAM). After returning home, he funded the Hungarian group of the CIAM under the name of CIRPAC, together with Marcell Breuer and József Fischer.
Between 1931-1936 several family houses and apartment buildings were built based on his plans in the Rózsadomb. In 1933, at the Milano Triennale his villa built at Budapest, Lejtő street 2/a won the first prize. His public buildings (group of apartment houses at Köztársaság square, staff building of the Workers’ Hospital at Pestújhely) were designed together with József Fischer. The Saint Family church in Hűvösvölgy which is considered his masterwork remained unfinished.
In 1945 he became the victim of a bomb raid at Lotz Károly street 4, in the apartment house designed by himself.

Architect: Pál Ligeti

Budapest, 1885 – Budapest, 1941, architect, painter, philosopher, art writer

In 1903 he studied painting at Nagybánya and his paintings were exhibited in the National Saloon. Later he chose the architect career. He graduated at the Budapest Technical University. In 1911 he opened his architectural office where Farkas Molnár and Máté Major also worked for a period. His joint works with Farkas Molnár are villas: Delej-villa in Mihály street, houses in Bimbó street and at the small-house estate in Napraforgó street.
He spoke excellent German and French and was also an expert of modern art history. Thus he shortly became the advocate of Hungarian avant-garde architecture. He was invited to give presentations at numerous workshops of novel architecture, among others the Opbouw circle also hosted him in the Netherlands. The fact that his co-worker Farkas Molnár was previously working in the Weimar workshop of Bauhaus and was the leader of the Hungarian group of CIAM played a significant role in this invitation. He was the member of the committee which developed a standpoint related to the new city planning theories of the Athens Charter (1933) for the 1937 CIAM conference in Paris.

Study on the house

Source of the photos: Tér és Forma 1931/10, 305-326, Vékás András, Megyeri Gábor
Source of the ground-plans: Tér és Forma 1931/10, 305-326

Bauhaus100 molino

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