Témák

The thought and actions aimed at reforming housing in large cities took a new direction after the First World War. While up until that point the housing reform movement was primarily a matter for experts in social politics and doctors, starting in the 1920s it became primarily a matter for architects. The idea of housing reform in the period between the two world wars no longer meant the socio-political creation of an institutional system for housing matters, but the architectural practice of experimentation with floorplans.

At the end of the 1920s, the Hungarian advocates of modern architecture saw the possibilities to reform the multi-dwelling building and apartment types through the practice of building around the edge of the city block, or in other words the method of perimeter development, differentiated from building around the edge of the lot. However, after only a few years had passed, these same architects did not consider perimeter development proper. Articles piled up in the professional journals on architecture around 1932-1933 that judged perimeter development to be outdated and urged a switch over to row development. Starting from this point, row versus perimeter development became one of the constant topics in architectural writings for more than a decade, while the official regulations did not or were very slow to follow the demands of the architects that were reworked over and over.

“The few steps separating the stove and the kitchen cupboard from one another may seem like nothing, but actually mean several thousand kilograms of extra work annually for an already overburdened mother and homemaker in today’s concept of human energy savings.”

(“Konyha-problémák” [Kitchen Problems], Magyar Iparművészet, 1928, 46.)

“Today, everything is travelling on the path to rationalization. Work, play, sports, and politics are all following this evolution, so housing must also be connected sooner or later to this spirit of the times. […] Everything is being rationalized, so the rationalization of private life is unavoidable because this is the only way for families to maintain or improve their standard of living."

(Wossala, Sándor: A modern városrendezés és építkezés a berlini építési kiállítás világításában [Modern Urban Planning and Construction at the Berlin World Construction Exposition]. Városi Szemle, 1931, 5, 779.)