Museum of Applied Arts (Budapest, 33-37 Üllői str.)

The Museum and School of Applied Arts is built on an irregularly-shaped site. Its four wings are arranged around the courtyard, three opening on to different streets, and the fourth, only partially completed, on to the courtyard. A glass-roofed single-storey exhibition hall extends into the courtyard perpendicularly from the main building. The wings connect to each other at angles defined by the streets they face. The Rákos utca (now Hőgyes utca) wing connects at an acute angle, and the Kinizsi utca wing at an obtuse angle. All of the facades feature a prominent avant-corps. In the case of the main façade, this makes a symmetric division, but on the Rákos utca wing, a domed corner section has been added to fit the irregular site boundary. The avant-corps are edged with pilasters, which slightly widen downward from the cornice under the first-floor windows. These two side sections are also separated from the central block by their distinctive roofs. The central avant-corps incorporates the octagonal open porch at the main entrance, the grand hall on the first floor and the dome hall on the second floor. The segmented dome is crowned by a baldachined lantern of Zsolnay ceramics. The grand hall is illuminated by a rose window and the dome hall by a more complex arrangement of windows reminiscent of Islamic architecture. The structural elements are surrounded by Zsolnay ceramics, arranged and decorated in the plane. The windows of the façade on each side of the central avant-corps lie along five vertical axes. Pilasters around the twin windows make a further vertical division. The offices on the ground floor have simple twin windows. The doors and windows of the basement and ground floor are set off from the upper floors by a sill band on the first floor. Above this are the broad window openings of the first floor and the double and triple windows of the second floor. The windows of the upper floors are connected by lesenes in the axis of the twin windows, starting from the sill band of the first floor windows. Coloured floral-pattern tiles fill the space between these two floors, and ogee-framed mansard windows crown these sections at roof level.

Although the Museum of Applied Arts was founded in 1872, its collections were initially held in the Hungarian National Museum and, after 1877, in the Art Society’s Műcsarnok gallery in Sugár út (now Andrássy út). On 13 November 1890, the Ministry of Education and Religious Affairs (under Albin Csáky) announced a competition for the design of a building to house a museum and school of applied arts and an ethnographical museum. Entries had to be submitted by 15 May 1891. The plan by Ödön Lechner and Gyula Pártos, named “Hungary to the East”, was ranked in first place, followed by plans by Ottó Tandor and by Albert Schikedanz and Vilmos Freund. The entries by Alajos Hauszmann and Zsigmond Quittner were also rewarded. The competition assessment was published in the journal Építő Ipar (8 June 1891, 245–246). The judges highlighted the fact that the architect did not rigidly apply the rules of any one historic style. The plans displayed a free, individual approach involving the decorative use of Hungarian ceramics. This was well suited the purpose of the building: “In respect of the art of building, we must mention above all the endeavour of the architect to do more than make the building fit its function, and to give it a distinctively Hungarian decorative design. To this end, if it is built, the products of the highly advanced Hungarian glazed ceramics industry should be used, indeed used to the extent that they define the character of the building. The architectonic design is not the product of any rigid style canon, but displays a more unorthodox, free individual approach that starts with the motifs of English Gothic, early Renaissance and above all Moorish styles. The approach now undeniably displays a certain system and has thus progressed from the early stage of experiment. The entry is also of a very high artistic standard.” The plans were modified in 1892. The building was no longer to house the ethnographic museum, and thus was reduced in height by two storeys. The museum was placed in the left wing and the school in the right wing. The competition conditions specified a stucco façade, but it is clear from the assessment that the design entered by Lechner and Pártos already incorporated ceramic facing on the façade. The costs exceeded the original budget, endangering the choice of expensive ceramic ornament. That was when, following a report by the architects, the Public Architecture Department of the Hungarian Society of Engineers and Architects stepped in, as may be read in Építő Ipar (27 June 1894, p. 326, and 4 July 1894, p. 339). Under pressure from the experts, the minister of culture, Gyula Wlassics, finally granted consent for the ceramic façade facing in 1895. The building had to be completed for the Millennium celebrations. The completion ceremony, attended by the king, Francis Joseph, was held on 25 October 1896. The interior works, including the decorative painting, however, were still far from complete. The opening ceremony for the building and the first exhibition was held on 20 November 1897. In an autobiographical sketch in the 1911 issue of A Ház, Ödön Lechner mentions his visit to England, where he learned about Indian architecture. At that time, Hungarian folk art was thought to be connected to Persian and Indian architecture. In talks delivered to the meetings of the Public Building Department of the Hungarian Society of Engineers and Architects during the 1890s and published in Építő Ipar, József Huszka linked the ornamentation of the architecture and crafts of Székely villages to Persian-Sasanid motifs. These motifs also influenced the ceramic ornament of the Museum of Applied Arts. Lechner was specifically motivated by the monumental works of Persian and Indian architecture, because monumentality formed a central part of his vision of European architecture. He therefore intended the facing material of the façade to have a monumental effect, and ceramic tiles were excellently suited to the purpose. He also gave practical reasons for using ceramic material: it retained its colour and could be washed to remove any dirt. Additionally, the stone that could be quarried in Hungary was limited and expensive, while ceramic was cheaper and had a strong local tradition. The contract with Zsolnay to supply the ceramics for the building was signed on 8 January 1896. Lechner was attempting to develop a Hungarian national school of architecture, and the Museum of Applied Arts had the same aim in sight. In 1902, he published A magyar építőstílusról (The Hungarian Building Style), which describes the Eastern character of the Hungarian folk style. He asserted that the language of forms, like the spoken language, held a special importance for the nation. He was therefore aiming to develop a decorative art that was distinctively Hungarian.