Objects of a design experiment: Kitchen Program for Prefabricated Houses
The exhibit entitled Magyar design (10 kísérlet) (Hungarian Design [10 Experiments]) was organized at the Fészek Artists’ Club between the 18th and 29th of October 1972. There, ten works by eight designers¹ were presented by the three organizers, Sándor Borz Kováts, Mihály Pohárnok and György Soltész.² The latter had participated in the Edénykultúra exhibition as an exhibitor.
The exhibition entitled Edénykultúra (Tableware Culture) was held at the Műcsarnok Art Gallery (Kunsthalle) in the spring of 1972. Interior designers as well as metalwork designers were also able to display their work there, in addition to the ceramics, porcelain and glassware designers.³ This exhibition only lasted for a short time, from the 10th to the 26th of March, but aroused an extraordinarily large response. This primarily came from shoppers who rightfully posed the question of why the displayed modern, functional, space-saving and multi-functional tableware sets that were well suited even for the cramped kitchens of prefabricated housing could not be found in stores. The exhibition was also accompanied by a professional debate, which was summarized in the periodical Ipari Művészet (Industrial Arts).⁴
Soltész organized with his friends can in effect be considered a position statement and a demonstration against what they experienced at the Műcsarnok Art Gallery (Kunsthalle). The point of this demonstration was to prove that there were designers working in Hungary in 1972 that were of high enough quality to be able to respond to the consumer demands of their own era through a perspective of utility while using the methods of system-based design. This small show that lasted for only a short time initiated a substantial dispute in the periodical Művészet (Art) on the issues of design,⁵ and it can be seen as a vortex for both the design efforts for the Kitchen Program for Prefabricated Houses and the creation of the Design Center.
The Kitchen Program for Prefabricated Houses began in December of 1972, and was the first system-based design experiment in Hungary. The conceptual initiators of the experiment were again Sándor Borz Kováts, Mihály Pohárnok and György Soltész, and they designated the kitchens of prefabricated houses as the topic and the field of inquiry, with the aim of making more liveable the narrow kitchens found in flats constructed using panel system technology. The Kitchen Program for Prefabricated Houses took a comprehensive, holistic design approach to solving the problem, thus bringing together the works of professionals in several areas of science. As a part of the experiment, they attempted to examine and redesign the space and equipment of small kitchens in collaboration with market researchers, designers, factories and representatives of industry and commerce. Sociological studies were done to assess and analyse the functioning of kitchens composed of pre-fabricated components. Afterwards, the workflow in the modular kitchens was designed with consideration given to space and object requirements, for which exact function plans were devised. Furthermore, connections with representatives of industry and commerce were established so that the prototypes could be produced in mass and put on the market. Their work was accompanied by numerous positive results in various areas. However, it remained an experiment due to its character, albeit one with progressive and complex perspective and a major impact.⁶
The material heritage of the two defining events of Hungarian design history – typically prototypes – is preserved in the Museum of Applied Arts Budapest, a significant part of which was donated to the collection by the Design Center.
The start of the Magyar design (10 kísérlet) (Hungarian Design [10 Experiments]) exhibition and the Kitchen Program for Prefabricated Houses are already 50 years old in 2022. We honor the round anniversary with our thematic collection, which collecting and presenting the results that have had a long-standing impact on Hungarian material culture and design praxis.
by Piroska Novák
¹ The eight designers: Sándor Borz Kováts, Gyöngyvér Deákné Blazsek, László Horváth, Maja Jahoda, Mária Minya, Gabriella Semsey, György Soltész, and Károly Szekeres.
² The catalogue for the show Magyar design (10 kísérlet) [Hungarian Design (10 Experiments)] with a foreword by Mihály Pohárnok and descriptions of the objects is available online at the MúzeumDigitár - Design DigiTár Applied Arts archive: https://hu.museum-digital.org/index.php?t=objekt&oges=565356. Accessed: 10 Dec. 2021.
³ The catalogue for the Edénykultúra [Tableware Culture] exhibition held in 1972 is available online at the MúzeumDigitár - Design DigiTár Applied Arts archive: https://hu.museum-digital.org/index.php?t=objekt&oges=560227. Accessed: 10 Dec. 2021.
⁴ “Vita az edénykultúráról,” [Debate on Tableware Culture] Ipari Művészet, no. 4 (1972): 3-10.
⁵ Művészet [Art] 14, no. 1-6 (Jan.–Jun. 1973). This contains Loránd Bereczky’s article that initiated the debate, as well as writings by István Filep, Ákos Koczogh, Aladár Németh, György Fekete, Imre Schrammel, and Mihály Pohárnok.
⁶ For more on the topic, see:
Ernyey Gyula, “Kitchens for Prefab Housing Units,” in Made in Hungary: The best of 150 years in industrial design (Budapest: Rubik Innovation Foundation, 1993), 124.
Mihály Pohárnok, “A Házgyári konyhaprogram” [The Kitchen Program for Prefabricated Houses], Ipari Művészet, no. 1 (1974): 3-11.
Mihály Pohárnok, “Egy tervezési kísérlet dokumentumaiból: A Házgyári konyhaprogram négy éve” [From the Documents of a Design Experiment: Four Years of the Kitchen Program for Prefabricated Houses], Művészet 18, no. 8 (1977): 2-10.
György Soltész, “Házgyári konyha-program: Dokumentumok egy tervezési kísérletről” [Kitchen Program for Prefabricated Houses: Documents from a Design Experiment], Mozgó Világ 3, no. 2 (April 1977): 60-73.
József Vadas, “A házgyárikonyha-program” [The Kitchen Program for Prefabricated Houses], in Nem mindennapi tárgyaink (Budapest: Szépirodalmi Könyvkiadó, 1985), 341-360.
*
Television newsreel excerpt from December 1975 on the website of Television Newsreel Online – National Film Institute Hungary – Film Archive: Industrial design in the block of flats: kitchen program for prefabricated houses:
https://filmhiradokonline.hu/watch.php?id=21698. Accessed: 10 May 2022.
Kitti Mayer and Piroska Novák, Object Fetish EXTRA: Kitchen Program for Prefabricated Houses, HYPEANDHYPER, 31 December, 2021.
https://hypeandhyper.com/en/object-fetish-extra-kitchen-program-for-prefabricated-houses/. Accessed: 10 May 2022.
