Imre Makovecz

Imre Makovecz, born November 20, 1935 in Budapest, Hungary, is a Hungarian architect active in Europe from the late 1950s onward. He attended the Technical University of Budapest. He is founder and "eternal and executive president" of the Hungarian Academy of Arts.

Makovecz is one of the most prominent proponents of organic architecture. As such, his buildings attempt to work with the natural surroundings rather than triumph over them. Frank Lloyd Wright and Rudolf Steiner are both strong influences, as is traditional Hungarian art.

His work began as a critique of communist ideology and the brutal uniformity of system building but, after the fall of the Communist regime in 1989, it became a comment on the nature of globalisation and corporate culture. In its attempts to refer to and build on Hungarian national archetypes Makovecz was continuing the work and ideas of the architects of Hungarian Art Nouveau and National Romanticism. The first English language monograph on his work, Imre Makovecz: The Wings of the Soul, by Edwin Heathcote, was published in 1997.

Makovecz's key works

• Sárospatak Cultural Center (completed in 1982)
• Visegrád Sports Hall (1985)
• Town Hall and Commercial Center of Dunajská Streda
• Kakasd Community Center (1996)
• His group designed the buildings of the Piliscsaba campus of Pázmány Péter Catholic University.
• He also designed the Hungarian pavilion at the Seville Expo '92 in Seville, Spain.

Other important works

• ......
...

Read More