Attila Turi

For Attila Turi, architecture is inseparable from community, tradition and respect for inherited values. The first defining image of this trinity, which was burned into his memory as an archetype in his childhood, was the legendary workers' housing estate of the Óbuda Gas Factory designed by Lóránd Almási-Balogh. The other decisive moment that fundamentally shaped his career was his encounter with Imre Makovecz – a master–apprentice relationship that evolved into a close, thirty-year collaboration and friendship. As a second-year university student, Turi approached Imre Makovecz, who, recognizing the talent of the young man originally aspiring to become a painter, recommended that he join the team of the University of Technology organizing the Visegrád Camps. Founded in 1981, the summer architecture camp forged the young participants into an active community. As a member, Turi became acquainted with anthroposophy, edited the Bercsényi 28–30 student magazine, and, together with János Gerle, compiled anthologies (Károly Kós 1883–1977; Megfagyott Muzsikusok [Frozen Musicians] 1898–1974, an anthology from the students’ satirical paper). The newly graduated architect received his first design commissions from his master – the kindergarten in Nagykálló and the community center in Újkígyós – both of which clearly bear Makovecz’s stylistic influence. Turi’s distinctive design method grew out of editing and interpreting his master’s sketches: designing through the continuous drawing of countless sections and the additive development of emerging structures and spaces. In addition to his independent commissions, Makovecz allowed the young architect to unfold his talent within his own projects (the Waldorf Kindergarten in Solymár, the Vigadó in Szigetvár, and the Árpád Vezér Grammar School in Sárospatak), entrusting him with the design of specific parts of these buildings. Their successful collaboration culminated in the Hungarian Pavilion at the Seville World Expo, in which Turi participated both in the design and in overseeing the construction. He was a co-founder of Idol GMK, a small cooperative within the Makona collective, and in 1990 he established his own office, Triskell, with two partners. The firm took part in founding the Károly Kós Association, which became a cornerstone of organic architectural thinking and of which Turi remains an active member to this day. As a practicing architect, Turi, together with his colleagues, travelled across Hungary with community developers from the Cultural Institute, helping to revitalize marginalized villages following the guidance of his master. They were often approached with concrete design requests, which Makovecz, in his characteristic generosity and with an eye toward mentoring the next generation, distributed among his younger collaborators. In this way, his students were able to design community centres and later become chief architects in different parts of the country. It was also Makovecz who recommended Turi to the attention of the town of Budakalász – a turning point in his career. The community centre he designed there marked a distinctive and personal voice in form, spatial organization, and in its evocation of the past. “The architect’s task is to gather ability and will, concentrate them into a building, and, like a good steward, offer a concrete example to a community – both through the house itself and through the drama of creation,” says Turi, who, through his initiative that proved stronger than mere fundraising, personally set out to collect the village’s – that is, the past’s – stones. The magic of this gesture endures to this day: in the community’s space, the community’s own stones – a distinctive Swabian gatepost, the cornerstones of the old Catholic church, a fragment of the Serbian church’s iron fence, and a millstone offered as a personal votive by a woman whose fate it symbolized – continue to weave together the once-broken thread of time. The building was completed, the protected Virginia creeper was returned to its façade, and the house now stands as if it had always been there – in other words, it feels inherently right for its place, while clearly expressing its own era, making it at once fitting and contemporary. The community centre has become a well-visited institution and a model example of how one’s personal commitment can reveal to people the arc of life itself, shedding light on the enduring value of tradition. The construction of the Community House established the trust that led to Turi’s still-active appointment as chief architect. He believes that the role of a chief architect is not only to provide technical services but to help the community sense the atmosphere that expresses the identity of the place. He seeks to give Budakalász a distinctive character – a townscape rooted in tradition yet responsive to the present and open to development. He encourages all participants to act appropriately and to strive for quality. Although only a small portion of his buildings are located in Budakalász, it is important to emphasize that, alongside his duties as chief architect, he has also conveyed the spirit and identity of the place through his designs, remaining faithful to his master’s philosophy. He has designed industrial buildings, community-scale public facilities, and restored local heritage sites; he has transformed the town hall and designed family homes that follow the logic of Swabian architecture and the harmonious use of materials of vernacular buildings – sometimes even on seemingly impossible slopes, setting an example of how to integrate structures into both terrain and the sight of a hillslope. He has also designed multi-residential buildings (apartment houses near Lake Omszk), in which the formative image of his childhood – the atmosphere of the Gas Factory housing estate – is unmistakably present: the deliberate accumulation of details ensures that residents experience their homes not as part of a uniform housing block but as individual dwellings existing side by side. “In my buildings there is always a local gesture, a desire to behave appropriately and fittingly within the given environment. Appropriate and contemporary – these are the two cornerstones of building through tradition. ‘Appropriate’ means belonging to its place: the world of proportion and scale, not only that of measurable, regulatory parameters, but far more the domain of personal and communal behaviour. It is essential that our houses, our built environment, reflect something of our shared memory, recalling the forgotten face of the archetype. The other criterion is contemporaneity – that of the human being who lives fully in their own time, who must see their era and the arc in which what is passing and what is arriving are both present”, he affirms.

Based on these principles, Turi designed a public building in the center of Budakalász’s Old Village, drawing inspiration from the gesture of the traditional cross-barn and bent-house typology – offering a model for how tradition can be carried forward. Preserving the characteristic proportions and spatial arrangement of the former blacksmith’s workshop, he transformed it into a Savings Cooperative. His method remains the same for every project: to translate the structure – the idea embodied in the building – into a scale that is comprehensible to the human being. He fights against the alienating, faceless architecture of suburban sprawl, both as chief architect and as a practicing architect. This attitude is well illustrated by the surroundings of the nursery on Mályva Street, where several buildings bear the mark of the architect, the chief architect, and the design jury he leads. These individual buildings have now become clear shapers and representatives of Budakalász’s architectural identity. The northern main façade of the nursery fits perfectly into the streetscape. The building’s floor plan reflects functional order; its composition is fully legible and transparent to its users, while the varied, human-scale interior spaces offer many layers of spatial richness and excitement.

Through his buildings, Attila Turi is capable of creating a sense of identity not only in Budakalász but in any micro-environment. Looking back at the first twenty-five years of his career, it is evident that brick – and reclaimed brick – plays a central role in both his public and residential architecture. Owing to its inherent logic and structural stability, the material discourages extreme forms, imparting a sense of discipline. Beyond the initially romantic undertones of the proportions, roof forms, and structural junctions he employs, brick expresses and condenses the dimension of time that is so vital to the architect, serving as a mediator between past and present. At the same time, the prominent use of brick and wood presupposes respect for craftsmanship and for the human hand. His affinity for natural materials and his rich, carefully coordinated detailing provide occasions to showcase the skills of the craft, thereby transforming masons and carpenters into genuine creative partners. The first mature example of his refined brickwork is the Budakalász Community House. A beautiful example of moderation in form, complemented by fieldstone inserts and a sensitive integration into its environment, is the József Nádor Art Primary School in Üröm (designed with Lőrinc Csernyus). In an age dominated by utilitarian steel-frame industrial halls, Turi approaches industrial architecture with the same refined sensitivity and love of brick that characterizes his family and community buildings. His clear functional articulation, formal variety, and harmonious use of colour and material never appear as unnecessary decoration. These are liveable, uplifting spaces for industrial production – places that foster an entirely different kind of workforce and community.

The Zsámbék “Tündérkert” (Fairy Garden) Kindergarten also belongs in this category due to its use of brick, which sets it apart from the trend characterized by the austere (even barren) order of exposed concrete. The building embodies the principle of environmentally conscious personality development through architectural and technological means. Around its central core – an archetype – the surrounding units deconstruct and transform the basic form, evoking the image of a paradisiacal or fairy garden. A recurring motif of the structure is the constant connection with nature and the rhythmic sequencing of transitional spaces. In alignment with the emotional and elemental nature of children’s learning processes, it was necessary to create fundamental situations through the language architecture. The structure employed here, through its architectural signs and archetypal spatial arrangements, reinforces the environmentally conscious principles laid down in the educational program.

The material use typical of public buildings from the 1980s and 1990s – along with Makovecz’s “house within a house” concept and a range of recurring classical organic features – has, in the past decade, given way to new ideas. One important milestone in this development is the Civic Health Center building. Its architectural concept is based on forming mass and structure by drawing upon the traditional morphology of the settlement. The disciplined building volumes were shaped with respect for traditional scale, and the complex roof structure consists of gable roofs characteristic of the local context. The selection of façade materials reflects a unique reinterpretation of traditional materials. The proportions between wall surfaces and openings harmonize with the traditional fabric and scale of the surroundings, while the larger glazed surfaces at the entrances convey the public character appropriate to the building’s function. In keeping with the architectural “ars poetica” quoted above, this is a fitting, well-grounded and contemporary building – one whose appearance is both distinctive and neutral. It does not aspire to be more than a defining spatial wall, working with basic forms and human-scaled details to create proximity with its users – in other words, expressing “health” through elemental means.

These characteristics of form, space, and mass articulation are equally evident in the residential buildings (Remeteszőlős, Budakalász – Kilátó Street, Magyarpolány, Révfülöp). The exuberant, repeatedly broken timber structures, the forked posts and curved beams, the floating shed roofs, and the sharply pointed gable ends have gradually disappeared, while façades have become more restrained. Floor plans are no longer generated by fragmenting a single unified mass, but rather by assembling distinct volumes, between which more freely shaped, mostly flat-roofed connecting elements are inserted. The subtle displacement of the individual masses allows for the creative articulation of numerous details. Meanwhile, the chimney remains a clearly defined, organizing element of the composition. Something more timeless emerges: simple, gable-ended masses reminiscent of chapels, framed windows, and sequences of plain, repeated columns. Examples (Budapest – Keve Street, Arató Street) illustrate how large, undivided glass surfaces and the most contemporary materials (sheet metal, various types of plywood) can be applied in the spirit of organic architecture. His family houses, designed within existing urban fabrics, demonstrate that integration does not arise from uniformity of rules but from the creation of quality.

In his architecture, a new direction is represented by designs that replace additive massing with buildings appearing to be carved from a single block, characterized by unified materiality.

Alongside his work as chief architect, another important thread in his career is the series construction  camps mentioned in the introduction. In 2003, Imre Makovecz granted the Kós Károly Association’s Vándoriskola (Itinerant School) the right to participate in the Ecomusée Festival in Alsace. There, alongside the students of the Itinerant School Attila Turi – as one of the founders of the earlier Visegrád Camp – took part as a “junior master” together with Ferenc Salamin and Lőrinc Csernyus in the construction of the Cocoon (Gubó) and later in one of the towers originally designed for the unfulfilled Budapest World Expo. The summer construction camps were eventually integrated into the organic architecture curriculum at the Budapest University of Technology, leading to further camps modelled on those in Visegrád and Alsace. The semester’s lectures and preparatory exercises were conducted in the spirit of organic thought, with the final task being the design of a structure to be built during the summer. The camp founded in 1981 continues to be sustained by the same Makovecz-inspired initiative even after three decades – most recently in Visegrád, with the active participation of Attila Turi.

The two threads – the building camps and the chief architect’s work – became intertwined during the reconstruction efforts following the Bereg flood and the red sludge disaster at Kolontár. These represent extreme cases of both construction and chief architect practice, in which the Kós Károly Association demonstrated its capability in Gulács, Felsőzsolca, and Tákos in 2001, and a decade later in Kolontár and Devecser. In both instances, Attila Turi served as the Association’s appointed representative, under whose direction unified, modern residential buildings rooted in local traditions were realized. In accordance with the “steward” principle, the tasks carried out within the chief architect system extended beyond the design and construction of the houses to include care and attention for the affected residents. Within just a few weeks, the Association, involving nearly forty architects, prepared the permit drawings for various house types. These were then adapted to the specific building sites, and with the cooperation of contractors and on-site supervision, the construction was actively supported – accompanied throughout by students of the Association’s Itinerant School. The goal was to create standardized yet adaptable buildings, with sufficient variation to ensure homes that shared a unified atmosphere while retaining individual character. As chief architect and author of the type designs for the settlements of Devecser and Kolontár, Attila Turi played a key role in bringing the process to fruition.

Since 2003, Attila Turi has also been engaged in architectural education, serving as a consultant at the Department of Residential Building Design of the Budapest University of Technology, where he organizes and lectures the course on organic architecture. As part of the program, he organizes summer design–build workshops in which students experience the full process of creating a building – from design to collective construction. Under his leadership and with student participation, the playgrounds in Devecser and Kolontár were realized, followed by the construction of Makovecz’s final work, the Chapel of Rebirth in Devecser.

He is a member of the Kós Károly Association and, as a master, regularly mentors students from the Association’s Itinerant School postgraduate program.

Attila Turi has taken to heart the words of his master, Imre Makovecz. His independent architectural world is akin to his mentor’s not in form, but in thought and inner motivation. He is a worthy disciple in every sense: for two decades he has served as the chief architect of Budakalász, teaches at the university, practices as an architect, mentors young architects in the Itinerant School, and is a member of the Architectural Section of the Hungarian Academy of Arts. As vice-president of the Hungarian Chamber of Architects, he plays an active public role. His work is characterized by diversity; rather than pursuing bold or shocking constructions, he moves within a comprehensible and human scale – yet he is driven by unmistakable spontaneity and untamed creative energy. His inexhaustible playfulness and experimental spirit, together with the poetic spaces of his buildings, point beyond the moments of everyday life.

[2016]