Pécs Group
Tibor Jankovics, a Hungarian architect living and working in Keszthely, continues to this day to pursue the path of organic architecture grounded in tradition as a former member of the legendary Pécs Group. For him, the source of creative work lies in the body of knowledge and experience accumulated by ancestors over millennia, which he regards as a complex system of understanding encompassing existence as a whole. Organic architecture, therefore, is not a question of form but of a mode of thinking and perception, one that assimilates progressive traditions while also meeting the fundamental principles of ecology.
During his university years, he came into contact with György Csete, who was working as an external critic at the Department of Residential Building Design. Even after the end of the supervisory period, Csete’s relationship with the students did not cease; they regularly collaborated on the development of several national design competitions (National Theatre, Hévíz Lake Bath). This relationship, and the respect for nature, tradition and cosmic order embodied in the master’s approach, proved decisive for Tibor Jankovics’s later professional development.
He began his architectural career in 1968 at Baranyaterv in Pécs together with his fellow student István Kistelegdi. Soon they began recruiting colleagues from among their acquaintances, bringing to Pécs figures such as Péter Oltai, Gyöngyvér D. Blazsek and László Deák. The young, ambitious architects felt that the conditions were right for establishing a creative workshop, and invited György Csete to serve as its intellectual leader – a figure they had greatly respected during their university years as their design practice tutor. Csete began working in Pécs in 1970, and workshop activity soon commenced with the formation of the Pécs Group within the Youth Office of the Pécs Design Company. The group sought to create an architecture that, on the one hand, was rooted in the enduring values of national culture – vernacular architecture – and, on the other, met the intellectual and technical demands of the period. The task was made particularly difficult by the fact that at the time there were few recognised architects or architectural movements willing to embrace this professional objective. The work of Károly Kós and Béla Bartók served as their models. As a member of the group, Tibor Jankovics, owing to his Transylvanian family roots, visited Károly Kós in person on several occasions, and they remained in contact until Kós’s death.
The activity of the Pécs Group was exceptional not only from an architectural perspective but also in its mode of operation. Alongside their daily work, they devoted considerable time and energy to intensive self-education. Members followed a wide range of professional journals and took part in study trips, including excursions focused on vernacular architecture and ethnography. On Sundays, they regularly attended lectures held at the Institute of Popular Culture for the Studio of Young Folk Artists. The professional orientation of the group became increasingly defined; it is perhaps no exaggeration to say that Tibor Jankovics was the group’s driving force, organiser and soul. In addition to extensive design work, they sought to articulate their professional convictions through exhibitions, lectures (Imre Kathy, Ferenc Vámossy, Alajos Sódor, Imre Makovecz, Gábor Pap, Sándor Bosnyák, József Molnár V., Gyula László, Gábor Lükő, Bertalan Andrásfalvy) and publications. Over time, József Nyári, Attila Kovács, Antal Füzes and Jenő Dulánszky joined the group, the latter – despite being an architect – working as a structural engineer until his early death, and serving as both colleague and teacher. Their work was characterised by constant experimentation. Although the hostile political environment made it impossible to realise buildings that fully met their architectural objectives, several significant works were nevertheless produced that represented important steps towards their goals. These include the Forrásház in Orfű designed by György Csete, the mortuary in Siklós by István Kistelegdi, the Balokány Youth Park in Pécs by Péter Oltai, the Vasarely Museum in Pécs by László Deák, and Tibor Jankovics’s holiday complex at Fadd-Dombori. Their architecture, based on ancient traditions in accordance with the ‘Bartókian model’ yet adapted to the requirements of modernity, failed to gain official support and was instead merely tolerated. The profession received the group’s activity with widely differing judgements; critics lamented the absence of contemporary international trends and regarded the group’s objectives as outdated. At the same time, however, a lively movement of national self-awareness was emerging, exemplified by the folk music revival, the dance house movement and the activities of folk applied artists. The dissolution of the group – more precisely, the administrative reorganisation of the Youth Office – was preceded by the so-called Tulip Debate of 1975–76, which arose in connection with the plans for the Paks prefabricated housing estate. Under the constraints of panel construction, and at the invitation of the Szekszárd construction company, the Pécs Group prepared the development plans for the Russian panel-technology housing estate of the Paks Nuclear Power Plant under the leadership of György Csete (György Csete, Gyöngyvér D. Blazsek, László Deák, Jenő Dulánszky, Tibor Jankovics, István Kistelegdi, Attila Kovács, József Nyári, Péter Oltai, Miklósné Pálfi). Initially, without replacing the available templates, they sought to humanise the grey panel buildings with organically shaped balcony elements and folk-inspired white relief decoration on the panel surfaces. Later, numerous plans were developed to give organic form to the previously rigid and schematic building masses, and to create new, more liveable apartment layouts centred on kitchen–dining spaces, in keeping with Hungarian traditions.
The three-month polemic initiated by an article by Máté Major (Élet és Irodalom, 1975) generated political and professional repercussions alike. It also created a climate in which the leadership of the design company – already considering reorganisation – was able, under pressure from the professional opposition attacking the Pécs Group, to dissolve it in 1976. The ongoing development work was halted by ministerial decision.
Keszthely Office
After the dissolution of the group, its members pursued their professional activities in different locations. Tibor Jankovics chose Keszthely from among several options, thereby moving closer to his family living there and to a landscape that had always attracted him. He settled in Keszthely in 1978 together with several colleagues, thus creating the conditions for a new architectural workshop. In the economically constrained environment determined by the socialist state, he founded the Forma Kisszövetkezet (Forma Cooperative) in 1983, under the administrative direction of László Németh, with headquarters in Keszthely and Zalaegerszeg and an initial staff of sixteen, later expanding to fifty. As professional director, he initiated cooperation – following the model of the South Transdanubian Studio – with the Pécsi Építész Iroda (Pécs Architectural Office) led by Sándor Dévényi and Kaposterv Kft. headed by Miklós Kampis. Through meetings in Zalaegerszeg, Pécs and Kaposvár, they sought to establish a regional professional and economic collaboration, an initiative that ultimately led to the founding of the Kós Károly Egyesülés (Kós Károly Association) in 1989, which continues to function as an active base for organic architectural thinking. This occurred after Miklós Kampis involved Imre Makovecz and István Kálmán in the discussions. Instead of the originally envisaged regional cooperation, a Budapest-centred, nationwide professional association emerged, later joined by leading architects from Hungarian-inhabited regions beyond the borders. Forma remained a member until 1999, and Tibor Jankovics worked as a master in the Association’s postgraduate Wanderer School.
Fadd-Dombori TÁÉV (Tolna State Construction Company) Holiday and Educational Centre (1974)
One of his most significant works, conceived in the spirit of the objectives defined by the Pécs Group, is the TÁÉV Holiday and Educational Centre on the bank of the Holt-Danube branch at Fadd-Dombori (1974). In this project, the investor – who was also the contractor – the designers and the collaborating artists (interior designer: Gyöngyvér D. Blazsek; graphic designer: László Deák; woven textiles: Anna Pauli; printed textiles: Ildikó Csete; ceramist: Éva Kun) were able to work together harmoniously on the basis of mutual trust during the complex, all-encompassing design process. In addition to furnishings and furniture, the curtains, upholstery, restaurant textiles and ceramics were all individually designed and produced. This exemplary work of its period reflects good siting and functionality, appropriate structural and material use, and the most detailed elaboration of the design and the building – including its furnishings – in a spirit that unites modernity with respect for tradition. The building radiates the joy of inventive, free creation. The system of gestures referring back to ancient architectural culture can also be observed in later, larger-scale buildings constrained by functional and technological requirements (a sixteen-classroom school, a municipal sports hall in Keszthely).
Pécsi Nevelési Központ (Pécs Educational Centre) (1979)
The Pécs Educational Centre (Tibor Jankovics, Zoltán Tóth), one of the largest educational institutions in the country, opened its doors in 1979. Serving as the centre of a new prefabricated housing district accommodating sixty thousand residents, it is not merely a collection of adjacent institutions (kindergarten, primary school, secondary school, boarding school) but an organically unified complex functioning as a community centre. The high degree of integration required the designers to provide the greatest possible surplus of usability through the spatial organisation of the building ensemble and the organisational possibilities derived from it. Had the integrated functions been realised in separate buildings, usability would have been far more limited at a higher investment cost. Beyond the maximum fulfilment of basic functions, the design placed particular emphasis on providing opportunities for a wide range of cultural and leisure activities. Multipurpose use and flexibility are supported by the distinctive floor plan. The centre is organised around an agora functioning as an urban public space, located at the centre of gravity of the housing block and at the intersection of its main pedestrian axes. One wing of the northward-opening courtyard comprises the educational blocks, while the other contains the restaurants, kitchen, covered swimming pool and sports hall. Both wings connect to the central building. The conceptual and functional organisation of the centre is ensured by a central cultural building positioned at the focus of the agora and the combined school foyers. Circulation zones provide connections between the functional blocks and the multipurpose foyer, though the units are also directly accessible. Community spaces opened with large glass surfaces surround the agora, while the upper floors generally contain specialised spaces arranged in isolation from one another. It was also innovative in Hungarian pedagogical practice that the classrooms could be partially opened up and provided with additional spatial extensions. The buildings were constructed from prefabricated elements. Humanising the rigid industrial structures in accordance with children’s needs presented a serious interior design challenge (interior designer: Gyöngyvér D. Blazsek). The complex currently functions as an educational and cultural centre and remains one of Pécs’s most significant venues for education and culture.
The 1980s
Buildings designed by Tibor Jankovics in the early 1980s (Badacsonytomaj, Health Centre in Diszel, Health Centre in Tapolca, mortuary) are characterised by their adaptation to the morphology of the landscape and natural environment. In the ‘mountain-shaped’ houses, the volcanic cones of the Tapolca Basin strongly influenced the shaping of the building masses, as well as the use of materials and colours.
In the work of the office he leads, architectural and interior design have remained inseparable to this day, realising the essential organic unity between building and interior. Numerous noteworthy interiors have been realised based on his designs, including the furnishing of the Phoenix Hotel in Keszthely, the interiors of Locomotiv Tours, and the Marietta and Tari fashion boutiques. In addition to smaller projects, he also prepared complete interior design plans for larger hotels – in Hévíz, the Helikon Hotel, Hotel Carbona and the Sanatorium of the Ministry of the Interior.
Operating in a region of exceptional importance for health tourism, the Keszthely office’s work encompasses a wide range of architectural tasks. Beyond design, they also achieved notable success over several years in general contracting activities directed by László Németh. Tibor Jankovics and his collaborators (László Deák, Antal Füzes, Tamás Rácz) gained extensive experience in the design and implementation of various types of hotels, spa and wellness baths, and holiday parks, both domestically (Hévíz, Nagyatád, Tapolca, Egerszalók) and abroad (Croatia, Romania – Transylvania, Russia, Germany). Despite highly constrained functional requirements, they were able to design hotel interiors that were both elegant and homely. These buildings are characterised by exposed timber structures in pool halls crafted with artistic detail, bespoke furniture and interior elements, and distinctive use of colour and materials. Particularly outstanding, given the challenges of the site, is the bath complex built at the foot of the Egerszalók salt hill in 2009.
According to an architectural concept responding to an investment programme that was heavily oversized by the client group, the entire complex was sunk into the hillside opposite the salt formations in a terraced, fragmented form, with the stacked terraces conceived as hanging gardens with intensively cultivated roof gardens. Courtyards formed between the stepped building elements of the hotel were intended to be planted with large pine trees. Ultimately, however, the investors omitted both the roof gardens intended to aid integration into the landscape and the planting of the terraced courtyards. The form, colour palette and material choices of the interior reflect the influence of the area’s distinctive natural formations.
Reconstruction of Keszthely City Centre
Tibor Jankovics also produced enduring work in urban design. His office was responsible, among other projects, for the reconstruction of Keszthely’s historic city centre, in collaboration with Tamás Rácz, Szabolcs Kurucz and his son, Gergő Jankovics. Through transformations affecting the main square and the market square, the radical reduction of vehicular traffic and careful landscape design succeeded in making the city centre more pleasant and liveable. The reorganisation of spatial structure and traffic, along with the restoration of the surface level in front of the monastery to its medieval height, resulted in a dynamic, well-functioning system of spaces that recalls the former structural richness of Keszthely’s main square. During the lowering of the ground surface, remains of Roman villas, medieval gate bastions and retaining walls, as well as the foundations of a Baroque fence, were uncovered. Their presentation has made the space in front of the Franciscan church and monastery genuinely rich in stimuli.
Őrség
Already in the 1980s, he was engaged with the contemporary use of ancient and natural building materials. As inspiration, it is important to mention the traditions still alive in an Őrség village in the 1950s and his indelible childhood memories of earth construction in the region. His specific area of interest lies in solving the design problems of adobe and earth houses and in exploring and applying domestic possibilities for energy-conscious construction. Following the example of a family house in Zalaszentgrót (1984), built in a short time with a low budget using rammed earth walls in communal labour and preserving the tripartite order of the Hungarian peasant house, a series of buildings followed, constructed with rammed earth, adobe brick or modern layered structures. Adobe was often used in layered external walls or as infill material for framed wall structures. Over time, several colleagues working at Forma Ltd. – Tamás Rácz, Nándor Kruppa, Antal Füzes – also participated in the design and realisation of earth buildings, some even constructing their own homes using this technique. Two small holiday villages were also built based on plans by the architectural team led by Tibor Jankovics, made of earth, adobe and wood, in every case with thatched roofing. Regardless of wall material, the family houses he designed meet functional requirements, were built from local materials and according to ecological and economic considerations long observed by earlier generations. Using traditional materials and construction techniques, modern buildings suited to contemporary needs were realised.
His buildings retain the proportional systems characteristic of Hungarian architectural tradition, while employing abstracted and transposed formal elements, thus in their overall character remaining closely tied to the value system of Hungarian vernacular architecture.
Balaton Uplands
His sacred buildings are located in the Balaton Uplands. The first to be designed was the vineyard chapel at Badacsonyörs, built of stone and oak on a south-facing slope covered with vines and almond trees. Combining ancient and modern techniques, the building appears as though it has stood on the hillside for centuries. The simple interior, with its rounded corners, the softness of hand-smoothed whitewashed walls and carefully designed lighting, radiates a special harmony and timelessness. The sense of sacrality is further enhanced by the artistically painted altarpiece and Stations of the Cross by Győző Somogyi, a Kossuth Prize-winning painter living in Salföld. The vineyard chapel meets contemporary functional requirements, yet in both interior and exterior evokes past eras, continuing the thread of local tradition. It is worth noting that one variant of its design already contained the concept of the King Saint Stephen Chapel built in 2014. This latter building was realised on a high-lying area known as Felső-Kolónia (Upper Colony) on the Tomaj side of Mount Badacsony, where the ruins of workers’ housing from a basalt quarry operating until 1965 stood. The quarry, opened at the beginning of the twentieth century, functioned until the 1960s; the blasted basalt rocks cascaded like an avalanche, covering the remains of a thirteenth-century Pauline monastery. Nearby springs the abundant, cool water of the Klastrom Well, and the memorial site to Pope John Paul II, realised in 2008 with a work by Erzsébet Udvardi, is also located here. Perhaps as a result of all this, the area possesses a perceptible sacred aura. Two main factors influenced the orientation of the chapel: the topographical conditions of the plateau opening towards Lake Balaton with its beautiful view, and the fact that the large altarpiece offered by painter Erzsébet Udvardi required a specific direction and intensity of illumination to be properly displayed. Consequently, the chapel is oriented northwards, with the northern glass entrance wall providing the appropriate lighting for the altarpiece. Above the single-nave space spans a roughly plastered and whitewashed brick vault constructed along a catenary curve. From the basalt-tiled floor rises a monolithic basalt block serving as the altar. The form and construction of the chapel’s minimal furnishings evoke the simplicity of peasant furniture. Natural light enters through three slit-like windows on the eastern façade. An opening formed in the sanctuary vault allows a concentrated beam of light to illuminate the copy of Saint Stephen’s monogram carved into the floor at astronomical noon on 20 August each year, the feast day of King Saint Stephen, when the sun reaches its highest point. Through this, a constant connection to the cosmic order becomes visually perceptible. The chapel’s entire external cladding is made from basalt stones salvaged from the demolished miners’ houses, laid in a manner recalling the dry-stacked retaining walls characteristic of the Badacsony vineyards. The simply formed chapel, realised according to the designers’ intentions, constitutes an inseparable organic part of its beautiful surroundings, as if it had always stood there. It was built to invite and welcome passers-by, offering a place for quiet contemplation. This small building is a synthesis of all that Tibor Jankovics considers important: through uniform material use, compact construction and ancient form, to connect with nature and thereby with Creation.
Forma Építészeti Iroda (Forma Architecture Office)
The founding and operation of Forma (as a cooperative, later a joint-stock company and finally a private limited company) revealed one of Tibor Jankovics’s most important virtues: his ability to build teams and create communities. He has always maintained that architecture is a collaborative endeavour. Forma Ltd. is composed of former students who have matured into masters themselves, and even after the dissolution of the Pécs Group, young colleagues continuously surrounded him. Through the Károly Kós Association, nearly fifty Wanderers were hosted by his office, and via the Faculty of Architecture of Budapest University of Technology and Economics, students from England, Germany, the Netherlands, Brazil and the United States participated in the office’s work as part of international exchange programmes. The Keszthely studio has now been operating for three decades. Following Tibor Jankovics’s retirement in 2015, he continues to take part in professional work as an advisor and architectural consultant, which the office successfully carries on under the direction of well-trained lead designers who previously worked with him.
As a DLA master and later a habilitated university professor, Tibor Jankovics has been involved for nearly twenty years in undergraduate and postgraduate architectural education at the Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology of the University of Pécs and at the Breuer Marcell Doctoral School. As a corresponding member of the Section of Architecture of the Hungarian Academy of Arts, he actively participates in public life related to architecture.
In recognition of his decades-long creative activity rooted in national traditions and representing a contemporary, individual formal language, he was awarded the Ybl Prize in 1994 and the Prima Prize in 2009.
[Prepared: 2016]