“It is my conviction that architecture, like every other art, expresses the individual’s relationship to the world. This relationship takes shape in the re-creation of the things of the world. It manifests itself in a mode of conduct that must be realised as a way of life. My friend György Kévés has been blessed by nature with astonishing vitality; this admirable eruptive force, joy in life, hedonism, ambition and perpetual readiness for action still sustain him today. We know well that this inner motor, this energy, is what generates every human creation, its works, its buildings, its exhibitions.”
János Fajó, Hungarian painter, recipient of the Munkácsy Prize and the Kossuth Prize, 2009.
The architecture of György Kévés was marked by a distinctive style, bold works and steadfast, purposeful labour. His terraced houses became his signature; likewise the building of the Labor Műszeripari Művek (lit. Labor Instrument Works) in Esztergom, the holiday lodge on Mátyás Hill in Budapest, and the Orczy Fórum urban centre, in whose investment, development, building phases and later operation his architectural ideas were matched by an astonishingly innovative business acumen and executant ingenuity.
It is exceptional that reliable information exists about the turning-points of his life, about the evolution of his and, more broadly, our architecture within its historical context, and about his views, thanks to his autobiographically inspired writings.
He was born in the village of Ősi in Veszprém County on 20 March 1935; his twin brother was born a day later, in Veszprém. Many of the immediate family lived well into the nineteenth century, and the later Kévés children were raised in this historical spirit.
His mother, Piroska Ványi (born 1896), emigrated to the United States after 1956 [the 1956 Hungarian Revolution] together with several members of the family, then returned to Hungary and died in her son’s studio in Budapest. His entrepreneurial grandfather, Gábor Ványi, owned a sawmill in the Felvidék [‘Upper Hungary’ historical region formerly part of the Kingdom of Hungary in present-day Slovakia], later built a steam mill, and in old age constructed one of the key watermills of the Zsámbék Basin. His maternal great-grandfather served as a young soldier in General Artúr Görgey’s Spring Campaign of 1849 [a major phase of the Hungarian War of Independence]. Among his ancestors one finds a hussar officer who fought in General Józef Bem’s army [Polish–Hungarian general in the 1848–49 struggle], Dr Emil Gyurmán, founding chief physician of the internal medicine department of the Szent János Kórház (St John Hospital, Budapest), and a descendant of Adam Clark, the builder of the Chain Bridge in Budapest. It is little wonder that the children inherited the mindset of 1848.
After the early death of their father, and later, following the bombing of their house in Székesfehérvár, the family lived in numerous towns across the country – Budapest, Košice, Jasov, Zsámbék – until the ten-year-old György Kévés eventually moved to his aunt in Sopron. This city, whose architectural character is deeply present in his later work, proved decisive for him. As his school years drew to a close, it was here that he first heard of the ‘new modern architecture’ and of Le Corbusier, and here that conversations with two noted local architects, Oszkár Füredi and Oszkár Winkler, finally awakened in him a lasting attraction to the architectural profession.
He began his studies in architecture at the Budapesti Műszaki Egyetem (Budapest University of Technology and Economics, BME) in 1954. During the 1956 Revolution he served as a ‘nemzetőr’ [member of the improvised National Guard formed during the uprising], and in early November he escorted his family – who had opted for emigration – across the Austrian border. After spending a few days in the refugee camp at Traiskirchen, he returned alone to Hungary by crossing the now-closed frontier and resumed his studies.
A new source of inspiration at the University emerged in the autumn of 1958 in the form of architect Ferenc Vámossy, whose seminars on ‘Ékítménytan’ [a Hungarian pedagogical term encompassing ornamentation, composition and architectural articulation] introduced a mode of architectural instruction previously unknown in Hungary. “It was an enormous step towards the new modern architecture,” Kévés recalls in his memoirs. In Budapest he was deeply impressed by the buildings designed in the 1930s and 40s by the renowned Nyíri–Lauber office. Conversations and reminiscences with the widow and architect daughter of István Nyíri, and the evoked atmosphere of the firm’s studio in Párisi Street, had a profound influence on him.
As a newly graduated architect he first joined Agroterv (1959), then the Élelmiszeripari Tervező Intézet (ÉLITI; Food Industry Design Institute), where some of his earliest commissions included the design of the Tiranai Húskombinát (Meat-Processing Plant of Tirana) and the Hódmezővásárhelyi Gabonasiló (Grain Silo of Hódmezővásárhely). After two years he transferred to Iparterv [the largest and most prestigious state architectural design enterprise of the era, organised along Soviet–American lines]. It was at this new workplace that he resolved, once and for all, that within the communist world he would become an independent and free architect, avoid ‘socialist design’, and pursue the private architectural activity permitted – however narrowly – by contemporary regulations, gradually broadening its scope.
He never reconciled himself to the constraints of the large state enterprises; from the outset he sought the possibility of individual self-realisation in order to express his true creative disposition. As a result, he eventually reached, by a highly unorthodox route, the status of private designer in a world where independent studios did not exist and the scope for private commissions was extraordinarily limited. For a considerable time he worked in parallel with the large state firms as a ‘maszek’ [colloquial term for semi-legal private work], before becoming fully independent and exploring forms of entrepreneurship compatible with the circumstances of the age.
His greatest role models were all architects and engineers who combined design with entrepreneurial practice: Alajos Hauszmann [prominent Hungarian architect of the late 19th and early 20th century] and Szilárd Zielinszky [pioneer of reinforced-concrete construction in Hungary], both of whom he frequently cited. Alajos Hauszmann – notably as construction supervisor – received his commissions and the necessary funds directly from Emperor Franz Joseph I, to whom alone he was accountable, bearing full and undivided responsibility for the works entrusted to him.
The achievements of Szilárd Zielinszky, the founder of reinforced-concrete construction in Hungary, were made possible by the capital and collaboration of Mór Schiffer, the country’s leading entrepreneurial engineer of the period.
For Kévés it became clear that if, as a responsible architect, he wished to see his ideas realised, then for the successful execution of the entire construction process he had to obtain the right to control the resources required for implementation. Only in this way could he ensure that architectural work remained independent and free from alterations to the original design. More than this: if he originated the concept, determined what and where a building should be, secured the bank financing, built the structure himself and subsequently operated it, then he could keep the whole spectrum of construction under his control.
He never accepted the supremacy of unprofessional, lay direction in the management of building, regardless of its source or level. He voiced his views at all times in an unvarnished manner, with sharp and forthright criticism.
Among his early works, the light-structure buildings deserve particular mention. The introduction of this new construction method within Iparterv took place under the leadership of György Kévés, with the collaboration of András Német and Imre Kovács, and the structural engineer Attila Koncz. The technology developed by Kévés made it possible to construct the desired buildings within a short timeframe using domestic materials and manufacturing bases, without relying on or purchasing foreign systems. The so-called prototype building was the Zuglói Iskola (School of Zugló) in 1979, followed by several other educational institutions. Among his light-structure buildings, special mention should be made of the 250-place nursery school designed for Magyar Rádió és Televízió (Hungarian Radio and Television) and the Haematológiai Intézet (Institute of Haematology) in Karolina Street, which presents a striking appearance despite its improbably small site, with Bálint Józsa’s stainless-steel sculpture standing before it. The design phase was preceded by a study trip to Sweden in order to gain a better understanding of the institute's complex laboratory programme.
“Both buildings reflect Kévés’s imaginative approach to the technological use of light-structure systems, for which – together with the terraced houses he designed as an independent architect – the government awarded him the Ybl Prize in 1973,” writes Dr Udo Kultermann (German-born art historian at Washington University in St Louis, noted for his global comparative studies of modern and contemporary architecture and art). “György Kévés is one of the leading figures in contemporary Hungarian architecture,” he declares in the professional journal Neue Grafik, enthusiastically welcoming the achievements of the young architect.
Among his early works of differing character stands the cultural centre and restaurant of the Labor Instrument Works in Esztergom, a building that in its genre may be regarded as a masterpiece.
Yet any evaluation of György Kévés’s architectural oeuvre would be incomplete were we to mention only his projects at Iparterv. As a private architect, he designed – together with his wife, architect Éva Földvári – numerous striking terraced houses, apartment buildings and family houses that reveal entirely different aspects of his creative work. An early example of his private practice is the three-building ensemble of terraced houses in Meredek Street, Budapest, completed in 1966. These constitute an existing masterpiece of the house type, even in comparison with similar buildings in countries such as Switzerland, Algeria or Italy.
Taking advantage of the hitherto undeveloped north-facing slopes of the Buda hills, the architect saw an opportunity to create a dwelling type that was far more favourable and visually compelling in terms of function and sunlight. The roofs of the lower flats are used as external living spaces to enlarge the residential zone. The brick cladding employed on the buildings provides a rich texture and crystalline purity to the overall composition.
In his terraced houses built in Budapest in 1970 (10–12–14 Alsó-Törökvész Road), the formal logic of his 1966 work reappears, continuing the same series of variations. His terraced houses of 1974–76 (21–29 Zólyomi Road) further develop this type. Another stage of his independent architectural activity was a multi-unit residential building designed in 1974 and completed in 1979 at 6 Dobsina Street, Budapest. Here again the principal building material is red brick, and the character of the structure is defined by broad glass walls connected to curved brick surfaces. In 1975, at 9 Pajzs Street, Budapest, he designed another related building based on yet a further variation. This three-storey structure is articulated in a zig-zag spatial pattern, allowing the open terraces to become more clearly separated from one another, while the underlying design scheme follows the form established in his earlier works.
Another variation of the terraced house type appears in Budapest in 1975–76 (14 Hegytető Street). This three-storey building again exploits the advantages of the hillside setting, placing the car storage on the lowest level. It was followed in 1976–77 by 44/a–b Zólyomi Road and 90 Felső-Törökvész Road in Budapest. The fact that Kévés repeatedly applied this building type demonstrates the recognition and success of the solution he had produced. These two fundamental types have now become characteristic works of contemporary Hungarian architecture, reflecting the human qualities of their surroundings and standing as manifestations of our age. Over the course of his private practice he designed more than forty terraced houses and apartment buildings.
During this period, however, Kévés produced a unique work – more remarkable in its own right than any of his earlier buildings – which resembles nothing else in his oeuvre. Dr Udo Kultermann, Professor at Washington University in St Louis, writes of it as follows:
‘In 1972 György Kévés designed a holiday house for a friend in the green belt of Budapest. The house is related to contemporary tropical-style buildings such as those constructed in Brazil or Italy. In this small, three-storey holiday home built on a hillside, he employed the circular form as the dominant element, creating thereby a new and individual building. Looking at the section of the house, the emphasis placed on the circular form as a constituent element displays a freshness of imagination rarely encountered in Eastern Europe.’
The house – which attracted professional attention even at an international level – contradicts, in its form language and solutions, the technological architecture he practised within the state sector. For Kévés, the most distinguished and important task an architect could face was to design and build edifices whose commissioners entrusted the entire project to the architect’s imagination. The result of such a rare opportunity is the Mátyás-hegyi nyaraló (Holiday House on Mátyás Hill), which, regrettably, can now be seen only in photographs. One is compelled to ask what kind of imagination was required to destroy a building of this calibre, a responsibility borne by its later owners.
In the 1980s, Kévés again turned to private buildings of a new stylistic character. A representative example is his own house and studio, completed in 1984 and standing on Széchenyi Hill with magnificent views over Budapest. The main building materials are brick and glass; the predominantly angular mass is enriched by glass surfaces, vaults, circular windows and other functional elements that serve purposes beyond decoration.
In the Rózsadomb district, the KAM Centre (built in 1994) continued the principles established in his own residence. That same year, also on Rózsadomb, the Apartment Villa in Lóczy Lajos Street was completed, representing the most distinguished example of this new architectural approach. During this period the architectural office of György Kévés designed numerous other private buildings, including the detached house in Verecke Street, Budapest; the semi-detached house in Domb Street, Sopron; and the building in Rézsű Street, Budapest. It also produced commercial and cultural buildings, each of which attests to Kévés’s outstanding position in contemporary Hungarian architecture as it entered the new millennium.
As noted earlier, Kévés’s versatility is well illustrated by a decision rare among the leading figures of the architectural profession: even before the political transition of 1989, he left Iparterv in 1983 after twenty-two years. Together with colleagues he established a new semi-independent/private design office within the IKV Vállalat (IKV Municipal Housing Management Company) in Budapest’s 6th District, and with a twelve-member team launched the rehabilitation of the existing residential blocks labelled ‘a–b–c–d’ adjacent to Király Street. For reasons beyond their control, the approved plans were never implemented.
In Kévés György’s post-1983 work we can detect a shift in emphasis. He not only brought together tendencies that had previously developed in separation, but also embarked on forceful and complex tasks in which urban-planning and architectural thinking were realised in mutual interaction. This new phase of his development is clearly visible in the 1987 revitalisation plans for the Óbuda–Újlak district of Budapest. The corner building completed in Sopron in 1991 represented another experiment in re-shaping the historical urban fabric.
Alongside concrete design work, Kévés took part in a long succession of architectural competitions, which he believed had a refreshing effect on the profession. As a university student in 1959, he won First Prize with his design for a holiday house in Velence. This ‘competition’ trajectory, begun in his youth, extended through almost his entire career. Instead of listing them exhaustively, only a few are mentioned here. Early on, in 1962, he won First Prize in a telephone-booth competition with a triangular floor plan; an example of this design stood for years on Madách Square. He took First Place in the multi-stage competition (1964–69) for a residential building on the corner plot of Szentháromság Square and Országház Street in Budapest’s Castle District. The detailed story of this project can be read in György Kévés’s book A „maszek” (lit. The “Maszek”). In 1989, his First-Prize design for a corner development on Szent György Street and Új Street in Sopron was realised in the city’s historic centre.
He participated, as an architect of Iparterv, in the international competitions for the UNIDO Centre in Vienna (1969) and the Pompidou Centre in Paris (1971), working with colleagues Imre Kovács, Géza Domokos, Attila Koncz and others, competing in vast international fields with unclouded enthusiasm. In 1980, his submission for the urban centre of Budapest XVII, Rákoskeresztúr, won First Prize. In 1977, his rehabilitation plan for the Széchenyi Baths in the Városliget (City Park) district of Budapest XIV also received First Prize. Beyond these exceptionally successful competitions, he was the author of several unbuilt projects, such as the building complex for the Ferencvárosi Torna Club (FTC Sports Club) and his futuristic 2015 competition entry for the Passaic Hilton Hotel planned for New Jersey.
Kévés took part in so many competitions because, as he put it, “Architecture must be practised constantly, throughout the entire day, for otherwise a lifetime is not enough to learn it. This is possible only if our love for the profession is inexhaustible.”
As a result of his multifaceted activity – exceptional by international standards – he had already received, a decade earlier, an invitation to the United States to take up a professorship, though this could be realised only after the political transition. In 1991 he became Visiting Professor at Washington University in St Louis (Missouri, USA), where he taught young graduate architects and students pursuing Master’s degrees. As their diploma design he set the task of preparing on-site plans for the then-proposed Budapest–Vienna World Exhibition. For his American students he organised a study trip to Hungary to acquaint them with the prospective exhibition site and, more broadly, with Europe. He regarded this as essential for young architects accustomed to American scales and proportions.
By this time Stúdió-Kévés Gmk (Stúdió-Kévés Economic Work Partnership [Hungarian semi-private business form of the socialist era]) had been operating since 1985, followed from 1987 by Káva Építésziroda Kft (Káva Architectural Office Ltd) and Kévés és Építésztársai Rt (Kévés and Architect Partners Plc). Teaching in the United States and design work in Budapest proceeded in parallel. At home, Kévés’s team was engaged in a major undertaking: the design and construction of the Orczy Fórum.
The architect’s greatest success was the Orczy Fórum Városközpont (Orczy Forum Urban Centre) in Budapest, completed in its entirety between 1996 and 2006. This project – which may be regarded as Kévés’s magnum opus – comprises ten structures, realised in successive phases: the Szeszgyár Street Office Building (1996); the residential building at 131 Baross Street (1997); the office building at 133 Baross Street (1999); the Csobánc I residential building (2000); then the Csobánc II residential building (2004); the Csobánc Udvar residential and multi-storey car park building (2005); the Csobánc Tower (2006); and finally the residential building at 135 Baross Street (2006), in whose courtyard the Kokárda Katakomba Kápolna (lit. Kokárda Catacomb Chapel) was completed precisely for the 50th anniversary of the 1956 Revolution, on 23 October 2006. A solemn Mass was celebrated there by Father Teodóz Jáki.
The Orczy Forum is a large-scale ensemble whose every component is linked both to the others and to the whole. As a result, Kévés created an architectural continuity that looks back to long-standing traditions, thereby forming an island of coherence and dignity within a dilapidated urban environment. It effectively demonstrated how a district might be improved and made liveable once again.
The team of Kévés és Építésztársai Zrt., though small in number, realised the project – and, indeed, the architectural vocation itself – through immense effort: the company undertook the design, construction, sale and, for a time, the maintenance of the buildings. György Kévés offered an example of how, in his view, contemporary architects endowed with similar principles and talent ought to regard their calling.
On a different scale but in a manner equally characteristic of him, during the ten years he spent at the Mesteriskola [Hungarian postgraduate master school for architects], he succeeded in involving distinguished international figures in its teaching programme, among them the Finnish architect Matti Mäkinen, Rob Krier and the Italian architect Mario Botta. The latter’s art, grounded in elementary geometric forms and thereby rendered timeless, was in any case not far removed from Kévés’s own formal vocabulary.
He cited the ideas of Étienne-Louis Boullée and Claude-Nicolas Ledoux – utopian in their own day – and the contemporary, form-breaking architecture of Santiago Calatrava and Zaha Hadid as exemplary models, particularly in view of what he perceived as the backwardness of Hungarian architectural aspirations in these directions. He was well aware of practical realities, yet found the spirit of such ambitions sorely lacking.
He regarded the baroque-inflected segment of Hungarian architecture between the two world wars as retrograde; combined with what he considered the harmful influence of earlier decades, it had, in his view, set the country back by nearly a century in this field. To reduce this gap, this distance, was one of his principal aims.
As a refreshing exception he named the Pasaréti Páduai Szent Antal templom (Church of St Anthony of Padua in Pasarét) by József Rimanóczy, the appearance of whose architectural ensemble caused considerable controversy in its time. (To facilitate its realisation, Bishop István Zadravecz intervened personally during a visit to the Pope.)
His exceptional vitality also enabled him to devote time and energy to public and inter-art activities, giving expression to a spirit that recalled the Renaissance ideal of artistic unity. Beyond collaborations with fellow artists, he sought to realise this unity first through the Józsefváros Gallery under the direction of János Fajó [painter, recipient of the Munkácsy Prize] and later through his own gallery, the Kévés Stúdió Galéria.
Founded in 1999 as part of the Orczy Forum complex, the Építészet és Művészet Kévés Stúdió Galéria (Kévés Studio Gallery for Architecture and Art) hosted nearly 200 cultural events over twenty years under his direction. It continued the spirit of the former Józsefvárosi Exhibition Hall, in which Kévés had also participated alongside his friend János Fajó. Alongside exhibitions devoted to painting, sculpture and architecture, the Kévés Studio Gallery served as a venue for lectures, evenings with performing artists, symposia, film screenings, book launches and even New Year’s Eve gatherings.
He placed great value on the opinions of his peers and artist friends. His lectures, evenings and New Year’s Eve festivities organised in the Orczy Gallery – featuring guest appearances by world-class performers and artistic companions – remain unforgettable. This circle of friends, composed of architects, engineers, musicians and visual artists, elite athletes, scholars, economists, and both ecclesiastical and secular figures, bound together by mutual sympathy, constituted his true extended family.
As a highly skilled businessman and a genuine modern patron, he was in a position to fund these events himself.
He was a successful creative artist whose extraordinary life trajectory might well have filled several lifetimes.
He received virtually every major honour (Kossuth Prize, Ybl Prize, Prima Prize), even if – owing, one suspects, to his independent path – sometimes only after lengthy delays of several decades.
He also founded a prize of his own under the deliberately neutral name “Díj-díj” (“Prize-Prize”) so as to ensure its autonomy and permanence, protecting it from becoming a casualty of Hungary’s shifting historical circumstances. This provided him with the opportunity to bestow distinguished recognition on colleagues and artist friends who, despite their self-sacrificing and successful work, could not expect official acknowledgement from elsewhere because they avoided the glare of the public spotlight.
Making use of the enforced confinement brought about by the global pandemic, he devoted himself to writing a succession of memoirs, reflections, accounts of the course of his life and, above all, his plans. Although these volumes occasionally overlap in their historical scope, they carry an important message for posterity.
He travelled, in the literal sense, across half the world: the United States, Canada, South America, the Gulf States, China and, of course, numerous countries in Europe. Thanks to his personal reputation, he was able everywhere to serve the cause of contemporary Hungarian architecture and the visual arts.
He measured on a different scale. He viewed the world from another dimension. “As though I had come from the moon,” he wrote candidly of his state of mind upon returning in the 1970s from Canada and the USA. His self-assessment rested on an objectivity towards his own work. He always thought far ahead, in relation to the projects already under way, and was continually seeking the new. This naturally presupposed, on the part of the colleagues participating in his ongoing projects, an indispensable self-sacrifice and capacity for performance amid an intensified working rhythm.
György Kévés’s creative activity is inseparable from the devoted support of his wife, Éva Földvári, herself an architect, and from the committed collaboration of many colleagues whose professionalism matched his own.
The particular magnetism of his personality, and the foundation of his architecture, may perhaps be found in that emotional surplus rooted in his extraordinarily wide-ranging personal experiences – a surplus that is indispensable for an architect. Without this lived, inspirational sense of life, he might have lacked the elemental force that characterised him throughout.
He loved the life allotted to him, sought to live it in its fullness, and shared its pleasures generously with others.
He leaves behind a great void, yet an inspiring legacy that is difficult to follow.
A remark once made of great predecessors such as Miklós Ybl and Karl Friedrich Schinkel, and of artists of similar temperament, applies equally well to him: “His way of life: Architect!”
György Kévés – the ‘National Guardsman turned Independent Architect’ – was a uniquely unconventional figure who, for all his bohemian spirit, combined boundless professionalism with astonishing energy, dedication, organisational skill, diplomatic sensitivity and generosity. Through his capacity to bring together and support the leading figures of contemporary Hungarian artistic life, he created work of lasting value.
Budapest, 20 October 2025
Balázs Balogh
Architect
Professor Emeritus