József Viszlai was born in 1959 in Miskolc. Both his professional career and his personal life have been strongly shaped by his childhood attachment to the geographical landscape and the culture that surrounded him – alongside the city of Miskolc, most of all the village of Hidvégardó situated along the Hungarian–Slovak border. His first physical impressions are rooted in encounters with local vernacular architecture and the historical built heritage, as well as in his visits to the surrounding regions on both sides of the present-day border. The sight of mountains and castles, and the mysterious world of caves became powerful and vivid memories for him, ones that shaped the imagination of the young child’s mind.
A more thorough acquaintance with architecture – with the rationality of building and with the material and structural qualities of construction – can already be linked to his secondary school years. At the Kós Károly Építőipari Szakközépiskola (Kós Károly Secondary Vocational School of Construction) in Miskolc, he encountered for the first time the system of rules of engineering drawing, which, although it felt new and alien at the time, later proved to be highly useful and relevant knowledge during his studies at university.
During his secondary school years, he also developed his drawing skills, and in the drawing school led by the graphic artist János Pető he formed a friendship with Mihály Taksás. The early years of curious observation and his profound impressions of the natural and built environment, combined with the influence of his friend – who at first prepared for admission to the sculpture department and later for the entrance examination of the Faculty of Architecture – led him to recognise that he should choose architecture as his vocation. In the end, both were admitted to the Budapesti Műszaki Egyetem Építészmérnöki Kar (Faculty of Architecture, Budapest University of Technology and Economics]).
The most elemental experiences of his university years were linked less to the alternatives offered by formal education and far more to Bercsényi 28–30 College, which in the 1980s became a significant intellectual centre of cultural and artistic life. It was during this period that he came to know those fellow students with whom he would be bound not only by the shared struggles of university assignments, by the first architectural impulses, by the experiences of individually organised professional study trips and by involvement in the professional student community life of the college, but also by lifelong friendship: his college roommates, the architects Jan Stempel, László Vincze and Mihály Taksás.
As organiser of the Kiállítási Kör (Exhibition Circle) operating within the college and as an editorial member of the periodical Bercsényi 28–30, he took an active part in shaping the professional and artistic public life. As he recalls, as students they had the opportunity to acquaint others with artists and artistic movements, and to publish the work and writings of foreign architects with considerable oeuvres in the supplements of the periodical – a degree of freedom which, at that time, few other institutions or forums possessed.
It was likewise within the walls of the college, at the initiative of students, that Imre Makovecz delivered his first lectures to university students – lectures which, in comparison with the principles taught at the university, presented a radically new and unique approach, and which left a profound impression also on József Viszlai. Under the impact of this experience he, together with his classmates, applied to the first Visegrád construction camp of 1981. In a secluded spot on Kisvillám Hill in Visegrád, at the Szent István quarry yard, they jointly constructed the first fundamental work of the organic architectural camps, the ‘Kas’ [literally ‘Hive’]. During this period – to use the words of Imre Makovecz – the experience of the drama of building, of giving physical form to intellectual content through manual labour, the three-dimensional experience of shaping space, and the working of basic natural building materials such as stone and wood, together with community building and the evening conversations and lectures of invited architects that accompanied the daily life and atmosphere of the camp, became foundational experiences for him.
As an upper-year student he joined the studio of the Középülettervezési Tanszék (Department of Public Building Design), where the teaching activity of his supervisors, Péter Ungár and Antal Puhl, had a particularly strong impact on him. The teaching at the department was complemented by visits to the masters’ studios, as well as glimpses into and contribution to large corporate projects associated with the department (for example those of Iparterv). His student achievements were recognised by the Szabó István Scholarship awarded by the department. In 1984, he completed his diploma project at the same department (Városligeti múzeum gyermekeknek [Museum in City Park for Children]), with which he won the First Degree Diploma Architecture Award conferred by the Magyar Építőművészek Szövetsége (Association of Hungarian Architects) and the Építőipari Tudományos Egyesület (Scientific Association for Construction Industry).
It was also as a university student that he first encountered the oeuvre of György Csete, whose works (with particular regard to the Forrásház / Spring House) fascinated him. During this period several architectural tendencies entered his field of vision: the rising postmodernism of the 1980s, the organic architectural school, the strict climate of the state design institutes, contemporary Czech modern architecture, the turn-of-the-century Secession which he studied and came to appreciate (within which he particularly valued the work of Béla Lajta, Otto Wagner and József Vágó), as well as the complex, structural mode of thinking and regionalist approach of the Miskolci Műhely (Miskolc Workshop) led by Csaba Bodonyi, which he came to know through the workshop’s competition projects exhibited in Bercsényi College (primarily the Manila competition project).
After graduating from university, partly due to his sympathy for the spirit of the Miskolc Workshop, partly upon the invitation of Csaba Bodonyi, and partly under the impact of his experiences at the 1983 international architectural summer camp in Ráckeve, he decided to choose Miskolc rather than Budapest as the starting point of his career – a city which ultimately became the place of his settlement as well.
His first workplace was within the nearly 400-person office of Északterv, in the ‘E’ office, the studio of Csaba Bodonyi, also known as the Miskolc Workshop. During the nine years spent here he deepened his professional knowledge through large-scale architectural projects and laid the foundations of his later individual career; the shaping of his design methodology and way of thinking was further supported by participation in design competitions together with his colleagues. Alongside Csaba Bodonyi, another significant master for him in the Workshop was the architect István Ferencz. Meanwhile, after completing his compulsory military service, he was admitted to the 9th cycle (1986–88) of the Mesteriskola (Master School), where his most important masters were János Golda and Tamás Noll, colleagues he had previously come to know in Miskolc.
Among his first works in the Miskolc Workshop, he regards the Technika Háza (House of Technology) in Miskolc and its sixth through thirteenth design variants as outstanding; these were prepared jointly with his friend and colleague, Zoltán Rostás. During this period their other collaborative work, the design of the Békés Educational Centre, was also completed. His first significant independent work was the design of the Miskolci Művészeti Középiskola (Miskolc Secondary School of Arts), launched through the Master School competition, the construction of which was cancelled at the last moment before execution. However, the architectural principles formulated therein were realised two decades later in the Miskolc Town Hall building complex.
At the time of the political transition, the nearly 400-person office of Északterv gradually dissolved. In 1990, together with the architects Csaba Bodonyi and István Kelemen, and colleagues from other technical disciplines, work continued in a new corporate form — this was the start of Interplan Ltd. His first work to gain broader professional recognition and to establish his reputation, the designs for the Miskolci Galéria (Miskolc Gallery), was prepared in this studio.
Miskolc Gallery / Miskolc Municipal Gallery and the Béla Kondor Memorial Chapel (1990–2000)
The intertwining of past and present and a sensitive architectural attitude can be discerned in the design concept of the Miskolc Gallery, which stands as one of the notable examples of the rehabilitation of historic buildings in Hungary. In the simultaneous preservation and extension of a heritage building — that is, in the contemporary-minded shaping of historical continuity as added and lasting architectural value — the design approach of József Viszlai offers an instructive result.
When the design process began, the 17th-century Dőry Mansion, uncovered through heritage surveys, was in extremely poor condition. The brutal and destructive structural interventions of the preceding decades had rendered its historical architectural values nearly invisible, and its interior spatial system, converted into cellular residential units during its last years, had become severely dilapidated. The rescue of the oldest heritage building of Miskolc was due to the initiative of József Viszlai, who — even before a concrete design commission was formulated — proposed relocating the Gallery, which at the time was seeking a new home, into this building; creating an exhibition space that would preserve the graphic oeuvre of Lajos Szalay; and establishing a permanent exhibition and memorial chapel dedicated to the legacy of painter, graphic artist and poet Béla Kondor.
Following almost a decade of works and numerous design iterations, the restoration of the mansion was complemented by the addition of a new L-shaped contemporary wing. Through the internal spatial connection of both parts, a fully continuous, looped exhibition route was created. Its starting point is the reception hall and staircase opened beside the tree that forms the natural ornament of the courtyard, from which the permanent and temporary exhibition spaces can be accessed in different directions. Based on the evidence of only a single surviving tax registry document, the historic façade of the mansion could be restored, including the salvaging of the sole original stone vault above the main entrance, still visible today.
The contemporary addition adopts a geometric, strictly ordered form articulated by a rhythm of white columns; its massing and light-admitting openings create a clear yet by no means disruptive contrast to the heritage building. In the attic of the mansion, the new exhibition space (the memorial chapel) regained its original steep interior proportions through the introduction of a contemporary exposed steel structure — a spatial gesture that also benefits the gallery function. The interior spaces are characterised by minimalist, snow-white elegance. The inner courtyard is not only a pleasant and dignified arrival space but has, to this day, remained a favoured venue for events of the city’s cultural life.
Miskolc Town Hall — comprehensive reconstruction of the Mayor’s Office, construction of a new customer service hall and office wing, and heritage restoration of the existing buildings (2006–2012)
Another outstanding work of architectural reconstruction in József Viszlai’s oeuvre is the present-day building complex of the Miskolc Town Hall. The historic building functioning as Town Hall prior to the project dates to the second half of the 18th century, but an earthquake followed by a devastating fire some eighty years later had rendered it almost unusable. Its restoration in the second half of the 19th century gave it its final form — facing the County Hall across the square. After its various functions over time, by the 2000s the three neighbouring historic buildings jointly formed the Town Hall, yet their original deep corridor layout had become unsuitable for contemporary office and customer-service functions, and the ensemble presented an unworthy counterpart to the imposing and patinated County Hall at a prominent point of the city centre.
In 2006, the municipal leadership announced a design competition for a leased office building to be erected on a vacant infill plot facing St Stephen Square. In response — and at the risk of disqualification for going against the brief — József Viszlai presented a firm and complex proposal that simultaneously addressed the interests of both citizens and the city leadership. His proposal ultimately persuaded the jury and gained their confidence. In addition to the reconstruction of the historic buildings, the infill development introduced a new office wing and a longitudinal, multi-storey atrium aligned with the main urban axis of the square, linking the ensemble and, in the rear part of the now unified plot, establishing a spacious and transparent new customer-service hall capable of handling and concentrating all citizen-facing administrative functions in a single place. The internal spatial organisation thus became more legible, functional and comfortable for both citizens and municipal staff.
The generous atrium space, flooded with natural light and bearing distinctive organic overtones, also represents a quotation of historical urban space: through its monumental snow-white colonnade it functions as an interior continuation of the main square, forming an internal civic agora and an important point of orientation where the glazed bridges of vertical circulation float freely. By design decision, the locus of political decision-making was moved from the ceremonial hall of the historic Town Hall to the new council chambers on the upper floor, thereby returning the ceremonial hall to the city’s public life — hosting civil ceremonies, receptions and community conferences. During construction, an old tree preserved on site became a key element of the entrance from Városház tér (City Hall Square), forming a harmonious composition together with the new customer-service building and the church tower.
The works of József Viszlai in Sopron commenced in the early 1990s with the winning of a national architectural competition. At this time, alongside Interplan Kft., he established a close working relationship with Mestervonal Kft., which served as the workshop for the Sopron projects. Among his first works was the residential complex named the ‘Gödör’ [literally ‘Pit’]. The design attitude displayed here — involving large-scale interventions in the urban fabric and special compositional responses to them — would later reappear at two further prominent points in his oeuvre: Szinvapark in Miskolc and the Macropolis complex.
Gödör Residential Park / Frankenburg Street Housing Complex, Sopron (1991–1998)
This new development of urban significance was realised on a site formed partly through morphological conditions and partly through wartime bombing — an area that became known as the ‘pit’. Situated at the end of the Deák Square, one of the longest green urban spaces of Central Europe, the building complex responds with intelligent and sensitive massing to the environmental conditions.
The competition-winning design condensed 200 dwellings into a well-composed arrangement that exploited favourable orientation. Its loosely organised wings — articulated with arcades and passages — evoke, through their varied façades facing the enclosing streets and public spaces, the historical moods and architectural memories of the district. Towards Deák Square the complex presents a façade recalling that of the former Lutheran Teachers’ Institute, while the terraced mass stepping down towards Frankenburg Street not only takes advantage of the orientation but also mediates towards the smaller-scale residential fabric of the opposite side. The underground car park is concealed behind a row of shops, while the western edge of the corner plot is marked by a distinctive, emblematic termination.
This project also reveals József Viszlai’s responsible and principled design attitude — one that is prepared to oppose the client’s initial intentions, to accept conflict if necessary, yet always acts in good faith. His rejection of the strictly enclosed building perimeter prescribed in the competition brief was vindicated immediately upon the first apartment sales: the most irregular flats overlooking the inner garden and wrapping around the preserved old plane tree became the most sought-after units.
Having completed the first decade of his career, he reached a new milestone. Continuing his work both in Miskolc and Sopron but now independent from his former masters, in 1991 he founded his own architectural office (VJRA) together with architect Anna Halászné Ráczkevi, his irreplaceable creative partner to this day. Following subsequent changes in corporate structure, it operated as Atelier V from 1995, and eventually (and to this day) as V+A Viszlai Építésziroda (V+A Viszlai Architectural Office). Initially operating studios in both Sopron and Miskolc, the office ultimately settled in Miskolc. From its early years onward, numerous successful competitions and realised buildings allowed an oeuvre to unfold that — recognised and esteemed by both the profession and the state — reflects responsible and rational thinking about the built environment, respect for historical values, broad intellectual horizons and tireless professional dedication.
Szinvapark (ADY–HYD Center)
Service and Leisure Center, 1999
The commercial centre known as Szinvapark was built at one of Miskolc’s major traffic junctions, forming a gateway to the city’s pedestrian high street from the railway station. Instead of the investors’ initial, uncertain profit-driven intentions, the final programme emerged after the architect’s decisive intervention: Viszlai advocated for a concept that would serve the local population, make use of the site’s inherent qualities, and define a long-term urban function. The winning scheme was subsequently selected through an architectural competition.
Rejecting the inward-looking, closed-box typology of conventional shopping malls, Viszlai articulated the commercial programme as an outward-oriented, transparent structure, maintaining continuous visual connections between interior and exterior. In this way, the building becomes an active part of the urban fabric and of everyday public life. The architectural massing reads as a large display window animated by geometric volumes—triangular, rectangular, and cylindrical extrusions—and by escalators positioned directly on the façade, all reinforcing a sense of urban dynamism. The materially restrained interior avoids competing with the already stimulus-rich retail environment. Importantly, the project preserved the alignment of the stream bed running through the site as a public-space situation, anticipating that in the future—through a more ambitious intervention—it may be fully opened and become a water-edge public realm for residents.
Macropolis Housing Complex, 2004–2008
Miskolc’s historical urban structure is defined by two principal commercial axes—running north–south and east–west—that continue to give the city’s fabric its pulse. At their intersection lay a residual parcel—left over by infrastructural widening and wartime bombing—targeted by foreign investors for a high-density housing development. Having recognised the benefits of the design principles previously applied at Szinvapark, the developers commissioned Viszlai to propose a workable architectural response. His solution turned the functionally burdensome environmental conditions and the strict planning constraints into a formally intelligent strategy.
Instead of the seemingly obvious, investor-friendly solution of forming massive, continuous street walls, the architect conceived the ensemble as a hand with fingers splaying open—articulated into smaller, more hospitable scales. Only the ground-floor retail maintains a continuous frontage, allowing the multi-storey underground parking to be hidden behind it, and lifting the public realm above street level. The fragmented volumes shield the apartments from traffic noise, while the resulting courtyards enjoy favourable east–west orientation. At the tips of the individual wings — protruding over the urban space like fingertips — ten-metre cantilevered glass volumes accommodate the rental offices, whose architecture is echoed by the glazed bridges linking the roof levels across the street.
Main Gate and Entrance Hall of the University of Miskolc, 2001–2002
The first university buildings, designed in the 1950s by István Janáky Sr., Lajos Zalaváry, György Jánossy, and Zoltán Farkasdi, were constructed without a central entrance hall or common receiving space. Over the following decades, the campus was expanded by new faculties and buildings. In the late 1980s, as the region’s heavy industry declined, new humanities faculties—including law and the liberal arts—were established. During this period, an important new building for the Faculty of Law, designed by István Ferencz, partially reorganised the existing masses and improved spatial cohesion.
The law faculty’s new aula was connected to a low, flat-roofed bridging wing from the 1950s, which by the millennium had become insufficient for the growing student population and the scale of university events. Commissioned by the university leadership and mentored by István Ferencz, the local architects launched an internal competition. Viszlai’s winning proposal introduced a representational gate-building appropriate to the university’s national and regional standing.
The multi-storey gate volume adapts to the lean, Scandinavian-inflected architectural language and scale of the 1950s buildings. Inside, a tall, airy, clearly legible orientation space unfolds, with a glazed cubic volume at its centre serving as a naturally lit social hall for students. The interior once again features Viszlai’s signature motif: a forest of slender white circular columns spanning multiple storeys.
In the previously car-dominated forecourt, the axial composition continues into an outdoor reflecting pool, approached by a pair of elegant monumental staircases. The architect intended the axial sequence to be completed in future by connecting the two atrium spaces and extending the landscape axis into the park leading to the campus entrance. The playful elevation transforms the suspended glazed box into a canopy beneath which the pool water extends—a gesture that has since become an iconic backdrop for graduation ceremonies.
Beyond his work as a designer, Viszlai has played a distinguished role in the preservation of architectural heritage and in urban development across the northern Hungarian region. He served officially as Chief Architect of Miskolc between 2007 and 2010, voluntarily as advisory Chief Architect of Szikszó between 2012 and 2014, and from 1998 to the present in the village he considers his place of origin, Hidvégardó. His approach values exemplary architectural practice as the primary means of influence, visible in numerous interventions aimed at safeguarding and renewing built heritage.
In Miskolc, he contributed to the revival of major civic institutions; in Hidvégardó he prepared a village-scape rehabilitation plan in 1998, followed by years of committed and responsible work. The Millennium Square (2000), the restoration of the Roman Catholic Church (2011), and the rescue of the Gedeon and Papp manor houses (2012), as well as the reconstruction of the Folk House (2012), all bear his imprint—alongside many smaller, often subtle yet decisive acts of spatial stewardship. His work in Hidvégardó was recognised in 2013 with a Ministerial Certificate of Recognition.
His most recent major project is the comprehensive reconstruction of the Avasi Lookout Tower in Miskolc, completed in 2023. This undertaking was driven not only by affection for his native region but also by deep respect for the original designers—his former university professor, architect Miklós Hofer, and structural engineer György Vörös. Guided by a thorough understanding of its architectural and cultural significance, Viszlai restored the remarkable engineering and formal clarity of the original work through sensitive, contemporary additions. Today, the landmark once again commands the landscape—now illuminated at night—and has become a vivid and cherished presence in the everyday life of locals.
[2024]