
Reconstruction facade, Budapest, Vas street 3
Completed
2019
Budapest, District 8, Palace Quarter. Built in 1911 according to a premodernist Art Nouveau design by Dezső Freund, this fully attached tenement building had seen its facade deteriorate to an alarming degree, mostly due to a renovation carried out in the 1960s. The building enjoys heritage status granted by the City of Budapest, thanks to the delicate original ornamentation of its facade. The reconstruction plan, made complete with original blueprints and whatever decoration still remained on the building, as well as with motifs used by Freund on some of his other buildings in this period, was drafted in collaboration with art historian Kristóf Kelecsényi. A ‘blue angel’ facade sgrafitto on the fourth floor had been a true mystery of the house before it was discovered and restored. As part of the project, restoration designs for the elegant vestibule were also prepared, but this phase has yet to take place. Adjacent to the building stands what until 2020 functioned as the University of Theatre and Film Arts - that was when it was dastardly seized, after having crushed the heroic resistance of students and academia, by mercenaries of Orban's twisted System of National Cooperation. Free SZFE!