Béla Lajta: Rózsavölgyi house

This commerce and dwelling house was built 1912-1913. Lajta develops a

new language here, characterised by plainness and elegancy.

This is a type of multifunctional building, like the house on

Michaeler Platz (1909-11) of Adolf Loos, the Thonet house of Lechner

(1888-89) and the Majolica House of Otto Wagner (1898-99) in Vienna.

The most important influence has, according to Akos Moravanszky, the

Artaria House (1902) of Fabiani in Vienna.

The facade is divided according to the function. The division

public-private goes over into the the division bottom-top. The glass

facade of the three lower commercial floors is subdivided vertically

through steel columns covered with ceramics. The bowindows between the

columns are a further common feature with the Goldman and Salatsch

building of Adolf Loos. The horizontal subdivision of the upper floors

is a difference. The belt cornices are decorated with coloured folclor

elements; the main cornice is the console like terrace closing in

front of the set-back sixth floor.

The construction is readable in the facade, what does not happen at

the Loos house. However, in case of the Goldman and Salatsch building

the Raumplan was first used for a great space configuration while the

pretentious spatial shape of the Rozsavolgyi house was planned by

another architect: Lajos Kozma, the head of the Budapest workshop.