The theatre in Veszprem, architect Istvan Medgyaszay

The theatre in Veszprém was built in 1908.

It is a multifunctional hall for the small city Veszprém. It isplaced in the former episcopal garden, which lays much deeper than theneighbouring street. The command made imperative a direct access fromthe pre-hall of the auditorium to the restaurant at street level, butthe direct connection from the pre-hall with the garden had to beassured. As solution, Medgyaszay places the pre-hall under theauditorium. The auditorium is 20x16 sqm big, has a slopeless floor andparkett. The chair rows sit on light podiums. Through this, the hallis suitable for reuse. In case of balls, the podiums are laid in theorchestra trench and covered with wooden panels. In case of biggerevents, the scene furnishing can be changed into buffet tent. Althoughthe first plans of the theatre in Veszprém were done during hisstay in Paris, no traces of the French reinforced concretearchitecture can be seen.

Ákos Moravánsky reports that the theatre space is overspanned with a double shell construction. The interior cement shell ofthe auditorium consists out of decorative reinforced concrete gridsfor the aerial heating and is hanged on an extremely thin tubformedreinforced concrete construction between T-profiles out of iron. Thesolution introduced in case of the theatre of Veszprém wasthrough that revolutionar and extremely economical.

The building has also a well thought heating and air conditioningsystem and lamps. The heating is done over a central air heating withregulation possibilities for the individual rooms. For this reason,the windows cannot be opened. The window constructions out ofreinforced concrete grids with glued glass panels and the lamps areonly a few of his new patents.

In his lecture about the artistic solution of the iron concreteconstruction Medgyaszay expresses also some thoughts about theseparation between construction and space delimitation. Thestructuring elements of the building have to be shaped according tothis valuation. For this he accentuated the surface character of thehorizontal separation elements.

But, according to Moravánsky,important for the history ofarchitecture was the effort to characterise overall the specialresistance states of the new material and to find an artistic shapelanguage for reinforced concrete. The almost brutally appearingprecast reinforced concrete ceiling which appears in the foyer, thepenetrated concrete grids used for the first time, the decorativeconcrete window constructions with glued glass define the formalconsequences of a house cast out of concrete. What is new andimportant for the theatre, was also formulated in the lecture. Thewhole building is, except of a part of the walls, out of reinforcedconcrete. Medgyaszay saw also the artistic relativeness of the ironconcrete with timber.

The national style was not foreign to Medgyaszay but here there issomething coming over the oriental character: the exceptionallylogical and sincere buildup, as symbol for the artistic record ofMedgyaszay: it was more important to solve the problems of the timethan to create an architectural style.