personal and biased book reviews - hungarian cubes by katharina roters (PARK BOOKS)

with most of us still in some kind of lockdown and limits to exhibitions, events and our travel, it’s time to look at books again for a source of inspiration (well i mean it is always time to look at books, but when we are confined to our homes their value multiplies even further i think.) today i’m recommending another photo-essay book with rich photography and insightful essays by a number of authors.

this book is called hungarian cubes by katharina roters and is a wonderful tribute to the subversive creativity of hungarians occupying these cube-shape units (nicknamed “kádár cubes” after the party leader who ordered them to be built in the 1960s.) these aren’t the stereotypical big tower blocks most people associate with suburban eastern europe - these are detached single unit, single storey houses with gardens, replacing the unsuitable dwellings throughout the countryside and they are everywhere all across the country. what caught the author’s eye, what is uniquely creative about them, is the unique decoration on each facade - a bold expression of individuality on standardised, mass produced form.

i have grown up in the city and i’ve never lived in one of these, yet they are very familiar. these houses from all over the hungarian countryside are ingrained into my memory as well - they have always been the embellishment of the roadside, following all the the roads throughout villages, suburban parts of towns, everywhere you go throughout the country and it’s fascinating to flick through the pages of this book as these memories of all the road trips become one through this imagined village - and a rather large one at that as it’s illustrated with 123 beautiful photographs.

the book has no foreword, we get into the photos right away and there is no location or any other detail specified, it is purely for the aesthetic value of the facade itself. i think this arrangement works because the lack of context helps appreciate the beauty of the house on its own. the page spreads are paired with matching decorations, often with very similar designs or colours and the lack of further specifics, it makes it all the more interesting - we don’t know whether these houses are next to each-other or hundreds of miles apart. it’s impossible to tell because there is no regional, or historic or any other traditional identifying mark. there are no organic forms, but a modern, almost avant-garde geometry mostly with vibrant colours in many case. there is no telling who lives inside, the facades are anonymous and abstract, a modern kind of individuality expressed on the homogenous and uniform, state-provided standard form.

this book is about the buildings themselves obviously and the reader will likely focus on the vibrant patterns of the masonry, however there are glimpses of the metal fences and glass patio doors that are also changing from page to page as well, showing a colourful patchwork of same-sized units as the fabric of the hungarian countryside. perhaps it’s also an insight into the subconscious influence of my modular block prints as well. it is certainly a very inspiring collection from a surface pattern design perspective.

like most periods of recent history, it’s not that well-researched or understood (by those without too many memories of it, certainly), however at the end of the book there is also a wonderful collection of essays that put these photographs into historical and architectural context, and ponder how, perhaps rather surprisingly to western eyes, such a form of self-expression remained to be allowed in a tightly controlled state. there are no obvious answers from either authors (hannes böhringer, zsolt szíjártó, endre prakfalvi and katharina roters) but many meaningful insights into the political, economical, social and personal histories along with the architectural realities and the practicalities of construction - lots and lots of curiosity.

apart from the pleasing aesthetics of the photos, it’s the observing curiosity that’s the biggest value of this book i think. there’s very few things out there that take such a close look at something quite so present, i mean these houses really are everywhere in hungary. they are not landmarks, but everyday homes. yes, i’m biased but i recommend everything that celebrates surface pattern design in the everyday - and let us appreciate our own homes and lives with it.

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links:

hungarian cubes: subversive ornaments in socialism - edited and with photographs by katharina roters (park books, 2014. - hardback, 172 pages, 123 colour illustrations.)

hungarian cubes: the houses of post-war communism photographed by katharina roters (by amy frearson, dezeen.com, 17/08/2014)

personal and biased book reviews - eastern blocks by zupagrafika

soooo…. here’s another new blog post series because there are too many forms of inspiration that i want to discuss on the pages of this little journal. i guess it’s only obvious that apart from making things, walking amongst buildings and talking to people, i also like reading books so i’m going to share some of my recommendations and thoughts about inspiring books as well.

i’d like to warn you though that they are entirely personal and biased and every single thought i share about these books will always be heavily from the angle of my own work and what i do and make, so please don’t expect objective, academic reviews because my inspirations are so intertwined with my making. this is going to be more of a series about the thoughts that are influencing my work but let’s start with an easy and visual one - eastern blocks by zupagrafika (2019). this is an absolutely non-comprehensive little collection of photographs of eastern european housing blocks (yes, some from my city, budapest too.)

zupagrafika are an independent publisher/design studio - founded by david navarro and martyna sobecka in poznan, poland and i’m a bit of a fan since they almost single-handedly occupy the niche market for celebratory publications of brutalist architecture in the former eastern bloc and they do it well with a beautiful range behind them - i first got my hands on eastern blocks when it first got published in 2019.

as a predominantly visual work there is very little amount of words, we get a short foreword by christopher beanland from a western perspective and then we can dive right into the photographs, many taken by the design duo themselves. the chapters are divided by locations - we get to visit prefab blocks and estates in berlin, moscow, warsaw, kyiv, budapest and st petersburg. the photography is beautiful work and it’s not from a fixed angle or aesthetics, and that is the greatest benefits i think.

while i don’t completely agree with beanland’s foreword that housing blocks in eastern europe were all about the spectacle, it is true and it applied to all aspects of life, including housing, that image (that of the regime’s) enjoyed the highest priority and it came before any other practicality of real life. for this reason though brutalist architecture nowadays often appears manipulated into either unrealistic, utopian/dystopian depictions of uniformity and scales that never existed, or as exaggerated clichés and close-up metaphors of hardship and suffering. here in this book there is neither, the photographs are simply curious and the reality of the architecture seems to be there as they are - the buildings are obviously the main characters, but the people aren’t invisible. this book is about homes, we don’t get to see inside them but glimpses can be caught of the lives in them and the building’s relationship with the people can also be guessed, neglect or preservation, renovation is all on the photos. we are not to forget that these building blocks aren’t standing on their own but are intertwined with their cities places and people’s lives - there is a human scale and element in even the grandest of scales on all the photos. or perhaps it’s just how i see them because i share the authors’ curiosity about them.

they have another related title that is more connected to my work, panelki. i might reserve a more detailed review for this later but let me just explain how it relates - this book explains a little bit more context on the prefab housing but half the pages are literally a modular set of beautifully illustrated pop-out paper blocks, of which you can assemble your own little prefab house with it. they do have other architectural pop-up books but it’s the one that’s modular and it is very much like how you can create your own pattern here - it’s a bit like how i print so i enjoyed discovering this one.

because of the visible curiosity of eastern blocks though, this remains an inspiring little book after years of looking through it. not only i keep finding new details on the photos themselves, in the close-ups or the facade or the shape, but also it is incredibly well indexed for the architects - all the names are there, the search rabbit hole is ready and inviting to disappear into. there is a lot to enjoy and for those who like my block prints and want to understand more about their inspirations, i totally recommend this book.

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link:

zupagrafika

eastern blocks (2019, hardcover, 144 pages)

panelki (2019, hardcover, 40 pages)

a soft, wool-carpeted walk down memory lane

first of all, many thanks for following the sunday inspiration series on instagram, i’m really enjoying sharing those thoughts with you. however, you will have noticed, it has so far featured the MODERN collection only. so i want to do something different today, and i’m going to share with you some of my inspiration of my more traditional (HERITAGE) collection. some of this is obviously inspired by the rich textile heritage of scotland (and more of that later) but there is of course also the influence of hungary and this post will focus on the latter - specifically, the flatweave “torontáli” rugs, particularly those made by this one factory in the south east of the country, in a town called békésszentandrás (yeah good luck trying to pronounce that one).

the art of weaving rugs came to hungary probably with the ottoman empire in the 15th-16th centuries and slowly evolved from those oriental, turkish patterns into folk motifs suited to the hungarian taste (torontál, where this type of flatwoven rugs are thought to have come from, was a county in old “big-hungary”, today it is partly in hungary and partly in serbia.)

the rug which we understand under this name today is always a pure wool flatweave with bold colours (reds, yellows, greens, blacks), with sharp contrasts and interesting, geometric folklore patterns which have been popular from the 1880s until today. at the late 19th - early 20th century they were made by a few manufacturers for a newly emerging middle-class, however, by the middle of the 20th century it conquered the world all thanks to this one factory. this archive news report from 1955 talks about exporting it to many countries (and wrongly names békéscsaba as the town where it’s made but in reality it is békésszentandrás.)

this factory in békésszentandrás has celebrated its 100th birthday a few years ago, they started producing carpets after the first world war starting with traditional hungarian and transylvanian folk patterns. by the mid-1920s they expanded their range to oriental, persian-style rugs and became known for their quality, by then they were exporting to many countries and were a major employer, mainly of women in the region, and they kept working during the world war, after nationalisation and they even escaped the devastating de-industrialisation of the 1990s.

i genuinely believe this is at least in part thanks to these torontáli flatweave rugs that remained quite popular throughout the times. i do not remember a single house i have been to as a child, which did not have at least one of these beautiful, “pixelated” patterns, although my family does come from the region too and it was an easy access. below is a collection of some of these family treasures - the brown one was on the wall around my bed when i was a kid - it was custom-made to order with the creativity of the weavers and i think it has a variety of mottle yarns as well as natural and brown wools. the geometry of these rugs is present on the KAKTUSZ tileset in the the most obvious way, but it’s safe to say that these rugs have influenced all of it, perhaps sub-consciously.

at the end, there is also this mini-tapestry, as memory of a dance competition in the nearby town of szarvas (which has a stag in the town crest). this woven, “pixelated” graphic is quite reminiscent i think of my floral prints that also have this effect to them even though it’s printed. i think to have this woven effect emphasises the heritage influence that drives this whole collection.

apart from all these family treasures, there are plenty more. the factory store sells most of these in unchanged form, to this day, and they are all really beautiful (and exactly how i remembered) here, see all this colourful range for yourself.

i hope you enjoyed this little trip onto soft, woolly surfaces. i’m sharing with you one more archive news footage from 1972, which is about the christmas anticipations of the design trade, and it showcases not only a whole lot of beautiful (and praised) rugs by békésszentandrás-based rug artist margit szabó, but also features a lot of great design from czechoslovakia and east germany, this is truly a gem! i hope you’re enjoying getting christmas ready too despite everything.

links:

art kelim kft (factory store)

behir.hu - békésszentrandás celebrating 100 years of rug making (in hungarian)

magyarmuzeumok.hu - the torontáli rugs and the domestic industry (in hungarian)