The first virtual archive of architecture in Hungary was created in 2010 by the Budapest City Archives to present the career of Béla Lajta. The website catalogues Lajta’s life work with an attempt at being comprehensive, including archival written and design documents, contemporary press materials, and a presentation of the former and current states of the buildings augmented with photographs. In terms of its structure, it is comprised of datasheets on the buildings and other thematic sub-pages, which in addition to descriptions, bibliographies, and contemporary press materials also includes photographs, drawings, and other documentation preserved in archives and at museums. The Miklós Ybl Virtual Archive follows this same structure, as does the recently released Károly Kós Virtual Archive.
A significant portion of the Károly Kós estate held at our institution is presented in the Károly Kós Virtual Archive. Previously, these materials had only been partially catalogued, so it contains numerous documents that are new to researchers and to the general public. The majority of these are written records, but even so, there is a large number of objects with connections to architecture found amongst them, nearly 1,000 in total. In preparation for the virtual archive, the architectural materials were processed and digitized with the aid of our employees in 2020–2021. This is supplemented on the website by design materials found at the Budapest City Archives and the Székely National Museum, as well as from the private collection of the architect and architectural historian Dr. habil. Anthony Gall. The basis for the content of the website is Anthony Gall’s 2002 book Kós Károly műhelye – Tanulmány és adattár (The Workshop of Károly Kós – Study and Database). In addition to the datasheets of the individual works, it is possible to see the biography of Kós on a timeline and his buildings can be browsed using a map search function.
Nothing can replace leafing through a well-illustrated book for some, but there are a few advantages to a virtual archive. On the one hand, its contents are essentially endless, no matter how many pictorial materials are available for any one building. On the other hand, the website can be continuously amended and updated so it can remain current as years pass. It combines together the features of a database, a collection of sources, and a virtual exhibition. By publishing primary sources, it is open to everyone while being able to provide authentic and substantial professional content.
Editor: Anthony Gall
Website compiled by: Fanni Izabella Magyaróvári, Flóra Medgyesy-Töreky, Rebeka Mészáros, Martin Kolman
English translation: Charles Horton
Fanni Izabella Magyaróvári
