HISTORY OF ARCHITECTURE I.

BEGINNINGS AND
VERNACULAR
ARCHITECTURE

10.

Vernacular Architecture
in Hungary

Rabb Péter PhD 2015

TYPES OF HOUSES / CARPATHIAN BASIN / 18-19th CENTURY

A: Southwest Transdanubia / B: Balaton-highlands / C: Upper Hungary / D: Sárrét (marshland) / E: Great Plain /

F: Northeast Hungary (Western Transylvania) / G: Transylvanya
TYPES OF HOUSES / CARPATHIAN BASIN / 18-19th CENTURY

I: little hugarian plain / II: central and western Transdanubia / III: southern Transdanubia / IV: central hungarian or great
hungarian plain / V: northern or Upper Hungary (today: Slovakia) / VI: northwestern Transylvania (today: Romania) / VII:
Transylvania (today: Romania)
CENTRAL HUNGARIAN HOUSE / GREAT HUNGARIAN PLAIN

Three celled plan / entrance into the central cell (wind catcher, kitchen) / living room can be reached from
central cell / rummed earth (mud brick) wall / timber slab with timber beams and crossbeam / wooden roof
with ridge purlin supported by forked timber post / pitched roof / heating and cooking in beehive shaped
oven opened from kitchen (livingroom is smokeless) / huge open chimney above the kitchen / roof covering:
reed (common) or tiles
MUD WALLS

17-18th century: timbers out of stock (except in Transylvania, western Transdanubia and Upper Hungary) cause of building fortresses,
cooking beer, soap and saltpetre (for gunpowder), little ice age in this period → woodden structures replaced by earth structures

These are available, cheap, no need special knowledge and special tools

Foundation: no

1. Mud brick wall / 2. rammed earth wall / 3. mud wall A: turf brick / B-C: mud wall / D: earth wall between hedges /
E-F: rammed earth wall / G: mud wall with framework and
hedge / H: mud brick
RAMMED WALLS

Put the clayey mud in the shuttering (two paralell wooden boards stabilized by a pair of vertical posts or wooden stocks /
beat (compact) the mud with rammers / wait for drying / take the shuttering higher / repeat
MUD BRICK
Sahona, Niger
CENTRAL HUNGARIAN HOUSE / GREAT HUNGARIAN PLAIN

A: Dunapataj (poor peasant, 2nd part of 19th century)

Three celled plan, wooden framework inside of mud wall, covering: reed, beehive oven and open chimney
B: Szeghalom (poor peasant)
Originally two celled plan, short porched, mud wall, beehive oven and chimney, roof without purlins, covering: reed
C: Homokmégy (middle peasant, 1875)
Living room + kitchen + room + store + stable
CENTRAL HUNGARIAN HOUSE / GREAT HUNGARIAN PLAIN

Püspökladány, house with stable

Two celled plan, there is the kitcen on the corner of stable / short porched / rummed earth wall / hipped roof
NAGYKUNSÁG

Tiszaszentimre
HOMESTEAD IN NAGYKUNSÁG (NORTHEAST GREAT HUNGARIAN PLAIN)

House with stable

Karcag, Bereki határ

HOUSE WITH STABLE

Stable with firepit / roof shape of boar bottom (one side hipped roof)

Karcag, Bereki határ

SPECIAL STRUCTURES / GRANARIES MADE OF MUD

Clamp (pit) / beehive shaped granaries / granary with runner

GRANARIES / AFRICA
HOUSE IN LITTLE HUNGARIAN PLAIN / NORTHWEST HUNGARY / OLDER VERSION

Similar to central hungarian type / covering: thatch / heating: stove made of tiles

Szakony, Fő út 23. Boros Hermán Lajos háza

Szakony / Bő / Répcelak / Szakony / Völcsej
HOUSE IN LITTLE HUNGARIAN PLAIN / NORTHWEST HUNGARY / NEWER VERSION

Similar to central hungarian type / wall: brick / covering: tiles / heating: stove made of tiles

Fertőszéplak, Szalay Horváth János háza

Fertőszéplak / Fertőszentmiklós
HOUSE IN LITTLE HUNGARIAN PLAIN / NORTHWEST HUNGARY / NEWER VERSION

Fertőszéplak
BALATON-HIGHLANDS

form of house is similar to central hungaryan type / wall: stone / slab: wooden or voulted / covering: reed / heating and
cooking: oven / chimney: no, hole above the door of kitchen, smoke fly up into the loft (roof) / roof: purlins supported by
transversal walls / no chimney → rooms are separated

Mindszentkálla és Nyírád
Balatonakali
STONE WALLS
WESTERN TRANSDANUBIA / GÖCSEJ AND ŐRSÉG

A: Kondorfa (1826)
Wooden log walls / transversal crossbeams / wooden slab / roof with purlins / covering: thatch / no chimney!
C: Rinyakovácsi
Timber framework / hedge with plastering / longitudinal crossbeam / wooden slab / roof without purlins
LOG WALLS
Log wall is always plastered (inside and outside) where hungarians live

Kondorfa
WESTERN TRANSDANUBIA / GÖCSEJ AND ŐRSÉG / „CURVED” PLAN

Szentgyörgyvölgy, house of lower nobility / Iklódbördönce, barn

Barn
WESTERN TRANSDANUBIA / „FENCED” HOUSE / INNER COURTYARD IS SURROUNDED BY CELLS OF HOUSE

Szilvágy / Szentmihályfalva
WESTERN TRANSDANUBIA / SMOKEY HOUSE

Szalafő – Pityerszer / oven in the livingroom (Izba-type) / no chimney, only hole above the door / smoke fly into the loft (roof)
WESTERN TRANSDANUBIA / STORING HOUSES

Pityerszer / Kástu
RELATIVES OF KÁSTU

Numedal, Setesdal (1890), stabbur, Norway

TRANSYLVANIA

Csíkmenaság / Covasna / today: Romania

Kitchen in the living room (Izba-type) / heating and cooking: open fireplace / smoke goes into loft via storing room / covering:
shingle (wooden tile)
shingle
Csíkszentgyörgy
WESTERN TRANSYLVANIA / SOUTHEAST HUNGARY

A: Tarpa / wooden framework (lot of flood!) / wall: hedge with plastering / roof without purlins / covering: thatch / heating:
open fireplace / open but covered entrance on the middle (kutyafektető = where the dogs sleep) → every cells are
separated to keep out the smoke / cooking: oven in the kitchen (open chimney above kitchen is later innovation)
‚MIXED’ WALLS / FRAMEWORK AND PLASTERING

Ancient structure in marshy area or danger zone by flod / main structure: wooden framework (to stabilize the wall and
to support the slab and roof) / secondary structure: light texture of hedges, twigs, reeds (to fix the mud plastering → to
keep warm inside)

A. Vertical (standing) texture / B. horizontal (laying) texture / C. texture of reed / D-E. same with framework / F.
wooden framework with forked post and plastered texture of reed / G. standing texture between timber posts / H.
framework inside of mud brick wall / I. wooden framework with plastered texture of twigs
WESTERN TRANSYLVANIA / SOUTHEAST HUNGARY

Kispalád
Kispalád
UPPER HUNGARY

Palóc house
THE DEVELOPMENT OF IZBA-TYPE HOUSE IN UPPER HUNGARY

Kitchen remains in living room → second cell works as windcatcher and soring room
Komlóska / cell on the middle is so narrow (it is not kitchen, open chimney is later innovation)
CHIMNEY IN UPPER HUNGARY / OLDER VERSION

Vertical tube / smoke fly into the loft / mouth of tube there is as low as possible to keep warm inside / fire hazard casuse of sparks
There is a hole on the roof to let smoke out from loft
CHIMNEY IN UPPER HUNGARY / NEWER VERSION

Sípos / kabolás / open chimney comes from central Hungary, it settled above storing room but the kitchen remained in living
room / the oblique tube let smoke under the open chimney / it keeps sparks out from roof
- HURRRAAAAY! IT IS OVER!