“To Live in Peace Somewhere, where All My Stuff [...] is in One Good Place Together.” A Housing Career in 1930s Budapest in an Architect’s Reminiscenc Cover Image

„Háborítatlanul lakni valahol, ahol az én összes »motyóm« [...] megfelelő helyen, együtt van.” Egy építész lakhatási karrierje az 1930-as évek Budapes
“To Live in Peace Somewhere, where All My Stuff [...] is in One Good Place Together.” A Housing Career in 1930s Budapest in an Architect’s Reminiscenc

Author(s): Judit Valló
Subject(s): History
Published by: KORALL Társadalomtörténeti Egyesület

Summary/Abstract: The study surveys the housing career of Budapest architect Károly Hegedős between 1933 and 1939, based on his diaries and reminiscences richly illustrated with floorplans and drawings of interiors and furniture. Hegedős started his life in the capital living hand to mouth from one grant to another in a room for weekly rent. The first part of the study focuses on the two sides of the coin: families making ends meet by marketing part of their property for tenants on one hand, and tenants renting rooms due to a lack of regular and sufficient income on the other. The second part of the study follows the architect’s housing career to the next phase, when he was able to rent a studio for himself. His reminiscences contain ample description and criticism of his immediate environment in an apartment block in Újlipótváros (Budapest’s thirteenth district). This is followed by an account of the period following his years of studio accommodation, when Károly Hegedős married, developed a steady professional career, and thus was able to move into a modern two-bedroom flat with his wife Erzsébet Stoffa. This section provides an analysis of the interpretations of gender and spousal roles in the growing Hegedős family, as well as the difficulties arising from the modern double-income family model in this period. Hegedős’ diary is used to compare the costs of living in rented rooms, studios or multi-bedroom accommodation with contemporary earnings. The housing career described in the text begins in rented rooms for a young man with irregular income, through a studio flat for the single educated male, to the rented two-bedroom flat for the family man. Based on the diary, the study also examines these life models and the ways they were associated with certain types of accommodation.

  • Issue Year: 2014
  • Issue No: 58
  • Page Range: 139-166
  • Page Count: 28
  • Language: Hungarian