Bertalan Árkay

Bertalan Árkay (Budapest, 1901. April 11. – Budapest, 1971. November 23.) Pioneer of Hungarian modernist design and architecture.

Career

Bertalan, son of architect Aladar Arkay, studied at Budapest Technical University until 1925 and subsequently worked under his father as well as in the Vienna offices of Peter Behrens. He and his father together designed the roman catholic memorial church at Mohacs which was begun in 1926 and funded by donations. The stained glass are the work of Arkay's first wife, Lili Sztehlo. Arkay finished work on the Varosmajori roman catholic church in Budapest from 1932 to 1933, after his father's death. The building, with its concrete structure and seperate belltower, was the city's first modern church. He worked on housing in the VIII district on the south side of Koztarsasag ter (1933-34). In 1936 he designed the Hungarian pavillion for the Triennale in Milan and from 1945 worked on restoration of historic buildings - eg. the Budapest Museum of Fine arts or Szepmuveszeti museum and church buildings in Vac. From 1949 he worked on the development of the capital at the Department of public building and also designed a number of schools (eg. Sátoraljaújhely, 1943)and apartment buildigns. His plans are held in the Budapest History Museum.

Translated from Hungarian wikipedia.