Játékszer – áruház – építészet a budapesti Árkád-bazár, a vágó fivérek műve 1909-ből

Tamás Csáki

doi:10.1556/080.2017.66.2.3

Jump to Content

Művészettörténeti Értesítő

Volume/Issue:: Volume 66: Issue 2

Játékszer – áruház – építészet a budapesti Árkád-bazár, a vágó fivérek műve 1909-ből

Author:

Tamás Csáki

Tamás Csáki BTM Kiscelli Múzeum, Budapest / BTM Kiscelli Museum, Budapest

Search for other papers by Tamás Csáki in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed

tcsaki@hotmail.com

View More View Less

Pages:: 217–241

Online Publication Date:: Dec 2017

Publication Date:: 01 Dec 2017

Article Category:: Research Article

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1556/080.2017.66.2.3

Keywords:: Vágó László; Vágó József; Késmárky és Illés; Otto Wagner; Walla József; Zsolnay-épületkerámia; szecesszió; áruház-építészet; üzletbérházak; gyermekművészet; játéktervezés; gyermekrajzok; László Vágó; József Vágó; Késmárky & Illés; Otto Wagner; József Walla; Zsolnay architectural ceramics; art nouveau; architecture of department stores; shop-cum-apartment block buildings; children’s art; toy design; children’s drawings

Restricted access

Csak nyomtatott formában érhető el. A Művészettörténeti Értesítő 2020-ig csak nyomtatásban jelent meg, a weboldalon csupán a tartalommal kapcsolatos alapvető információkat mutatjuk ezekről az évfolyamokról. A cikkeket a 70. kötettől (2021) jelentetjük meg online is.

The first and only large toy store in Budapest, the socalled Árkád-bazár was built in 1908-09 according to the designs of József and László Vágó. The company that commissioned the building, Késmárky & Illés, was one of Budapest’s leading toy trading companies. Founded in 1879, it sold not only toys but also a wide range of home ornaments and furnishings. Its shops were always located along Rákóczi Road and Kossuth Lajos Street, which was one of Budapest’s foremost arteries of commerce, connecting Keleti railway station with the inner city of Pest. In 1907 the company undertook its largest investment ever, the construction of a new building to house their toy trade branch. The building to be erected was not a department store but an example of the shop-cumapartment block combination so typical of the commercial avenues of Budapest from the 1890s onwards. Above its two business levels it had four residential ones. In April 1907 the owner and his wife bought two adjoining lots at the corner of Dohány Street and Síp Street, well visible from Rákóczi Road. It was the renowned modern architectural firm of László and József Vágó whom they commissioned with planning the new building.

The Árkád-bazár in Budapest was a typical multifunctional metropolitan building, with an interior arrangement determined – apart from the specificities of the building lot – primarily by the desire to maximize retail space, shop window length and the income from rents. Fire-safety considerations stressed by the municipal authorities also played a considerable role in forming the building. Like other buildings of the similar type, it was to appear in the cityscape first and foremost as a giant advertisement of the trading company housed on its lower floors.

Instead of working with the routine elements of early 20^th century commercial architecture József and László Vágó met these requirements in an innovative way, with unique and personal solutions to the distribution of the retail space and the composition of the elevations. In 1909 the sharp lines, prismatic forms, geometrically stylized, contrasting volumes of the Árkád-bazár were unquestionably a novelty in the architecture of the Hungarian capital, a rupture with the soft, smooth, wavy forms of the art nouveau houses so popular in the previous years. However, the most important merit of the Árkád-bazár was probably that here the Vágó brothers found innovative solutions to the very specific artistic problems of the building type: uniting the swathes of the commercial and the residential levels into one coherent composition, integrating the advertising function into the building fronts. By utilizing a few characteristic elements of early 20^th century ‘children’s art’ on and in their building, the Vágó brothers not only found a truly adequate form of advertising the toy store housed in it, but also managed to endow Árkád-bazár with a certain charm and humour unique in the local architecture of the period.

Save
Cite
Email this content

Share Link

Copy this link, or click below to email it to a friend
Email this content
or copy the link directly:

https://akjournals.com/abstract/journals/080/66/2/article-p217.xml
The link was not copied. Your current browser may not support copying via this button.

Link copied successfully

Collapse
Expand

Művészettörténeti Értesítő

Print ISSN:: 0027-5247

Online ISSN:: 1588-2802

Senior editors

Editor(s)-in-Chief: Mikó, Árpád

Name of the Institute: HUN-REN Research Centre for the Humanities, Institute of Art History

Website: https://mi.abtk.hu/hu/munkatarsak/adatlap/mikoarpad

E-mail address: miko.arpad@abtk.hu; miko.arpad@gmail.com

Editor(s): Jávor, Anna

Name of the Institute: Magyar Nemzeti Galéria
Address of the Institute: 1014 Budapest, Buda Castle, Szent György Square nr. 2.

E-mail address: javor.anna@mng.hu

Chair of the Editorial Board: Jávor, Anna

Name of the Institute: Magyar Nemzeti Galéria
Address of the Institute: 1014 Budapest, Buda Castle, Szent György Square nr. 2.

E-mail address: javor.anna@mng.hu; jvoranna9@gmail.com

Editorial Board

Galavics, Géza
Mravik, László
Nagy, Ildikó
Prokopp, Mária

Művészettörténeti Értesítő
Hungarian Nationale Gallery
P.O. Box 31
HU–1250 Budapest, Hungary
Phone: (36 1) 375 8858 ---- Fax: (36 1) 375 8898
E-mail: javor.anna@mng.hu

2024
Scopus
CiteScore
CiteScore rank
SNIP
Scimago
SJR index	0.101
SJR Q rank	Q4

2023
Scopus
CiteScore	0
CiteScore rank	Q4 (Visual Arts and Performing Arts)
SNIP	0.938
Scimago
SJR index	0.102
SJR Q rank	Q4

Művészettörténeti Értesítő
Publication Model	Print Only
Submission Fee	none
Article Processing Charge	none
Printed Color Illustrations	40 EUR (or 10 000 HUF) + VAT / piece
Subscription fee 2025	Online subsscription: 154 EUR / 182 USD Print + online subscription: 178 EUR / 208 USD
Subscription Information	Online subscribers are entitled access to all back issues published by Akadémiai Kiadó for each title for the duration of the subscription, as well as Online First content for the subscribed content.
Purchase per Title	Individual articles are sold on the displayed price.

Művészettörténeti Értesítő
Language	Hungarian
Size	A4
Year of Foundation	1952
Volumes per Year	1
Issues per Year	2
Founder	Magyar Régészeti és Művészettörténeti Társulat
Founder's Address	H-1088 Budapest, Hungary, Múzeum krt. 14.
Publisher	Akadémiai Kiadó
Publisher's Address	H-1117 Budapest, Hungary 1516 Budapest, PO Box 245.
Responsible Publisher	Chief Executive Officer, Akadémiai Kiadó
ISSN	0027-5247 (Print)
ISSN	1588-2802 (Online)