Agricultural Architecture

Rural farms and standard designs

Kós was confronted with the practical realities of life in a rural environment where, under difficult economic conditions, he had to provide for a constantly growing family. While agriculture and farming had already appeared in his work during the war years, what initially may have seemed a “hobby” or even a “utopian” interest soon evolved—under the influence of his immediate surroundings—into a systematic program. This applied not only to the gradual development of the land he acquired around Varjúvár, which functioned as a kind of experimental field, but also to his theoretical writings addressing the challenges of modern rural architecture and contemporary farming techniques.

His conception of the village as an economic unit reiterates an earlier principle that had originally been aesthetic in nature and had characterized the beginning of his career. At that time, loosely and picturesquely interconnected buildings defined and enclosed spaces such as churchyards, manor courtyards, and farmyards. In this later phase, however, Kós employed an exceptionally clear and practical language, supported by transparent reasoning. His complex aesthetic considerations were effectively translated into the simple, pragmatic vocabulary of rural inhabitants.

The idea of standard designs or “model plans” appears already in Kós’s earliest works, primarily in the form of small houses intended for single occupants. Through the workers’ housing at Wekerletelep, he became acquainted with the English garden-city concept, and soon thereafter, during the First World War, he produced model school designs under a ministerial commission. In his collaboration with Toroczkai Wigand Ede, he also developed standard designs for villages around Târgu Mureș.

The booklet The Art of the Dwelling House already contains concrete model designs, and from the 1930s onward the concept expanded first to agricultural buildings and farming systems, then to community service buildings such as shops, schools, and cultural halls, and finally to church architecture as well, including five designs for small Reformed churches from 1942. Kós’s realized buildings themselves can likewise be understood as exemplary models. The fullest articulation of this line of thinking appears in his textbook Agricultural Architecture, in which he presents and systematically guides the reader through the practical aspects of an entire settlement-planning concept—a complete village—from brick production and site selection to the design of all building types. Several of the buildings presented in the textbook were in fact realized, primarily in the Kalotaszeg region.

The short-lived model farm at Bábony, created through collective community labor, provides a clear example of how Kós envisioned raising living standards and ensuring survival through the use of available tools and materials and through communal effort.

Residential house and farm buildings, four types (Józseffalva, 1938)

The small two-room rural houses followed traditional local floor plans and were built of adobe. These simple dwellings, intended for later expansion, formed part of the village’s post-fire reconstruction program. The use of locally available building materials and technologies was essential to the low-cost rebuilding strategy, just as it would later be in Hungary’s ONCSA program, in which Kós also participated with similar designs (for example, Nagyiklód, 1942–1943).

Sheep barn for the Institute of Agricultural Sciences (Kolozsmonostor, 1951)

An independent structure approximately 40 meters in length, located on the outskirts of Cluj. The design follows the principles outlined in Agricultural Architecture for a model sheep barn, with an attached residential unit at one corner for the shepherds.

Pig farrowing house (Kackó, 1951–1952)

The first building was designed to accommodate 12 breeding sows, the second 10. The facility included electric lighting, running water, and automatic watering systems. Kós’s designs for pigsties were published in Agricultural Architecture.

Since the early 1950s, in addition to their teaching, educational, and research duties, instructors, lecturers, and assistants were assigned a new task: the continuous support of collective farms established after 1949. This work was demanding, as frequent site visits were required, especially during peak agricultural periods, given the shortage of qualified professionals in the districts and the limited assistance available from county agricultural offices.

I was assigned to Kackó, near Dej, where only 17 farmers initially joined the collective. At that time, the first secretary of the Cluj County party committee was Vasile Vaida, who originated from Kackó, and as a result the local collective received substantial support. In its second year, the farm acquired 12 pregnant Landrace sows at a favorable price from a state farm near Arad. The animals arrived, but there was no farrowing facility. They were temporarily housed in an old adobe building, and I was soon instructed to resolve the situation. Naturally, I turned to “Uncle Károly” for help. He agreed immediately, and the rector of the college approved our joint visit. We usually traveled by train, transferring at Dej, as Kós preferred rail travel to buses. Fortunately, the farm had building materials available. Even on the way to Kackó, Kós declared that he would build “kutrincas” that everyone would admire—and he did. The completed shelters and farrowing houses were widely praised.

In the Saxon regions, particularly near Mediaș, one could see between the two world wars multi-level farrowing houses with separate “dining” and “resting” areas for piglets. The following year, a similar problem arose with the housing of 10 young heifers, but once again Kós designed an exemplary barn equipped with electric lighting, water supply, and automatic drinking systems.

We made the journey between Kackó and Cluj six or seven times, and on our return trips, especially in the afternoons, Kós would often speak about the former estates along the Someș River—Dezmir, Apahida, Jucu, Răscruci, Bonțida, Iclod, Dengeleg, Gherla, Ocna Dejului, and Coșalău. He spoke at length about Baron Miklós Wesselényi, who donated his stud farm at Jucu to the state on the condition that horse races be held there twice a year. Kós loved horses—not English thoroughbreds, but rather hardy local breeds and Arabians. On his farm in Sztána, he kept two registered local mares, which he rode and also used for plowing, as he greatly enjoyed both plowing and mowing. He did not keep oxen or buffalo, though buffalo remain common in Kalotaszeg due to their resilience and rich milk. On one occasion he praised buffalo after seeing two kneel down to pull a cart stuck in mud, remarking that while buffalo could pull a tractor out of the mire, a tractor could not kneel down to rescue a buffalo—nor could it produce manure.

(Veress István: At the age of eighty-seven, this is how I remember him. In: Kós Károly: Testament and Agriculture, Gazda Publishing House, Cluj, 1997, pp. 125–126.)