Andor Malmos Apartment House, Budapest

Before the war, Andor Malmos served as chief engineer of the Royal Engineering Office in Sepsiszentgyörgy (Háromszék); in this capacity, he represented the state in supervising the construction of the Székely National Museum.

The building, erected on a steep site near the Városmajor school complex previously designed by Kós, contains two apartments. The upper apartment includes additional rooms beneath the mansard roof. The side façade (facing Csaba Street), articulated by two dominant gables, mediates between the “villa-scale” of the upper (Bíró Street) façade and the four-storey lower façade (including the basement level).

The extensive plastered wall surfaces are articulated by horizontal bands of brick and stone, which also visually express the slope of the site. Access to the apartments is from the lower part of the plot: the defining feature of the lower façade is a projecting semicircular window (executed in angular form in the built version) running the full height of the façade, supported on columns and sheltering the entrance leading to a small vestibule and stairwell. The ground-floor apartment (belonging to the owner) is also accessible via a separate entrance and porch from Bíró Street. The wrought-iron balconies on the side façade represent a deviation from the original design.