Calvinist Primary School, Sepsiszentgyörgy

The two-storey school building stands on a quiet street in the city centre. On the ground floor, Kós arranged three smaller classrooms and one larger one; the upper floor contains two large classrooms and teachers’ rooms. The arched main entrance opens into a well-proportioned vestibule, from which the staircase is accessible on one side and the classrooms on the other. Access to the building is provided by a light, open, almost bridge-like connection between the building volumes.

A characteristic solution favoured by Kós is the circulation route to the upper-floor rooms: from the staircase starting beside the main entrance, movement is led back toward the entrance before continuing to the upper classrooms. A similar spatial sequence can already be observed in his own house, the Varjúvár. Free of superfluous detail, the composition relies on a careful balance of contrasting elements. The façades of the simply hipped-roofed building are articulated solely by the uniform rhythm of the classroom windows.

Two masses frame the entrance: the tower, with its historical associations and material metaphor, stands in contrast to the strict, rational order of the classroom block. The rough texture of stone is juxtaposed with the smooth white surface of the adjacent cubic volume. While the cube is horizontally articulated, the tower emphasizes verticality. The roughly dressed rubble-stone plinth and the buttresses rising from it project outward before giving way to smooth white plastered surfaces on the upper parts of the tower. At the top, a red brick band appears, incorporating windows shaded by the eaves of the tower spire.

Although extremely restrained in form, the design achieves remarkable richness: it is a modern building that simultaneously alludes to broader cultural and historical contexts.