Carnivores House (Budapest Zoo and Botanic Gardens)
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The sketch designs reveal a concept entirely different in character from the building that was ultimately realized. The originally asymmetrical façade was dominated by a side-positioned small tower crowned with a steep spire, paired with a transverse wing slipped in behind it. In the completed building, only the rhythmically repeated arcade of the main façade was retained. Its defining features became the large, white-painted wall surfaces and the symmetrically arranged gabled ends.
Several unbuilt designs from this same period employ a façade composition framed by symmetrical gables (for example, the Exhibition Hall designed for Rome). Alongside the contemporaneously designed Vécsey Manor in Szada, the Large Carnivores House most clearly reflects the compositional influence of C. F. A. Voysey.
In contrast to the picturesque character of the other zoo pavilions, the Large Carnivores House is robust and forceful in its architectural expression. Timber appears only in a few window frames. The white plastered surfaces and the predominantly red brick plinth dominate, while stone plays only a minor role.
The building underwent several alterations over time and was restored in 1997.
Bibliography
Lendl Adolf: Az új állatkert. In: Magyar Építőművészet VII./6. 1909 (1–16.)
Györgyi Dénes: Az állatkertről. In: Magyar Építőművészet, IV./10-12. 1912 (1–44.)
Gall, Anthony: Kós Károly műhelye – tanulmány és adattár. Mundus Magyar Egyetemi Kiadó, Budapest, 2002 (190–191.) [1909-1o]
Fabó Beáta–Anthony Gall: „Napkeletről jöttem nagy palotás rakott városba kerültem”. Kós Károly világa 1907–1914. Budapest Főváros Levéltára, 2014 (130–131.)
