Deer House (Budapest Municipal Zoological and Botanical Gardens)
Description
The Deer House resembles the wooden houses of by-gone years on the slopes of the Transylvanian Alps, including the traditional cellular plan-form of the Kalotaszeg/Tara Cälatei region. The original plans (1908) included two smaller buildings for the deer and fawns respectively, but by March 1909 the two were connected into one unit by a corridor for the keepers.
The scale and proportion of the elevations corresponds to a traditional house. The highest point of the steep roof is above the visitors' space. Simple and dominant roof forms unify the different elevations. The ornamentation of the peak is reminiscent of the traditional smoke hole: in the earliest houses most of the interior was taken up by the open hearth, with the smoke leaving through a hole in the roof. The log structure above a natural stone base expresses in a tectonic way the plan of the building. The exterior is made even more decorative by the carved ornamentation of the facade and the beam endings, with their pattern of leaping deer.
In the 1980's the house was rebuilt using some of the original wooden structure but adding a brick-andiron skeleton for durability. Its function was also modified - from 1996 on it was used as a lecture room and exhibition space. In 2001 the exterior carvings including the deer heads were also reconstructed.
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 (182–185.) [1909-1l]
Fabó Beáta–Anthony Gall: „Napkeletről jöttem nagy palotás rakott városba kerültem”. Kós Károly világa 1907–1914. Budapest Főváros Levéltára, 2014 (124–125.)
