Houses and Stables, 3 types, Józseffalva

The small, two-room rural houses adopted the traditional local floor plan and were constructed of adobe. These simple houses, later expanded, formed part of the village’s post-fire reconstruction program. The use of locally available building materials and technologies was of fundamental importance to the success of the low-cost housing reconstruction project, just as it was later in the Hungarian ONCSA program, for which Kós also prepared designs (e.g. Nagyiklód, 1942–1943).

“The plans for the reconstruction of Józseffalva have been completed”

Keleti Újság, 17 July 1939 — Vol. XXII, No. 160, p. 40.

(Kolozsvár, July 15.)

When we were the first to report, in powerful on-site accounts published in the columns of Keleti Újság, on the tragic destruction of Józseffalva, we knew and proclaimed that this small sister-island must not disappear from the face of the earth.

Our faith was not in vain. Hardly had news of the horrific fire spread across the Hungarian-inhabited regions of Romania when, without any external prompting, an unprecedented wave of assistance began to flow. It is no coincidence that the first substantial donations, significant even on their own, arrived at the editorial and publishing offices of Keleti Újság.

It is an interesting convergence of events that on the very day the total of voluntary donations sent to Keleti Újság reached 600,000 lei, the artistic plans of Károly Kós were also completed.

As the most thorough connoisseur of ancient Transylvanian building styles and systems, Károly Kós—according to our information—designed the reconstruction of Józseffalva on the basis of a unified house type, and developed his plans in the spirit of this concept.

From these simple and economically producible designs, one can already form a clear picture of what the burned village will look like after the commencement and completion of the great work of rebirth. The dwelling houses are two-room units with a connecting interior room. According to the plans, the farm buildings display a particularly interesting massing and linear composition. The drawings reveal that the stable and the barn are constructed together at right angles.

The plans have—according to our information—already been submitted to the competent authorities for approval, and there is every hope that, following approval, construction work will begin.