Zsigmond Imre Villa, Miskolc

Like the Csulak Villa in Sepsiszentgyörgy, the Imre Villa translates the English house into the stylistic language characteristic of Kós’s work already before 1914. The fundamentally rectangular plan is crowned by a complex roof: each of the two attic rooms is emphasized by its own gable on the two street-facing elevations.

The narrow main façade is formed with a rendered gable, dynamically broken by a semicircular projection and the adjacent staircase, which leads back to a porch masterfully sheltered by the deep eaves. The more subordinate façade facing the side street results from the use of a hipped roof, whose projecting hip casts a strong shadow over the characteristic attic window framed by a decorative structure of carved wooden posts and flower boxes. This detail closely recalls the caretaker’s dwelling of the Monkey House in the Budapest Zoo (1909–1912).

Carefully arranged windows—grouped in pairs or trios and vertically divided—counterbalance the otherwise restrained whitewashed façades. The three ground-floor rooms are located along the street fronts, while the kitchen, with a separate entrance and a small terrace, is placed at the rear of the building. The elevated, dominant rubble-stone plinth accommodates both the gentle rise of the site and a spacious basement. The structural hierarchy of the house is echoed by the fence that uniformly encloses the plot.