professzor emeritus

CURRICULUM VITAE

He was born in 1936 in Perse, a small village in Slovakia (belonging to Hungary that time). His family moved to Budapest in 1939, where he is since living. He is married; his wife is an art historian, retired and has 3 children. He has acquired his diploma in architecture in 1960 at the University of Technology and Economics (former Technical University of Budapest). After two years working in the Budapest Town Planning Institute as town planner he has been invited to the Department of Urban Planning and Design of the Technical University of Budapest of the time, where he is still working. He was retired in 2006, but is still active as a Professor Emeritus.

 In 1992 he has established a new faculty and organized a department for Urban Planning at the High School for Technology in Pécs. Simultaneously he holds lectures on the History of Urban Development and on the Theory of Urban Design at the Faculty of Landscape Architecture in the CORVINUS University from 1968 up to now. He lectured on urban planning in the English speaking course at the Faculty of Architecture running parallel with the Hungarian curriculum. He had lectures in urban planning at the University of Economics in a post-graduate course for real estate developers. From 1993 to 2011 he was the President of the Savaria Summer School for Urbanism in Szombathely.

His interest covers a wide range of professional topics including the theory and praxis of urban design, a systems view of planning, the history of urban development and the anatomy of the cultures, and the traditional environmental patterns in Hungarian settlements. In addition to his educational practice he used to be very active in fulfilling planning commissions (structure plans for new urban developments and rehabilitation projects, statutory plans), took part in design competitions (some 40 successful of more than 60) as well as in research works (commissioned by the Ministry of Urban Development and Building Constructions of the time). He was offered by the highest architectural professional award (Ybl prize, 2004), he has got the award of the Hungarian Town Planners (Hild János prize, 2005), he is a receiver of the highest state honour for scientific performance (Széchenyi prize, 2007), and was favoured by the Ministry of Education (Albert Szentgyörgyi award, 2007) too. As a member of the Hungarian Scientific Academy he used to bee the Head of the Committee for the Urban Research group for 6 years. Member of the Hungarian professional social organizations: of the Association and the Chamber of the Hungarian Architects, and of the Company of the Hungarian Urban Planners

His most important publications in book form:

• Urban Space (Publisher of the Technical University, Budapest, 2004)
• Guide to the Labyrinths in Urban Ideologies of the 20. Century  (TERC, Budapest, 2005, a revised version of the 1. Edition in 1985),
• Hungarian Environmental Patterns (TERC, Budapest, 2007, a reprint of the original: Traditional Environmental Cultures and a Genetic Typology, 1985)
• Morphology in Urban Design (TERC, Budapest, 2009)
• Account; a review of his career (TERC, Budapest, 2011)

He published more than 100 papers in different professional periodicals in Hungarian and in English. He had lectures in Berkley (USA), in Coventry (UK), Turku (Finland), San Sebastian (Spain) and Athens (Greece), in Istanbul (Turkey), in Moscow (Russia) and was invited for two semesters in Leeuwarden (The Netherland) as guest lecturer. His interest goes beyond his technical profession, so he is studying philosophy and psychology; he is interested in particular in the world of symbols and their cultural manifestations. He published a book on „The Lady and the Unicorn” in 2001 (Pallas Studio, Budapest).