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Since the early 1980s, Hungarian architects Gábor Bachman, Attila F. Kovács, Tibor Szalai, and Rajk have used forms of expression so radical that official cultural policy could only tolerate them as set designers in film studios, which by then had become almost an avant-garde ghetto.

The architects lost contact with, and in a sense became alienated from, the traditional pool of architects who dominated public life after the collapse of communism. The visceral suspicion of the "big" architects toward the mundane world of artists, filmmakers, and musicians accelerated this alienation.

With few exceptions, the physical presence of architectural constructivism in contemporary Hungarian public consciousness is confined to a few interiors and scale models.

Deconstruction in Practice

Although Rajk's new market hall displays the influence of its Soviet/Russian avant-garde predecessors, the change of context renders the Lehel Tér building closer to the postmodern trend of 1980s architecture than to the classic avant-garde. More specifically, it is closer to the postmodern procedural model of deconstruction.

Deconstruction is keen on using a kind of montage technique consisting of elements of the architectural context and the built environment. We can get the idea of the basic structure of the Lehel Tér edifice by "assembling" a new building from the blue-brick Váci út block of Finta's Westend mall, the roof structure of the Nyugati railway station, Romanesque stonework of the Lehel Tér church, the Ferdinand bridge, and certain elements of the old market.

So deconstructivism, as opposed to avant-garde constructivism which displays classic stylistic features, is more of a structuring method or a methodology. Thus, the present apparently chaotic form of the new market building is the result of the individual characteristics and the autonomous static, decorative, and other features of the elements, and their ongoing contextual changes.

There is obviously an element of chance in this type of construction, and the logic behind the selection of individual elements can also be questioned. However one thing is evident: the building appears stunningly dynamic.

One discovers a new element every moment, as if the details of the facade were constantly changing. There is a sense that the parking terraces that form the supporting walls, the waving porticoes of the ground floor shops, the startlingly yellow balcony-like plant holders, and the boldly hung staircases and ramps in the spirit of the Pompidou Center in Paris are all layers of the facade applied in a broad gesture.

This dynamism is amplified by the trapezoidal shape of the foundation — as defined by the site boundaries — made apparent in the iron structure of the roof, which opens along the longitudinal axis like a fan.

Although aesthetic theories rooted in classic modernity and postmodernity regard "form follows function" as problematic, such comparisons are inescapable in the case of a market hall.

Comparing Lehel with other recent developments that apparently regard the marketplace as a disciplined, consolidated structure, the Lehel building accomplishes an open, plebeian structure (in the noble sense of the world) that denies any hierarchical relationships.

It drops the sack-like, single-entrance configuration and cuts through the traditional "up-down" structures with its passageways and the positioning of shops.

Tinkering with Form

According to the design concept, the arrangement of shop space is up to the individual taste of the merchants. Thus, the heterogeneous shop interiors carry on the composition of the hall's interior design. If Rajk had realized a "completed" concept here, the shop interiors would burst open the cleaned-up architectural plans.

Rajk leaves a high degree of freedom and a sizeable playground for both consumer and merchant who shape and use the market. The ornamental banisters by the stairs or the color code that uses the tricolor red, yellow, and blue of the Budapest flag reevaluate and highlight the inner relationships between the structural elements.

This is a kind of "self-governing" architecture that treats the actual participants of the market, including the spontaneous color-cavalcade of fruits, vegetables, and meat, as "coauthors," while also drawing on features of "amateur" architectural structures.

Rajk's building is capable of concentrating modes of expression that seems fundamentally separate, such as the deeply intellectual, abstract theoretical content of classic constructivism and deconstruction, and the casual, energetic, animated milieu of the plebeian, democratic community of a market.

This building will gain its final form through use — much like a delicious Sunday chicken broth finds its different flavors through cooking. I believe the building's novel character and vibrant atmosphere will draw positive responses from the intended audience whose taste and value system it reflects.

József Martinkó writes about architecture in Hungary. This article was originally published in OCTOGON Architecture and Design magazine, January, 2002.

Lehel Tér market in Budapest, by László Rajk, has been compared to the Pompidou Center in Paris. Photo: Pal Csecsei Inside the Lehel Tér market. Photo: Gabor Demszky The vibrant atmosphere and color of Lehel Tér market. Image: Gergely Paulinyi, Marton Nagy The facade is full of waving porticoes, startlingly yellow balcony-like plant holders, and the boldly hung staircases and ramps. Photo: Lenke Szilagyi The red, yellow, and blue of the Budapest flag highlight the relationships between the structural elements. Photo: Szilvia Szilagyi Scale model. Photo: Koztigon Architects' Studio Ltd., model by Judit Vida Scale model showing structural skeleton. Photo: Koztigon Architects' Studio Ltd., model by Marton Nagy Section through the market. Image: Koztigon Architects' Studio Ltd   Click on thumbnail images to view full-size pictures.