Új Magyar Építőművészet, 2000 (1-6. szám)
2000 / 2. szám
CENTRÁL KÁVÉHÁZ / CENTRAL CAFÉ, BUDAPEST, 2000 Építész / Architect: Gereben Gábor Belsőépítész / Interior design: Pataky Dóra, Iványi Mónika Építész szerkesztő / Draughtsman : Szent-Iványi Judit Statika / Structure: Gát Géza Gépészet / Plumbing: Kovács Pál Elektromos tervezés / Electricity: Somogyi Gábor Beruházó / Investor: S+G Ingatlanbefektetési és -forgalmazó Kft. Fővállalkozó / Main contractor: MKI Építő Kft. Homlokzati és belső nyílászárók / Doors and windows: BONUS-LIGNARIUS Bt. Belső asztalos munkák / Inner joiner: MULTICOOP Kft. Homlokzatfelújítás / Renovation of the facade: M-Bau Kft. Szobrok / Sculptures: Péter Vladimir Óra / Design of clock: Bitó Balázs ötvösművész Textilképek / Texile pictures: Ruttka Andrea Függönyterv / Design of curtains: Sárvári Katalin ■ To restore ‘times perdue’ 'Although Cmtrál has eventually ended up in the intensive care unit, there still stands a chance of rescuing it. Most assuredly, the present-day conditions cannot be tolerated any longer. It is threatened with a complete ruin - it will be sold, and to make things even worse, at a bargain price. Provisionally, though, the present 'pardoning situation' is still maintained, as long as ELTE, the university have the premises at their disposal. However, mainly because rumour has it that the building will be marketed, it is high time we seized this very last and probably never again occurring opportunity to rescue this building, as it is undoubtedly a marvellous piece of the mosaic we might call sunken and lost Hungarian café cult. The house is to be registered as a (nature reserve), a (conservation area), not by any means to be recycled as a (plantation used for silk-culture) - not by any client, whichever comer of the universe s/he comes.' Back in 1990, Wilhelm Droste - a devotee of cafes and a passionate literary historian from Hamburg - proposed to draft a law comprising 11 issues as a reaction to the danger of having it squandered. The first article of these reads as follows: ‘All the rooms have to be re-transformed into a café, that is CENTRÁL KÁVÉHÁZ.' (In: Wilhelm Droste: Cafés as “Will and Fantasy". Translated by Márton Módos. Published in Magyar Napló, 1990. May 24th, p. 2) Designed by Zsigmond Quittner, the apartment house was owned by Lajos Erényi Ulmann when, at the end of summer, 1887 Centrál (Központi, that is: Central) café was opened to the public. At the time it occupied the total area of the ground-floor in the threestorey building erected in a highly decorative, French-style version of Neo-Renaissance. With its furnishings and fittings devised in the restrained splendour then so typical of the Monarchy, its interiors comprise large-scale mirrors fitted to enlarge the space, marble tables, comfortable armchairs with leather upholstery, and elaborate chandeliers of brass to make life inside the café life visible to the street and promenaders at night. It was here, behind the arched glass expanses of ground-floor windows that József Kiss launched his weekly entitled A Hä (‘The Week’), a pioneering publication in modem Hungarian literature. In 1899, on the tenth anniversary of his paper the editor - a poet himself - described the relationship between his weekly and Centrál café as follows: ‘A strange creature is this, A Hä. It is read in a café and written in a café. Well then, is it written in a café so that it should be read in a café - or is it just vice versa? Do they read it in a café because it is also written there? I have never been able to get it clear for myself. It is nearly eight years since A Hét had its headquarters in downtown Centrál Kávéház, right next-door to Athenaeum, the historic walls of which had been pulled down the year before. A Hä was printed there and it was written in the Café. Come Friday and Saturday, there were some suspicious-looking men reserving comer seats of the Café - people who would never turn up here on weekdays. They were just sitting around therefor hours with a small glass of beer and busy writing lines on sheas of paper uniform in size. They belonged to the staff of A Hä. The swarming, humming and swirling life, the nonstop chat, and to top it all, a dense curtain of cigarette smoke in the café would never disturb them - quite the contrary, they seemed to have been bom into it. This atmosphere is a kind of dope for those able to get used to it. A Gulf Stream in itself, which soothes and A kávéház belső részlete / Interior detail of the Café A falikút szoborfigurája, Péter Vladimir munkája / Wall fountain sculpture by Vladimir Péter ÚŰ MAGYAR ÉPÍTŐMŰVÉSZET