6.46.Hungary-5-detail-b Highlights Relevant to Sustainable Design:
We can build dynamic towns with a few clues from the past.
The famous town of Holloko, pronounced “Hole-oh-kew,” is on a list of the top one hundred historical attractions in the world, determined by an international community of architects. The Egyptian pyramids and Thomas Jefferson’s design for the University of Virginia share the acclaim. Holloko is needless to say in good company. The town is comprised entirely of the side-yard houses, as previously discussed in previous sketchbook highlights. See Hungary 4: Detail (c) for other house plan configurations. In this town, the low fences convey a welcoming community of trust in a world moving toward the opposite. Many of the houses, like the ones drawn on this page, have a basement entrance that doubles as cold storage for food and wine.
Overall, a few clues about design from the past can inspire the way that we think about the future. As an example, does an active community of residents in a town like this one inspire something like the design for residences for an academic community of graduate students or even an active adult retirement community? We often default to design formulas that may have “sold” recently rather than taking the intellectual risk to at least explore what may have a proven record of success in another country for hundreds of years.
The plan shows the layout of the town with each little rectangle of the houses separated by the side yards. The church is at the center of the community, set back from the fork in the road that leads through the town.
The diagrams to the right show the range of roof configurations. Holloko was one of the last places that I visited before moving on to the capital of Budapest.
Author and illustrator: Charlie Szoradi is an architect, inventor, and the CEO of Independence LED Lighting. He writes about many other topics related to historic towns like Holloko through his extensive travels around the world.
If you have found this posting online, it is an excerpt from Mr. Szoradi’s book Learn from Looking that served as the inspiring seed content for this drawing share resource. For additional drawings and insights on side-yard houses and places of historical significance like Holloko, we hope that you enjoy exploring LearnfromLooking.com. You can search via general terms such as sustainability as well as narrower terms such as Holloko and side-yard houses.
