In 1911, Hungary was still part of the Dual Austro-Hungarian Monarchy (he gained freedom in 1918). Like Italy, Hungary was a belated, yet active, participant in the process of industrialization that had already marked the more advanced European countries. This was the age of the socio-political and economic growth of the bourgeois class in Hungary, a class that was striving to wrestle free from Austrian investments and financial control.

Dénes Györgyi studied architecture at the Budapest Joseph Technical University, where he met fellow architect Kàroli Kós. With Kós, he founded the “Young Ones,” a group of young architects including Béla Jánszky and Dezső Zrumeczky. Inspired by the New Gothic language of Morris and Ruskin and by Scandinavian National Romanticism, the group explicitly evoked Hungarian Medieval traditions and folk spirit in their works. In 1910, Györgyi collaborated with Kós in the construction of the Városmajor Street Elementary School in Budapest, which included a daycare center, a school, and a pre-school. After Turin 1911, Györgyi participated in several other international expositions and created pavilions for the international exhibition in Barcelona (1929), the Brussels International Exposition (1935), and Paris’ Exposition Internationale des Arts et Techniques dans la Vie Moderne (1937).

Though Károly Kós (1883-1977) did not take part in the construction of the Hungarian Pavilion, is a key figure for understanding the Hungarian Nationalism. During his career, he founded with Dénes Györgyi a new architect team called Fiatalok (The Young ones) in 1907. The Young Ones encompassed different elements in their projects: taking inspiration from the New Gothic language of Morris and Ruskin, they explicitly related to the Hungarian Medieval traditions and folk spirit. In addition, Kós was one of the first architects to theorize a Hungarian national style, which found its roots in the Transylvanian Medieval castles as well as in the simple rural dwellings, with their simple lines and material weight. This design was not just a matter of ornamentation, but was characterized by geometric shape and function. Kós followed Lechner’s style but also detached himself from it by abolishing the decoration of the surfaces in favor of what he termed the real essence of National Romanticism: massive and dynamic forms, smooth surfaces with large windows and asymmetrical structures.

The works of Béla Lajta (1873-1920) were characterized by pre-modern elements, and we can refer to his style as characterized by hybrid elements due of the combination of Scandinavian and English achievements, and modern post-Art Nouveau elements. With Kozma Street Cemetery's Schmidl crypt. As remarkable and in comparison with Attila Pavilion, we can remind The Main Portal of the Institute for the Blind(Budapest, 1905-1908) and the Entrance to the Jewish Charity Home (Budapest, 1909-1911) which both anticipate the structure of the portal of the Hungarian pavilion.

Ödön Lechner studied architecture in Pest, and later at Berlin's Schinkel Academy. After a tour and study period in Italy, he returned to Pest in 1869 where he founded a successful architectural firm with Gyula Pártos.  During the 1870s, they designed a number of apartment buildings on the Pest side of the Danube in a historicist style that combined neo-classical influences from Berlin and the Italian Renaissance. Between 1875 and 1878 he lived in Paris where he was influenced by the art nouveau style. In 1879, Lechner returned to Hungary and, after a trip to London between 1889 and 1890, his style moved away from the Historicist matrix to embrace the Hungarian Secession movement, which was related to Art Nouveau in the rest of Europe.

Lechner typically decorated his buildings with terracotta and Zsolnay ceramic tile patterns inspired by old Magyar and Turkic as well as Indian and Persian folk art. He combined these folk references with the use of modern materials such as iron.

One of Lechner's most renowned works is the Postal Savings Bank (the headquarters of the National Bank of Hungary today) which he completed in 1901. The building combines art nouveau influences with Hungarian motifs and Asian forms.

Istvan Medgyaszay (1877-1959) created works praised for their synthesis of national romanticism and functionalism. Because of his anthropologic interest in Hungarians origins, Medgyaszay integrated engineering innovations (reinforced concrete structure) and compact architectural structures with archetypal motives, such as the tulip (from Turkish tradition), animal symbols (the hook in particular, as symbol of the ancient warriors, and the deer and doe), and pre-Christian religious elements such as the Sun and Moon. His most daring plan was the construction of a National Pantheon in Budapest on the Gellért Hill, the design of which won an award in Vienna in 1903, in Budapest in 1906, in Paris 1907, in London 1909 and in Monza in 1923.

hungarian architect