Team
Marcel Ferencz habil, DLA (1970)
Miklós Ybl Prize and Pro Architectura Prize-winning architect
He graduated from the Faculty of Architecture of the Budapest University of Technology and Economics in 1997. Between 1999 and 2004, he taught freehand drawing as an assistant professor at the Department of Drawing and Form Studies and wrote his DLA thesis on drawing. In 2010 he was the lead architect of the Hungarian Pavilion’s BorderLINE Architecture exhibition during the Venice Architecture Biennale.
Since 2014, he has been a member of the Hungarian Academy of Arts. As of 2015, he has been a professor at the Ybl Miklós Ybl Faculty of Architecture at Szent István University. He is the lead designer and managing director of NAPUR Architect. In 2017, he received the Tierney Clark Award for the design of the Danube Arena in Budapest. In 2016, he won the international design competition for the new Museum of Ethnography. In 2018, the building he designed as part of the Liget Budapest Project won the International Property Awards European Best Public Building and World’s Best Architecture. NAPUR Architect’s winning projects include the National Athletic Stadium in Budapest (which is to be completed in 2023) and the Mathias Corvinus Collegium headquarters.
Mária Kondor-Szilágyi PhD (1975)
art historian, curator
In 2003 she graduated from the Faculty of Humanities of Eötvös Loránd University with a degree in Russian Studies and in 2004 with a degree in Art History. In 2014, she received her doctorate in the field of Russian Literature and Literary Studies at the University. Between 2003 to 2004, she worked at the Ernst Museum in Budapest. Since 2013, she has been a staff member at the Kunsthalle Budapest, and as of 2019, she has been the chief curator. She has been involved in the organization of numerous international and national exhibitions. She is a regular contributor to publications and conferences. Her research interests include the possibility of exploring transitions between different artistic disciplines and genres.
Péter Mátrai, DLA (1948)
Miklós Ybl and Pro Architectura Award-winning architect, composer
In 1973 he graduated from the Hungarian Academy of Applied Arts with a degree in architectural design. Since 1980 he has been teaching architectural design at several universities. Since the early 1990s, he has been involved in electronic music, sound, and music experiments, composing and performing electro-acoustic music, and researching new possibilities to develop the relationship between music and the visual arts. Between 1991 and 2002, he was the director of the Electroacoustic Multimedia Studio he founded at the University of Applied Arts, and taught a subject called Creative Sound. His instruments were initially synthesizers, samplers, and a variety of keyboards, wind, and percussion controllers. In recent years, he has been using iPhones and iPads almost exclusively as instruments, along with small percussion instruments. He has composed music for several theatre and movement performances, and his sound performances have been part of several art exhibitions, for which he has often constructed site-specific installations and sound-producing devices.
Judit Z. Halmágyi, DLA (1962)
Pro Architectura Award-winning architect, designer, and urban planner
She graduated from the Faculty of Architecture at the Budapest University of Technology and Economics in 1986 and worked as a designer in the workshop of Csaba Virág at LAKÓTERV until 1994. Between 1993-1994 she was a member of the design team of EXPO ’95 in Budapest. Between 1994 and 2000 she was an architect in the studio she shared with Csaba Virág. She has been teaching since 1994 and is currently a lecturer at the Department of Architecture and Design at the Budapest Metropolitan University. From 2001 to 2008 she was the chief designer at Erick van Egeraat Associated Budapest. Since 2001, she has been running her atelier (ZHJ Architects). In 2007 she obtained her DLA degree. Her research focuses on architecture as a piece of art that affects all senses.
Ferenc Haász (1969)
lighting designer
He graduated as an electrical civil engineer from the Kandó Kálmán Technical College of Electrical Engineering in Budapest in 1991. As a designer, he has been involved in nearly eight hundred and fifty lighting design projects. In 2017, he founded Madebylight Zrt., where he works as a senior designer. He teaches architectural lighting and has presented at numerous conferences. In recent years, he has designed lighting for exhibitions such as the Archbishop’s Palace (Eger), Festetics Castle (Keszthely), House of Music, Hungary (Budapest), Museum of Ethnography (Budapest), Kiscelli Museum (Budapest), Mindszentyneum (Zalaegerszeg), Robert Capa permanent exhibition (Budapest), Aquincum Museum (Budapest), Munkácsy Mihály Museum (Békéscsaba), City Hall (Kecskemét).