Mini-nursery

Monok is not merely one of the villages in the historic Tokaj-Hegyalja wine region, but a focal point of Hungarian history. As the birthplace of Lajos Kossuth and the guardian of the Andrássy legacy, it is a place where every new stone must answer the questions of the past. The mini nursery, due to open in 2023, does not seek to ‘be built’ in the village, but rather to arrive and find a home within it.

The architectural character of Hegyalja is austere and self-contained. The steep roofs, the solid walls and the use of fine materials are not a matter of choice here, but a dictate arising from the landscape. The designers understood this. The building’s massing evokes the most basic, most ancient form: the ‘house’. That sheltering dwelling which even a child would draw if asked to depict safety.

The snow-white walls and the red of the traditional fired tiles engage in a dialogue with the surrounding buildings – the neighbouring longhouse-style residential block – in which there is no room for ostentation. The building stands respectfully alongside the old, rustic natural-stone fences, as if it had always been there.

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The result is a building that isn’t ostentatious, that doesn’t try to make a ‘big’ statement – it is simply sincere, just like children. The mini-nursery is a fine example of how, even in a small village, it is both possible and necessary to create a high-quality public building that strengthens local identity. The Monok nursery is a nest in which future generations can grow up not in a foreign box, but amongst walls that speak the architectural mother tongue of their homeland.

Márta Ungváry-Kiss

(details, orszagepito.net)