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Thoroczkai Wigand, Ede
(b Pest [now Budapest], 19 May 1869; d Budapest, 1945). Hungarian architect, designer and writer. He was apprenticed as an architect to Albert Schickedanz and Imre Steindl; under Steindl’s direction he participated in the construction of the parliament building in Budapest. By 1899 he had became a noteworthy interior and furniture designer, an outstanding achievement being the interior design of the Graphic Art Research and Exhibition Hall in the Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest, which was designed by Albert Schickedanz and Fülöp Herzog. He joined the artists’ colony at Gödöllo but in 1907 travelled to Székely in the central part of Transylvania and settled in Marosvásárhely (now Tîrgu Mures, Romania). There he was among the first to discover and collect Hungarian folk art, studying the structure and decorative motifs of traditional buildings. In his own architecture, following the example of contemporary Finnish and English architects, he attempted to create a synthesis of elements from local traditions, including medieval and Renaissance castles of Transylvania and the fenced churches of Kalotaszeg (now Calatele, Romania), adapting them to new functions. Examples of his work include the Székely Chamber of Industry and Commerce building (1910), Marosvásárhely, with a picturesque exterior mass that anticipates the wooden structure of the interior; plans (1910; with Károly Kós) for the County Hall, Marostorda (now Turda, Romania); and the State Agricultural College and student hostel, also in Marostorda. In Marosvásárhely he also designed the stained-glass windows of the Palace of Culture, using forms borrowed from Székely folk architecture to illustrate the legend of Attila, as well as low-cost housing and a number of private houses including a doctor’s home and surgery (1910–11), the Jóska Eros House and the Berci Csiszér House (both 1910). Their most striking common element is the emphasis given to the entrance, a direct influence of Székely folk architecture, and the linking of the house and garden by a verandah or terrace. Other work included several village halls, for example in Nyárádszentlászló (now Sînvasii, Romania), Mezosámsond (now Samsud, Romania) and Harasztkerék (now Roteni, Romania), which provided space for various economic and cultural activities of village life; and a number of village schools and their interiors, for example in Sáromberke (now Drumbraviora, Romania) and Diód (now Stremt, Romania). In 1914 he returned to Budapest and published a series of illustrated books on the vernacular art of the Székely region (1916) and a book on garden design (1923). He became a professor at the Academy of Applied Art, Budapest, in 1923.
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