Villa Fleiner (Taszilópuszta), northern facade

In 1934, Lajost Kozma was commissioned by one of his cousins to design a home for the family’s estate in Taszilópuszta (Zala County, Hungary). As in the case of his other villas, every detail was created by Kozma’s firm, but now he also involved the client and his wife in the design process. They chose the position of the house within the plot together, and Kozma designed the layout and furnishings on the basis of the young couple’s needs.
Though its enclosed volumes, rectangular plan and pitched roof made it resemble peasant houses and was unlike the villas Kozma designed for Budapest, the three-storey building (basement, ground floor, first floor/loft) still embodied all the principles the architect laid out in the 1930s. These included a strict observance of the clients’ needs; directly connecting the large, sun-drenched living room with the garden around the house; the separation of the subordinate rooms from the living and bedrooms; modern built-in and freestanding furniture for the rooms; and the use of such modern technologies as an in-house telephone network and central heating. The fireplace in the living room was the wish of the couple, though the central heating made it unnecessary. The latter, according to the recollections of the owner, provided sufficient heat, and the fireplace was rarely used.
The couple moved into their new home in December 1934, but had to leave it in December 1942, because a new law made it illegal for Hungarian citizens of Jewish origin to own land. They took the furniture they could fit in their new home in Budapest, so some of the furnishings remained an intact set until recently, but the villa in Taszilópuszta was destroyed shortly after the Second World War.
A few of the architectural and interior design sketches have survived, and are now in Kozma’s estate at the Museum of Applied Arts, along with photographs Zoltán Seidner took of the house in the summer of 1935, at Kozma’s request.