Sándor Borz Kováts: Innovating Across Borders
On the occasion of Budapest Design Week, we introduce the oeuvre of Sándor Borz Kováts.
By Museum of Applied Arts, Budapest
#post-war design #Hungarian design #furniture
ArmchairMuseum of Applied Arts, Budapest
Sándor Borz Kováts (1940–1973) lived only 33 years, and yet he was one of the most significant Hungarian designers of his era. He would have liked the objects he designed to be accessible to anyone and not considered luxury products. He built from what he had at his disposal.
Vargánya (Cep or Porcini) lamp series, metamid form for metal spinning (inv.no.: 85.217.1.) (1968-1969)Museum of Applied Arts, Budapest
He designed, developed and executed objects suited for standardised production in an era in which there was neither a manufacturing infrastructure, nor a market to support this in Hungary, and the deficit was typical both in terms of technology and basic materials.
Vargánya (Cep or Porcini) lamp series, catalogue (inv.no.: MLT/10361.) (1966-1969)Museum of Applied Arts, Budapest
The Iron Curtain markedly defined the borders of Europe's east and west sides. While the market economy functioning on the western side aided the work of the designers, in the eastern half of Europe the absence of a market was determinative.
Vargánya (Cep or Porcini) lamp series, catalogue (inv.no.: MLT/10361.) (1966-1969)Museum of Applied Arts, Budapest
It was a rare occurrence that a designer would attempt to develop products suited to standardized manufacture, despite all of these factors. Borz, in spite of this whole system of impossible circumstances, designed his objects to be suitable for serial production.
Borz himself, with the help of his father, produced his own tools and metal pressing forms with his own artisanal handiwork, and he manufactured his lamps in a workshop fitted out in a cellar space, which were then distributed for sale in the shops of the Iparművészeti Vállalat [Applied Arts Enterprise].
Unfortunately, only one prototype some of his furniture and tools remains.
'Rizike' lamp
Sándor Borz Kováts’s first lamp experiment was in 1965, but it was only in 1966 that he produced the lamp he christened Rizike, which only existed in a hanging form. He manufactured this lamp for many years.
Rizike' pendant lampMuseum of Applied Arts, Budapest
Here, fused glass built into the lampshade with flanging appeared first, which he then also employed in the case of some of the hanging lamps from his later, Vargánya/Porcini lamp series.
'Vargánya' lamp family
Borz produced the first three prototypes in 1966, and then from 1969 he realised a collection of ten pieces, which were made from a total twenty-five components, a central light source, and an identical interior structure, all made from Hungarian raw materials.
Vargánya (Cep or Porcini) lamp series, metamid form for metal spinning (inv.no.: 85.218.1.) (1968-1969)Museum of Applied Arts, Budapest
The lampshades, bases and closing devices were made of sheet aluminium and pressed forms, for which he and his father made the pressed forms themselves from Polyamide 6. The surface of the shades and feet were treated with encaustic enamel.
Vargánya (Cep or Porcini) lamp series, table lamp (inv.no.: 2024.3.1.) (1970's)Museum of Applied Arts, Budapest
Borz developed the forms and surfaces of the lamps for the purpose of reflecting the light.
They produced a wire-pliers especially for the spacers.
The lampshades of the standing, hanging and table lamps were all interchangeable, which gave the possibility, if someone had purchased lamps of various function in different colours, to vary them.
Among all of his international contemporaries, Borz’s Vargánya table lamp is most reminiscent of the Artemide 1967 Nessino lamp, which was an extremely successful and popular mass-produced object.
TableMuseum of Applied Arts, Budapest
Tubular furniture and his own innovation: the castor wheel
The chrome-plated metal elements of the furniture, both in their dimensions and in their design were compatible. His furniture ensembles could be disassembled down to their elements, and through this, the furniture was easily producible, transportable, and packable.
Most important to Borz were his thinking in terms of family principles, and the creation of conditions for economic and simple production. The prototypes for the first two pieces of the stand furniture family were produced in 1970, while the manufacture of their tools and the 0 series date to 1971.
ArmchairMuseum of Applied Arts, Budapest
The essence of the system was sum:
1. The double spatial S-curve at the corner point, used in the frame, which increases to a great degree the functional capacities of the frame: (e.g., in the mounting of the tabletop and the upholstered elements of the seating units)
2. The rigid junction configured for the tri-directional connection of the metal and wood elements.
With these two solutions, and elements tailored for modular dimensions, an expanding family of furniture could be built up, alongside economical manufacturing requirements.
ArmchairMuseum of Applied Arts, Budapest
The rolling wheels
The rolling wheels (which the designer began to engage with, with his first drawing from 1967), were his own innovation: he ran a unique cast-metal connecting element into the tubular leg of the furniture, with which he attached a hard rubber sphere to the leg.
Armchair - exploded view of the Castor wheel (2023) by Dániel MáthMuseum of Applied Arts, Budapest
'Borz had some kind of technical problem once, and I tried to help him. Perhaps it was related to the construction of some kind of castor. Borz was really excited at the prospect of screwing into a rod in order to affix a sphere to it, so that it could function as a castor.
What was essential here was free movement. The torus dimensions of the screw had to be devised, and I drafted the drawing for him at the time.' - said Ernő Rubik, designer
Armchair and tableMuseum of Applied Arts, Budapest
Fibreglass furniture
He was also inspired by fibreglass as a new material, and he produced his own fibreglass furniture grouping.
The forms of his table and chair all flow and turn, and the two pieces fit together: what appears as a positive in the chair is a negative form in the table, and vice-versa.
The table's central trough, reminiscent of the Vargánya lampshades, serves a dual purpose. It holds the structure together while creating a protective platform for serving or display.
Armchair and table - exploded view of the fibreglass furniture (2023) by Áron LőrinczMuseum of Applied Arts, Budapest
Borz’s furniture was exacting in its execution. The unseen, bottom and inner parts of the furniture also received exactly the same surface treatment and finishing as the visible surfaces, which at the time was not typical for fibreglass furniture.
The table is most reminiscent of Eero Aarnio’s “Chan - terelle” table, which dates to 1970, but it also demonstrates a kinship with Rodolfo Bonetto’s Quattro Quarti table, while the forms of the chair show an affinity in their shaping to Rodolfo Bonetto’s “Melaina” chair.
Armchair - maquette for the exhibition arranged at the Design Museum Brussels (2024)Museum of Applied Arts, Budapest
Borz’s short career was truly concentrated: he constructed the first catamaran on Lake Balaton, and he designed a music school and a university campus, boutiques in rural Hungary in the sixties, tubular and fibreglass furniture, families of modular lamps, and even hawk bells.
Vargánya (Cep or Porcini) lamp series, metamid form for metal spinning (inv.no.: 85.218.1.) (1968-1969)Museum of Applied Arts, Budapest
Keep exploring!
Find out paq armchair, that is designed by Géza Csire!
by Judit Horváth, PhD; Bettina Varjas
editor: Sarolta Sztankovics
