Development of the Kodály Zoltán Music Pedagogy Institute of the Liszt Academy to hit milestone

“This development is a profound solution for ensuring the infrastructural background for the institute that is home to education and research based on Kodály’s internationally recognized theory. In addition to creating the conditions for education and research that meets international expectations and standards, we will also have the opportunity to increase the number of students”, Dr Andrea Vigh, President of the Liszt Academy, emphasized.

“The material and intellectual knowledge accumulated at the Kodály Institute also efficiently serves the intellectual growth of the city of Kecskemét, and has a positive influence on creative work and the music scene of the city. The concert hall and all other connecting spaces and rooms are indispensable assets of Kecskemét”, mayor Klaudia Szemerey Pataki said.

 

From left to right: László Zoltán Szentgyörgyvölgyi, Klaudia Szemerey Pataki, Dr Andrea Vigh, István Mányi, Dr László Norbert Nemes
Fotó: Kodály Institute/ György Dormán

The purpose of the project is to renew three buildings (the monastery building, its adjoining building on columns, and the building of the Kada Elek Secondary School of Economics), starting with the renovation of the roof structure and outer frontispiece of the monastery building. The next step is the complete internal renovation and modernization of the monastery building, while preserving its status as a historic building. After the relocation of the Kada Elek Secondary School, new classrooms and practice rooms are going to be established in its old building, and the library, the archives, the concert hall and the student residence of the Kodály Institute will move there.

“We have signed a contract with Mányi Építész Stúdió Ltd. for the general architectural and designing architectural work, and we are about to commission the winner of the public EU tender for executing the complex engineering tasks (which includes managerial, engineering consultation, technical inspection, and risk assessment tasks) of the project, FŐBER Nemzetközi Ingatlanfejlesztő és Mérnöki Ltd., and Újlak Mérnökiroda Ltd. During the selection process, the management of the University graded the specialists based on the amount of professional experience. Running parallel with the planning operations, renewal of the rooftop and outer frontispiece of the monastery building will commence in the first half of 2019”, László Zoltán Szentgyörgyvölgyi, Chancellor of the Liszt Academy, announced.

The general architect and the designing architect have a central role in this very complex planning programme, as the place of the project (the monastery building, which is classified as a national monument) has complex functions in addition to being especially challenging architecturally, and in a prominent part of the city. “I am particularly pleased to be able to merge historical preservation with modern architecture in this project. My fifty-year long career has been dominated by designing buildings for educational and cultural institutions, with regard to both preserving heritage and building new structures. This new architectural product can be measured by its usefulness to the community, including the usability and aesthetic-artistic values represented by the Kodály Institute", István Mányi, executive director of Mányi Építész Stúdió Ltd, expressed, having already proved his suitability as the designing architect of the Ligeti building of the Liszt Academy.

As the first step of the project, the Kodály Institute temporarily relocated in 2018 to the building of the Reformed Old College in Kecskemét, where the Liszt Academy set up temporary place of instruction, while also conducting several public procurement procedures, which it continues to do to this day.