Hungarian Cubes by Katharina Roters

Hungarian Cubes by Katharina Roters

Subversive ornaments in socialism. Collective and private expression, conformity and subtle subversion: The “Magyar Kocka” and its ornamentation.

Flipping through Frankie Magazine we stumbled upon these photo’s by Katharina Roters.
She made a photo essay on altered “Magyar Kocka, or Hungarian Cube, a standardized type of residential house in Hungary that dates back to the 1920s. It was designed as a radically functional single-family home for Budapest’s suburbs and housing projects, but it became closely identified with the postwar communist era, when many villages were rebuilt with uniform rows of single-family homes, and the Hungarian Cube—often renamed the Kádár Kocka, after Hungary’s communist president, János Kádár, became ubiquitous. Edited and with photographs by Katharina Roters. With texts by Hannes Böhringer, Endre Prakfalvi, Zsolt Szijártó and József Szolnoki” (read more uchicago.edu)

Hungarian Cubes,1st edition, 2014, Text English and German. Hardback 172 pages, 123 color illustrations, 22 x 25 cm, ISBN 978-3-906027-43-2 (images via/buy at park books)

Mind Puzzle Games

Mind Puzzle Games

Cute and intricate: what more do you need?


Babylon Tower, 1982 by Endre Pap (http://mypuzzlecollection.blogspot.nl/2010/06/babylon-tower-random-pick-5.html) Flower Puzzle  (http://mypuzzlecollection.blogspot.nl/2015/02/flower.html) The Wisdom Ball (a.k.a. Mind Twister) (http://mypuzzlecollection.blogspot.nl/2010/05/wisdom-ball.html) Smiley Lock Puzzle by Jean Claude Constantin (http://mypuzzlecollection.blogspot.nl/2012/09/smiley-lock-puzzle.html) Gerdig Ufo, 1991 by Gerhard Huncage (http://www.babyrecenzie.sk/recenzie/produkt/30318/) Hungarian Rings, 1982 by Endre Pap (http://www.maskecubos.com/en/brain-teasers/167-hungarian-rings-3d-puzzle.html)

Our Friend Petronella is a collector of these kinds of mindgames, thanks for the inspiration Petronella! xoxo Mimi