Alfréd "Fred" Forbát (also: Alfréd Forbat, Alfred Füchsl, in the German and Scandinavian literature mostly Fred Forbát )) (March 31, 1897 in

Pécs Pécs ( , ; ; Slovak language, Slovak: ''Päťkostolie''; also known by #Name, alternative names) is List of cities and towns of Hungary#Largest cities in Hungary, the fifth largest city in Hungary, on the slopes of the Mecsek mountains in the c ...

(

Hungary Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia and ...

) – May 22, 1972 in

Vällingby Vällingby () is a suburban district in Västerort, the western part of Stockholm Municipality, Sweden. It is notable for being one of the first modern planned suburbs in Sweden. Vällingby was inaugurated in 1954 as part of Stockholm's post-war ...

(

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

)) was a Hungarian architect, urban planner, professor and painter who worked in

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

, Hungary,

Greece Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. Located on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula, it shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, North Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to th ...

, the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

and Sweden. He is considered an important representative of the Bauhaus modern.

Life and work

He was born to Jewish parents in

, former Austria-Hungary (today part of the

Republic of Hungary Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much of the Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia and Slovenia to the ...

). He studied architecture and art history at the

University of Budapest A university () is an institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly means "community of teachers and scholars". Univ ...

and the

Technical University of Munich The Technical University of Munich (TUM or TU Munich; ) is a public research university in Munich, Bavaria, Germany. It specializes in engineering, technology, medicine, and applied and natural sciences. Established in 1868 by King Ludwig II ...

. From 1920–22 Forbát worked intermittently with

Walter Gropius Walter Adolph Georg Gropius (; 18 May 1883 – 5 July 1969) was a German-born American architect and founder of the Bauhaus, Bauhaus School, who is widely regarded as one of the pioneering masters of modernist architecture. He was a founder of ...

and taught at the

Bauhaus The Staatliches Bauhaus (), commonly known as the , was a German art school operational from 1919 to 1933 that combined Decorative arts, crafts and the fine arts.Oxford Dictionary of Art and Artists (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 4th edn., ...

in its first incarnation, in Weimar.''ArchINFORM. Fred Forbát''
(in German). (Accessed: 6 December 2016) From 1923 to 1924 he worked as a freelance architect in Weimar and with the MA Group in Vienna. Then from 1924 to 1925 he worked for the

League of Nations The League of Nations (LN or LoN; , SdN) was the first worldwide intergovernmental organisation whose principal mission was to maintain world peace. It was founded on 10 January 1920 by the Paris Peace Conference (1919–1920), Paris Peace ...

as the technical leader for a housing development in

Thessaloniki Thessaloniki (; ), also known as Thessalonica (), Saloniki, Salonika, or Salonica (), is the second-largest city in Greece (with slightly over one million inhabitants in its Thessaloniki metropolitan area, metropolitan area) and the capital cit ...

, the capital city of Greek Macedonia. From 1925 to 1928 he was the lead architect at Sommerfeld Co. in Berlin, and from 1928 to 1932 he worked in the architectural office of Hubert Hoffmann, developing the Berlin housing projects

Siemensstadt Siemensstadt () is a locality (''Ortsteil'') of Berlin in the district (''Bezirk'') of Spandau. History The locality emerged when the company Siemens & Halske (S & H), one of the predecessors of today's Siemens, bought land in the area, ...

(1930) und Haselhorst (1931). Between 1932 and 1933 he worked in Moscow on a town planning project for the Russian state-run planning organisation ''Standardgorprojek'', together with

Ernst May Ernst Georg May (27 July 1886 – 11 September 1970) was a German architect and city planner. May successfully applied urban design techniques to the city of Frankfurt am Main during the Weimar Republic period, and in 1930 less successful ...

. In 1938 he briefly returned to Hungary as a freelance architect, and was responsible for a number of tenements and free-standing houses there. Later that same year he traveled to

Stockholm Stockholm (; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, most populous city of Sweden, as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in the Nordic countries. Approximately ...

, where he began a long-term association. He worked for the Urban Ministry, then became a member of the city planning group "Eglers Stadsplanebyrå". He was partly responsible for master plans for

Skövde Skövde () is a Urban areas in Sweden, locality and urban centre in Skövde Municipality and Västra Götaland County, in the Västergötland, Västergötland (Western Gothland region) in central southern Sweden. Skövde is situated around 150 k ...

(1949),

Landskrona Landskrona is a town in Scania, Sweden. Located on the shores of the Öresund, it occupies a natural port, which has lent the town at first military and subsequent commercial significance. Ferries operate from Landskrona to the island of Ven, an ...

(1951),

Upplands Väsby Upplands Väsby () is a locality and the seat of Upplands Väsby Municipality, Stockholm County, Sweden with 48,907 inhabitants in 2020. History The municipality has a long history with clear traces of settlements from the pre-Christian time ...

(then, Hammarby kommun, 1951), Kullabygden (1959),

Linköping Linköping ( , ) is a city in southern Sweden, with around 167,000 inhabitants as of 2024. It is the seat of Linköping Municipality and the capital of Östergötland County. Linköping is also the episcopal see of the Diocese of Linköping (Chu ...

(1967) and

Kristinehamn Kristinehamn is a locality and the seat of Kristinehamn Municipality, Värmland County, Sweden, with 24,053 inhabitants in 2022. Geography Kristinehamn is situated by the shores of lake Vänern where the small rivers ''Varnan'' and ''Löt'' ...

. In 1952 Forbát was co-organizer of the 1952 special (non-congress) meeting of CIAM in Sigtuna (Sweden), and also helped organize the 1957

Interbau The International Building Exhibition (Interbau) was an architectural project in which a number of prominent international architects designed buildings for the reconstruction of the Hansaviertel, Hansa quarter of Berlin after World War II. After ...

project in Berlin. His papers are held by the Swedish Museum of Architecture in Stockholm. He died in Vällingby, Sweden in 1972, aged 75, his grave is located in the memorial grove in

Skogskyrkogården (; ) is a cemetery located in the Gamla Enskede district south of central Stockholm, Sweden. It was inaugurated in 1920 and was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1994. Its design, by Gunnar Asplund and Sigurd Lewerentz, reflects th ...

''MMIN Encyclopedia biography Fred Forbát''
(Accessed: 10 February 2022)

References

External links

* Berkovich, Gary. Reclaiming a History. Jewish Architects in Imperial Russia and the USSR. Volume 2. Soviet Avant-garde: 1917–1933. Weimar und Rostock: Grunberg Verlag. 2021. P. 192. * ''Art & Politics in the Weimar Period'', by John Willett
Forbát's papers
{{DEFAULTSORT:Forbat, Fred 1897 births 1972 deaths 20th-century German architects Hungarian urban planners Academic staff of the Bauhaus Housing in Sweden Hungarian architects Hungarian Jews Technical University of Munich alumni People from Pécs Hungarian emigrants to Sweden Hungarian expatriates in Germany Hungarian expatriates in Greece Hungarian expatriates in the Soviet Union