His work has been recognized several times. He was awarded the Pro Architectura Prize in 2004, the Ybl Prize in 2006 and the Prima Primissima Prize in 2016. He has been a member of the Hungarian Academy of Arts since 2013. He has worked at KÖZTI for 35 years. Within the talk show series of ’Evenings at the Hild Villa’, host Wesselényi-Garay Andor talked with Tima Zoltán, design director of KÖZTI.
We get to know from the long conversation that Tima Zoltán wanted to become an architect even as a child, though there had been no architects in his family. He graduated in his hometown, Pécs, and after a year of military service, he continued his studies at the Budapest University of Technology, Faculty of Architecture. At the university, Farkasdy Zoltán had the greatest influence on him, who believed in the principles of Scandinavian modernism, in clear, functional architecture nevertheless close to nature, and passed this on to his students. Tima Zoltán graduated in 1989 and won the MÉSZ Diploma Award with his design.
After his university studies, he started to work at the studio of Marosi Miklós in 1989. He has been working at KÖZTI for 35 years. Miklós was his mentor in the classical sense of the word, who had a great influence on him through the many projects designed together, as a colleague and also as a friend. Tima Zoltán became head of his own studio in 2000, and today he is chairman of the board and design director of the 75 year old KÖZTI. He also undertook many professional/social assignments in the past decades: he was representative of the Hungarian Chamber of Architects in the XII.District, member of the Board of Directors of the Chamber of Budapest Architects and the Chamber of Hungarian Architects as well, and he is a member of the Hungarian Academy of Arts.
As an architect, he stands up for the rules of architecture. He believes, that a well arranged floor plan and clear logic together can result in unobstructed and humane spaces, formed by attention to function and the requirements of the users. Tima Zoltán’s buildings are characterized by rationality and usability.
The close to six hour long conversation reveals what keeps him and the other members of the team at KÖZTI and what kind of workshop activities take place there. Architectural trends, personal motivations and running projects are also discussed in the in-depth interview.
The interview with our design director, Tima Zoltán, within the series ’Evenings at the Hild Villa – Testosterone Architecture’ presented by the Hungarian Academy of Arts, Institute of Art Theory and Methodology about the life work of architects, can be viewed in its entirety at the following link:
