An Interview with Ferenc Makovényi, Architect, College Professor and Recipient of the Knight’s Cross of the Hungarian Order of Merit

Abstract

Ferenc Makovényi, architect and college professor, recipient of the Knight’s Cross of the Hungarian Order of Merit, Civil Division, in 2025, is an outstanding figure in Hungarian architectural culture, engineering education and public service, with several decades of teaching, professional and public engagement behind him. The interview focuses on architecture and teaching as mutually reinforcing vocations, both of which serve the common good. The conversation reviews his work as Dean of the Ybl Miklós Faculty of Architecture and Civil Engineering at Szent István University, his role in quality assurance and continuing professional training within the Hungarian Chamber of Architects, and his activities in the international SOAR initiative, which seeks to strengthen the security and resilience of religious sites.

Ferenc Makovényi offers his assessment of the current challenges facing architectural education, the necessity of continuing professional training within the Chamber, and the practical benefits and future development of municipal townscape identity manuals. At the heart of his reflections are the responsibility of the profession, the preservation of cultural values, the quality of public-interest investments, and the importance of lifelong learning. His personal closing thoughts emphasise the role of values, family background and a sense of vocation in enabling architecture — as one of the most tangible forms of culture — to contribute to the creation of a more liveable and humane world.