A festive grill party on the roof, a weird guy sunbathing with a voodoo doll, but hey, watch out, Mandl House is on fire with all the worm-love. In the midst of a sudden rebellion, black and white hands show the “right” way in complete disarray: look there, or rather not – lonely romance on the corner of the roof: a lady shaving her leg. The curious characters of Daniel Labrosse take over the buildings of Budapest for an entire year here, on HYPEANDHYPER! Look at the picture, and try to find the “spritzer terrace” this time in the block on Tabán!
“What I love about Budapest in particular is that after 22 years I still find something new to discover in it every once in a while, even in places I have visited a thousand times before – including this block of buildings at Tabán, in Döbrentei utca. One day I discovered it while traveling on tram line 2, and for some reason it really got to me. It shows clearly that the buildings were all made in different eras and styles, yet they still match each other perfectly. They are so stuck together as if they were designed this way.
The line of buildings is perfect and imperfect at the same time, I think it represents the eclectic character of the city well, how it is harmonic and messy at the same time.
My characters co-exist in the same harmony. There are many recurring figures on the illustrations, the black and white striped snake, the yellow birdmen, the thorny Nunboys, and even I make an appearance on it. There are some new faces, too, who haven’t been on previous drawings (and hopefully you’ll get to see more of the furry figure with a trunk in the near future)” – Dani explains about his latest work.
Your task this time: find the “spritzer terrace” on the drawing!
Mandl House on Várkert Quay
The most ornamented building of the block representing the marks of many architectural styles located at the head of Erzsébet Bridge on the Buda side is Mandl House, evoking the residential buildings of Amsterdam. The house was built in 1898, commissioned by two grocer brothers, Manó Mandl and Ármin Mandl.
With its 6.2 m width on Várkert Quay and a width of 5.5 meters on Döbrentei utca, the extraordinary neo-Gothic house with two façades is the narrowest house on the Buda side. It’s hardly eight steps wide.
Its loft was built up in the thirties, thus it gives home to ten apartments today. The building, together with the entire bank of the Danube in Budapest, was declared an UNESCO World Heritage Site.
In our one-year-long article series titled Budapest by Labrosse, the special characters of Daniel Labrosse take over iconic buildings of Budapest here, on HYPEANDHYPER! Come, take a look and play with us!