Quite frequently, we come across functional objects whose idiosyncratic modelling causes us to view them as picture or sculptures. In the light of abstract painting, for example, old, hand-painted maps stand come out as pure colour and line compositions, without any reference to their original purpose as representation of land.

Buildings can affect us the same way. We often talk of mass formation and the “sculpturality”, or the “graphic refinement” of building plans. Objects can thus migrate across boundaries: those produced for purely practical purposes can end up in the world of art objects, and art objects can grow beyond their original categories and enter a completely new branch of art. The new building by Katalin Csillag and Zsolt Gunther, the multifunctional pavilion in the Győr Audi factory, is a bold venture across boundaries. Intended for performances, presentations and celebrations, the building is lent an individual, expressionist–like sculpturality by the vibrant, vivid red of the blank walls, the network of sharply–cut, separating contours and the line of cut-out–like openings (not doors and windows in the traditional sense). But the most powerful sculptural effect comes from the double ramp up to the roof showing off the company’s latest models. The declaredly anti–functionalist exterior stands in contrast to the inside of the building in nearly every respect, a single space offering total flexibility to meet the different functions. The whole interior structure is only there to serve the movable partitions, the professional lighting system and the plumbing and ventilation systems. It is just a “chassis”, or a “monocoque” onto which the high–tech units, “sub assemblies”, may be fitted.