Susan Kozma-Orlay

Susan Kozma-Orlay (nee Zsuzsa Kozma) (1913-2008) studied graphic and furniture design at the School of Applied Arts in Stuttgart and the Kunstgewerbeschule (School for Applied Arts) Vienna. She then worked in the Budapest office of her father, renowned modernist architect and designer Lajos Kozma. Despite a high profile career, as a Jewish architect Lajos Kozma…

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Henry Kurzer

Henry Kurzer (1920–1992) arrived in Australia from Poland in 1938, aged 18. He graduated in architecture from Sydney Technical College, and in the 1950s designed a number of cafe and restaurant interiors. His interior work included the design of all the fitted units, lighting features and many of the murals, which were produced by a…

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George Surtees

Hungarian George Surtees (nee Szirtes) (born 1922) trained as a decorative artist at the Academy of Fine Arts, Budapest. After internment in a forced labour camp during World War II, he and his wife, Suzie, left Europe and arrived in Australia in 1950. With no English, Surtees found work designing commercial exhibitions and displays, before…

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Imre and Gyula Soos

Hungarian brothers Imre (1925–1998) and Gyula (1927–1994) Soos were prominent designers in Sydney during the 1950s, Imre as an architect and Gyula as a designer. Their 1954 ‘flat for bachelors’, with creatively integrated furniture, was featured in Australian House and Garden, and their ‘three way wonder’ adjustable recliner retailed at Grace Brothers department store; now…

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George Kordoy

George Korody (Kóródy György) (1890-1957) had a diverse and high-profile design career in Budapest, crossing architecture, interior design, furniture and tapestry, including a period as professor at the Budapest Municipal Technical Drawing School. In 1940 Korody arrived in Sydney to organise an exhibition for the Hungarian Society of Applied Arts. The exhibition did not go…

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George Reves

Hungarian architect George Reves (nee Revesz) (1910–2004) graduated from the Royal Joseph Technical University, Budapest. He worked in Paris for modernist Auguste Perret before returning to Budapest in 1934 to begin his own practice, designing a number of houses and apartment buildings. Following the German annexation of Austria, Reves fled Vienna, arriving in Australia in…

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