AI Summit Budapest 2025

Ferenczfy-Kovács Attila

Architect, interior designer, set designer, visual artist, academic

He was born on July 26, 1951, in Pécs, under the name Attila Kovács. He studied architecture at the Budapest University of Technology between 1969 and 1974. He began his career as an architect, as a student of Imre Makovecz, but it was through designing film sets in the 1980s that he became increasingly well-known. His first workplace was the Youth Office led by György Csete (1974–1979), then he worked at MAFILM between 1979 and 1985, after which he became a freelancer. During his decades-long career as a set designer, he collaborated with directors such as Gábor Bódy, Pál Sándor, András Jeles, Ildikó Enyedi, and István Szabó. His name is associated with the set designs of films including Szerencsés Dániel (Daniel Takes a Train), Álombrigád (Dream Brigade), Édes Emma, Drága Böbe, The Magic Hunter, and Sunshine. Around the time of the political transition, he was also active as a visual artist, exhibiting not only at the Műcsarnok (Kunsthalle Budapest) but also in Berlin, Seoul, Chicago, and New York. From the 1990s onward, he gained recognition as a designer as well, creating internationally acclaimed concept design furniture collections together with Zsuzsa Megyesi, which they presented in London. He has worked all around the world — including at the Royal Opera House in Turin, the opera houses of Leipzig and Vienna, and on the international film production Bel Ami in London with Uma Thurman — all while remaining active in Budapest. Beyond interiors, restaurants, and bars, he was also the lead architect behind the House of Terror Museum, the Emlékpont Museum, and the House of Fates. His works are preserved in public collections such as the Janus Pannonius Museum in Pécs, the Ludwig Museum – Museum of Contemporary Art in Budapest, and the M. St. Pierre Collection in Lyon, as well as by numerous private collectors from America to Japan. His architectural and interior design projects are regularly published in leading professional journals worldwide. In 2022, a 454-page monograph spanning 40 years of his creative career was published by Kieselbach Gallery and the Foundation for Central and Eastern European Social Research. For his achievements, he was awarded the Balázs Béla Prize in 1992, the Kossuth Prize in 2002, and in 2024 he received the title Artist of the Nation.