The Foundation

The Ormos Imre Foundation was established in March 1996 with the aim of promoting the development of Hungarian garden art and landscape architecture, and the exploration and acquaintance of its values. It is named after Imre ORMOS (1903-1979), an emblematic university professor of Hungarian landscape architecture, one of the scientific founders of Hungarian garden architecture in higher education, who has taught generations of landscape architect students since 1929.

In addition to supporting professional education and training of Hungarian landscape architects, the Ormos Imre Foundation, through cooperation with diverse experts, participates in various theoretical research projects, as well as in practical planning and implementation projects over the wide range of landscape architecture.

Our Mission

The main goals of the Foundation include the promotion of national and foreign professional relations, the support of training and education of young professionals, the extensive dissemination of the expertise related to garden culture and landscape architecture, the promotion of social sensitization and the support of professional research, publishing or scientific activities.

Since its creation, the Ormos Imre Foundation has not just hosted and organized many exhibitions and conferences, supported book publishing, the higher education and scientific research, but implemented various land-art workshops or field works in the scope of landscape architecture and urbanism.

Our History

The Ormos Imre Foundation was founded in 1996 by the landscape architects Ilona Baloghné Ormos and Antal Mayer. The Foundation’s first President was Dr. László Dalányi, and its board of trustees included such eminent personalities as Dr. Dezső Radó, and later Tibor Kokics, János Sándor and Buda Zalay.

In addition to its general objectives, which are still valid today - as to enhance the development of Hungarian garden art and landscape architecture, to explore and promote its values - the Foundation's main, short term goal was to republish Ormos Imre’s encyclopaedic book entitled "The History and Practice of Garden Design", which was last published in 1967.

In addition to the successful republication of the Ormos book, the Foundation has since its inception hosted exhibitions, supported book and journal publications, university higher education - and is itself involved in research and design projects across a broad spectrum of landscape architecture, providing the financial background for its grants.

In the early 2000s, the Ormos Centenary was organised in 2003, including an academic commemoration and statue unveiling in the Buda Arboretum, while a photo exhibition "Landscape/Garden/Light/Image" took place there in 2004. In 2006, Budapest hosted the traditional meeting of European landscape architecture students, of which the organizational background was provided by the Ormos Imre Foundation.

Since the early 2010s, the Foundation has been cooperating more and more closely with the Hungarian higher education in landscape architecture, through organizing a series of student workshops and competitions to further raise the quality of landscape architecture education, and also by expanding the practical opportunities for students and bringing them into contact with real professional tasks.