Virgil Borbíró was born with the German surname Bierbauer. His family, whether father or siblings, were architects or artists. He was therefore in close contact with architecture from an early age. As a German speaking person he went for studying to Munich, Germany.A key figure in his life was Kálmán Reichl. He worked with him from 1925. They designed a power station. However, Reichl died in 1926 and so Borbíró had to complete the work on his own. Reichl also influenced him with his fascination for northern European brick architecture. Borbíró travelled to Hamburg in 1927 and became acquainted with the work of Fritz Höger. In the Netherlands, he familiarised himself with the architecture of Michel de Klerk and Willem Marinus Dudok. From then on, he focussed on residential construction, whereby he himself focused on family houses and rejected large buildings and residential homes.
Throughout his live he published articles in magazines and wrote books to promote modern architecture in Hungary. As a member of the Hungarian CIAM group he he realised his ideas of modern architecture with the construction plan for the Napraforgó utca settlement.
He also worked as an urbanist. In 1937, as a committee member, he passed the decree that all cities had to submit their urban development plans within the next five years. When Hungary annexed territories of other countries during World War II, Borbíró submitted plans for the city of Komárno (Slovakia) and Baia Mare (Romania) and followed the Hungarian fascist government. At the end of the war he changed his surname into Borbíró. After World War II, he remained busy, albeit of a more theoretical nature.
Sources
Buildings
Budapest, Hungary
Napraforgó Street