In the second half of the 19th century, iron and glass began to be incorporated into architecture, and their sophisticated proportions and structure are reflected in the glass hall of the museum. When inaugurating the building, Kamill Fittler, then director of the institute wrote the following about the new style of building in the Millennium commemorative book: 'The tree itself is strange to us, but it bears familiar leaves, native branches and twigs, its seeds brought by the wind from the west, but grafted with an oriental eye and bearing its flowers at home, ... the artist sought to include in his architectural forms, which are reminiscent of his homeland - Persia, India - in which he used the colourful majolica on a large scale, Hungarian structural and decorative elements related to it, but which have been completely neglected until now, and to create an architecture with a specific Hungarian flavour and aesthetically correct foundations by combining the two.’ 

The Museum of Applied Arts block was not fully framed, contrary to the original plans. On the Endre Hőgyes street side, the rear part of the plot remained empty. The priority of the design competition is to build this part of the site in a way that is in line with the existing museum building’s character. The new building will follow the regulatory plan, e.i. completing the frame of the existing building.

The basic premise is that the new building should not in any way overpower or dominate the existing one and should be designed to reflect the current vision, hence the use of a box-like 'neutral' massing. The roof plane extends to the eaves of the adjacent residential building on the street frontage and on the other side to the eaves of the museum building. The difficult conditions created the division that defines the façade of the new building - the eaves height of the adjacent residential building defines a line - that runs around the building.

The choice of materials for the façade is delicate and needs to be considered: it is worth ignoring harsh materials such as glass and returning to craft materials. If it were a question of extending the building of Béla Lajta (a follower of Lechner), the material of choice would immediately be the hard-looking concrete, because the 'hardness' of Lajta's buildings would dictate it. Lechner's buildings are much more 'delicate'. On the other hand, it would be appropriate to continue using the industry products of the world-famous Zsolnay building materials in their present-day equivalence.

The inner courtyard façade has a "scalloped" openwork brick façade, behind it with an opening glass wall (sandblasted for the exhibition spaces and clear for the collection departments). The "comb" itself shades the space behind it, but lets natural light in. For public spaces on the ground floor, such as lobbies, museum shops and restaurants, the glass wall provides complete transparency. The glass wall's casing and sliding door slides have an antiqued copper finish. The brick "comb" element has a 25x25cm footprint, has an internal vb. bracing core, is fixed to the slabs. 

At the top of the courtyard mass, there is a recessed bar that rises halfway up, containing mechanical units. The cladding of this mass is of expanded sheet of antiqued brass. The reason for using expanded metal is to provide an opening for the mechanical equipment anywhere behind the enclosure without altering the overall appearance of the mass. The roof plane of the mechanical mass stops at the beginning of the existing building's roof pitch. The antiqued copper material is a lacquer-treated surface, provides a dark tint and does not oxidize. A total of three materials appears on the building façade: white pyrogranite brick, white glazed ceramic and antiqued copper.

It is worth mentioning the new exhibition space below ground level, which is an additional link between the existing and the new building, providing further opportunities for the two buildings to be used together and connected. The glass elements in its slab, flush with the courtyard, provide natural light to the exhibition space during the day, and the light that escapes can be used as an additional feature to enhance the garden at night.

The central courtyard was designed with the aim of creating a coherent image. A grid of large artificial stone paving slabs was laid out to provide a walking surface. A large part of the square patches was grassed, and some elements, mainly in the outdoor terrace in front of the new building's restaurant and at the entrances, were paved with small cubic paving stones. One of the larger trees had to be felled due to the underground connecting space, but was replaced in the part of the garden facing Kinizsi Street. An important feature is the fountain made of Zsolnay glazed ceramic material placed on the axis of the rear wing of the existing building, which is visible from the restaurant terrace. In addition, exhibition spaces for outdoor sculptures have been created. The aim is to make the courtyard public, so that people can take a break from the everyday hustle of the city, eat in the restaurant or have a coffee and chat.