István Buzás [commonly known as Stefan Buzás; also known as Buzás, István] was born into a Jewish family in Tapolca, Austria-Hungary on 16 January 1915. He moved with his family to Vienna in 1919. In the mid-1930s he entered the Technische Hochschule faculty of architecture in Vienna. Following the Anschluss [the German invasion of Austria] in 1938 he fled to London where he continued his architectural studies at the Architectural Association School. He graduated in 1940 and was elected an Associate of the Royal Institute of British Architects (ARIBA).
He subsequently practised as an architect in London and from 1944 to 1949 taught at Kingston School of Art [now Kingston University]. In 1948, with fellow Architectural Association graduates James Cubitt (1914-1983), Thomas William Fello Atkinson (1919-1982) and Richard Macleod Maitland (1917-1976) he formed James Cubitt & Partners.
In 1955 he was a visiting professor in the architecture department of the University of North Carolina.
From 1965 to 1985 Buzás with his soon to be son-in-law, Alan Irvine (1926-2021) as Buzas & Irvine. The practice focused on interior and exhibition design projects.
Buzás became a naturalised British citizen in 1948. He was elected a Fellow of the Society of Industrial Designers (FSIA) and in 1961 was made Royal Designer for Industry (RDI). He died in London on 2 October 2008
Projects on which Buzás worked either independently or as a partner with Cubitt included the South African Travel Centre and offices for Quantas Airways at 70 and 69 Piccadilly, London (1951); two houses (one for himself and his family) at Ham Common in Surrey (1951); a section of the Dome of Discovery for the 1951 Festival of Britain; the Weather Window for the Time Life building in Bond Street, London (1952); a restaurant and interiors at Ringway Airport terminal building in Manchester (completed 1962); and Standard Bank offices and the Iceland Tourist Office in Piccadilly, London. During the 1950s Buzás worked briefly at branches that Cubitt set up in the Gold Coast and Nigeria.
Works with Alan Irvine included interiors for the liner QE2, the RIBA’s Heinz Gallery in London, showrooms for the NW Gas Board; and for Winchester and Norwich cathedrals; and the installation of the 'Age of Charles I: Painting in England, 1620-1649' exhibition at the Tate Gallery in London in 1962-63
Benton, Charlotte. A different world: emigre architects in Britain 1928-1958. London: Heinz Gallery, Riba, 1995
Buzas, Stefan. 'Modern Trends in Interior Decoration'. Journal of the Royal Society of Arts, vol. 111, No. 5086, 1963, pp. 802-813
Mills, Edward David. The New Architecture in Britain 1946-1953. London: The Standard Catalogue Co., 1953 [Discusses the South Africa Centre in Piccadilly, London designed by James Cubitt & Partners pp. 171-177]