Design and construction Design and construction A competition was held in the 1920s to choose the design. A jury of architects was selected to choose from 377 proposals, but was unable to decide on a winner. Five architects were eventually chosen to collaborate on the final design: Julien Flegenheimer from Switzerland, Camille Lefèvre and Henri-Paul Nénot from France, Carlo Broggi from Italy, and József Vágó from Hungary. The palace at the time of its completion in 1936 was the second largest building complex by volume in Europe after Versailles with 440,000 m³ compared with 460,000 m³ for the French residence.