Budapest’s large prefab housing estates: Urban values of yesterday, today and tomorrow

Abstract

In Budapest, one third of the population lives in large prefabricated housing estates. Therefore, this Modern heritage of the Communist period is one of the key issues of sustainable urban development. The majority of scientifi c studies on mass housing focus on economic and social aspects, so this research intends to approach the subject from the built-up environment. Taking the people's needs and Budapest's specifi c situation in relation to the challenges of sustainability as a starting point, the paper attempts to use the back-casting method based on social, economic and environmental trends. Defi ning a theoretically desirable future for this dominant type of urban housing, the analysis works backwards to understand their principal historic turning points. What are the values of large prefabricated housing estates? What were they, and what could they be? How can this modern and open urban form be sustained? What elements of the existing built environment will disappear, and what can be adapted in the transition process? By introducing three different scales -city, neighborhood and building, along with their subcategories -it is possible to recognize the effects of changing socio-economic conditions upon the built context and indicate problem-oriented, locally-minded interventions.Keywords: housing estates, urban renewal, Budapest, sustainable urban neighborhood, assessment indicators, urban history One of the biggest transformations of urban social fabric in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) came about through the construction of large prefabricated housing estates. In Hungary, the mass housing policy utilizing prefabricated technology was initiated with the help of the fi rst fi fteen-year housing policy 1961-75 and the second fi ve-year-plan development project 1961 -65 (Körner 2006. In the politically and economically divided Europe of that time, professional refl ection on modern housing and planning solutions remained absolutely international. France, the United Kingdom, Scandinavian countries and the Soviet Union were principal reference points for the Hungarian stakeholders. Following guidelines fi rst from the International Congresses of Modern Architecture (CIAM), which operated between 1928-59 (for example, the La Sarraz Declaration from 1928, and the Athens Charter from 1933), then recommendations by Team 10, as the

Post-socialist Development and Rehabilitation of Large Housing Estates in Central and Eastern Europe: A Review

“…Consequently, there is no universal rehabilitation programme that guarantees exclusively positive results. In addition, these estates require different policy treatment in more prospering service-oriented cities, where population is constantly increasing, and in former industrial towns, where population shrinkage is almost irreversible [66], which points out to a wider context of factors, e.g. geo-political situation, economic and demographic changes, housing policy, supply and demand in the local housing market, etc.…”

Zárt/nyitott – Városforma és térhasználat

“…-Ville contemporaine de trois millions d'habitants. Sans lieu, 1922. (2016 Retrieved from http://www.fondationlecorbusier.fr/corbuweb/morpheus.aspx?sy-sId=13&IrisObjectId=6426&sysLanguage=fr-fr&itemPos=214&itemSort=fr-fr_sort_string1%20&item-Count=216&sysParentName=&sysParentId=65 (Benkő 2016).…”

“…Sans lieu, 1922. (2016 Retrieved from http://www.fondationlecorbusier.fr/corbuweb/morpheus.aspx?sy-sId=13&IrisObjectId=6426&sysLanguage=fr-fr&itemPos=214&itemSort=fr-fr_sort_string1%20&item-Count=216&sysParentName=&sysParentId=65 (Benkő 2016). Megújításuk kulcsát sokan a használati nyitottság megszüntetésében keresik, míg kortárs új fejlesztéseknél ezt a típust, a 20. századi nyitott városformát nyitott használattal, szinte már sehol nem alkalmazzák.…”

Access to urban green spaces and environmental inequality in post-socialist cities

“…New housing construction during state-socialism concentrated predominantly in high-rise housing estates on empty spaces within city limits maintaining a compact urban form as opposed to capitalist cities (Sýkora, L. 2009). However, in the 1970s and 80s during the mass-production of uniform pre-fab dwellings little attention was paid to the proper provision of infrastructure and services, including green spaces (Benkő, M. 2016). After 1990 post-socialist urban transition could be characterized by dynamic changes of urban spatial structure.…”