Urbs - Magyar várostörténeti évkönyv 2. (Budapest, 2007)

Abstracts

always depends on specific political, social, and economic conditions, this paper intends to shed light on this larger context as well. The paper first traces the development of mass housing programs, describing how they were fundamental to Kádár's consolidation policies. This was manifested in the extremely high number of flats to be constructed, and how mass housing and its attendant social processes (national economic planning, city planning, construction materials production, etc.) were given priorities by the political leadership. The study then examines those national economic plans and city plans that determined the construction of Budapest in the period. The paper scrutinizes the ways in which these factors affected the daily functioning of city planning. It elaborates how city planning was dependent on development objectives due to the huge number of Hats to be built and the centralized decision making process. It shows how the pressure of quantity permanently overwhelmed planning procedures, as well as how quality standards (norms, technological criteria) tied the hands of construction engineers. Moreover, it also touches upon the unique dependence of mass housing on the construction materials and building industries. Certain construction materials companies represented special interests to be taken into consideration in the course of planning. The study also reveals how conditions of urban planning evolved as the housing programme was implemented. When it became clear that public housing could not meet the planned figures, the pressure to economize played an ever greater role in determining housing prerogatives. This further limited the freedom of planners, which, in turn, had a major impact on the appearance of the mass housing built. One of the key lessons of the analysis is that given the specific political, social and economic relations of state socialism, mass housing programs relying on industrial technologies - which during the post-War decades played a major role in West European public housing as well -, produced a unique context for city planning and construction, and gave birth to a distinctive urban "product": the socialist superblock. KYRA TOMAY Józsefváros and Ferencváros: Two Attempts of Revitalization in Budapest My research intends to examine the processes of urban revitalization in two neighbouring, and in many ways, similar districts of Budapest, the inner Józsefváros and inner Ferencváros. It also aims at revealing the factors and decisions underlying