Urbs - Magyar várostörténeti évkönyv 5. (Budapest, 2010)
Recenziók
524 Abstracts ATTILA KONDOR - BALÁZS SZABÓ The effect of housing policy on the spatial structure of Budapest during the Kádár Era This paper examines the role of housing policy in the development of Budapest during the Kádár Era, via a study of decision-making mechanisms and the planning/political responses to the challenges faced at the time. The means prescribed by the government to attain its objective of eliminating the housing shortage was the construction of new houses. The primary form of this was the housing estate, although it also involved substantial numbers of private houses in suburban districts and small blocks of flats in green areas. The location of housing estates was decided almost exclusively on the basis of economic need: they were first built on areas where infrastructure was already present, and later on largely unbuilt outlying areas. Since the primary aim was to increase the number of dwellings, hardly any effort was put into refurbishing run-down houses or buildings, and much of the old housing stock was considered by the municipal authorities as fit only for demolition. This view was put into effect in large areas of the centres of outlying districts, which were replaced by housing estates, but in the central areas, the very high costs of clearance caused this policy to abandoned after a few attempts. Quantitative considerations dominated housing policy throughout, widening the gap between old and new towns or districts. The neglect of the existing housing stock aggravated social and regional inequalities. This was all perceived by the authorities, but the constraints imposed by ideology and an insufficiently adaptive system of institutions prevented a proper analysis of the causes, and the centrally-planned economy left so few options that house-building left behind it a trail of contradictions.
