Varga László - Lugosi András (szerk.): URBS. Magyar Várostörténeti Évkönyv XIII. - URBS 13. (Budapest, 2019)
Recenziók
Abstracts Luca Csepely-Knorr Design theory trends of Hungarian public park architecture between the two World Wars The public parks (Volkspark), which appeared in the practice and theory of German designers in the 1930s, can be considered as landmarks of landscape architecture modernism. The designers of the public parks primarily determined the value of the parks based on their functions; that’s why these units are called “machines for recreation” by some researchers of the topic, in parallel with the “machine for living” architectural theory, which refers to the works of Le Corbusier. However, in the interwar period, simultaneously with the German design theory, several other trends were present, which were more traditional both theoretically and stylistically. The manifold landscape architectural language of certain European regions, including the Hungarian one as well, significantly enriched the public park architecture of the period. During the reconstruction following the First World War, the Gardening Centre of the Capital City re-designed almost all green areas of Budapest under the leadership of Károly Rade. Despite the outstanding significance of his activity, he was strongly criticised by his contemporaries because of his traditional conception. These critiques envisioned a new, modem(ist) public park architecture, which similarly to the German results, gives precedence to the social aspects. Räde’s critiques, in particular Béla Rerrich and the young landscape architects of the Gardening School, Kálmán Jonke and Imre Ormos, laid the foundations for the Hungarian landscape architectural modernism in their public park theoretical writings. Kristóf Fatsar Rudolph Witsch and the Batthyány Forest - the first serious attempt to develop the City Park into a public park The 1816 proposal of Heinrich Nebbien (1778-1841) for establishing the City Park is a much-quoted source of outmost importance of the Hungarian garden history. However, the nature and significance of the work of Rudolph Witsch (1773-1826) in the development of the City Park is less familiar, even though his developments determined several structural characteristics of Nebbien’s proposal. The Hungarian garden history research has paid little attention to Witsch, who was bom in Koblenz and worked mainly as an engineer. His biographical data were revealed by the recent research aimed at the early history of the City Park. His first demonstrably landscape architectural work was related to the City Park. A few months before he died, Cardinal József Batthyány (1727-1799) had taken the City Park as security from Urbs. Magyar Várostörténeti Évkönyv xiii. 2018. 377-382. p.
