The Eighth Hungarian Tribe, 1985 (12. évfolyam, 1-11. szám)
1985-09-01 / 9. szám
Skála Department Store Seven small towns and sixteen _ suburban communities were annexed to Budapest in 1950. This unjustified move just added to the urban development problems of Budapest’s administrators. These fundamentally rural communities, which had electricity but no paved streets, roads or water mains and drainage, devoured a disproportionately large part of the capital’s resources. Pre-fabricated elements in architecture began to take on an important role in the 1960’s. By providing work for the construction industry they helped speed up the erection of new homes. New housing developments sprang up, which consisted of buildings of various heights (ranging from 6 to 17 stories). Monotony soon prevailed, however. Advocates of the pre-fabricated method include city administrators and the managers of construction firms who are right in reasoning that a faster pace and lower cost make this process especially attractive particularly for those who make the move from poorer quality homes or sublets. Admittedly, the housing shortage has been the capital’s greatest problem since 1945 and although 450,000 out of the present 800,000 homes in Hungary have been built after the war, 50,000 people are still waiting for new homes either because they are living in sublets or have been taken in by relatives. Others would like to move into more comfortable larger homes. Among the opponents of housing developments are architects, sociologists, writers, psychologists, who object to the decline of aesthetic values and who challenge this type of architecture for the lonelines it has wrought upon the inhabitants of these “sleeping towns”. It has become unmistakably evident that the housing developments, which now include 152,000 apartments, do not enhance Budapest’s townscape. Although most government buildings were destroyed during the war, only the Ministry of Industry now resides in a new ediface; the others function in converted buildings. While new public buildings are few and far between, a number of modem office blocks have been raised during the 1960s and 70s. New factories were not built until later, though restrictions were soon imposed in order to protect the environment. The new factories are adequate both aesthetically and functionally, indeed some have even gone so far as to improve the overall appearance of industrial districts. The hotels built over the past fifteen years are particularly fine architectural structures. They include the cylindrical Page 4 Hotel Budapest, the Inter-Continental on the Danube, the Budapest Hilton in the historic Castle District and the four latest hotels built on Hungarian design by Austrian firms. The doubling of the capital’s population, the annexation of a number of suburbs have necessitated the extension of public transportation facilities, the construction of new metro lines. Line 2, running in an east-west direction, is 10 kilometers long and crosses under the Danube. It was put into operation in 1972, while a new stretch of Line 3, now expanded to 13 kilometers, was opened in autumn 1984. Another five-kilometer stretch will be completed in 1986, the year when the construction of Line 4 is to commence. OLD DISTRICTS COME ALIVE While all the country’s energies were concentrated in building new blocks of flats and factories, little building capacity and money remained for the care and maintenance of the buildings of the traditional districts of the city. Few houses ever got repaired and as a result they decayed and spoiled the scenery. These experiences as well as recognition of the great value of the city center induced top officials of the capital in 1978 to seriously consider the modernization of the over 100-year-old inner city. To implement the program, a wide-scale survey was conducted with the participation of townplanning engineers, settlement psychologists, architects and Reconstructed Roman bath with the original stones Eighth Hungarian Tribe
