Faurest, Kristin: Ten spaces - Our Budapest (Budapest, 2010)
Mechwart liget
to try to describe every single noteworthy site in this format. It may seem to some quite wrong, for instance, that I omitted the Millenáris Park, a small urban green space that certainly stands out as a unique achievement for the fact that it’s a superb brownfield rehabilitation and a brilliant example of multifunctional use in which the architecture and landscape architecture enjoy a fluidity found nowhere else in the city. It is a daring design in a city whose visual tastes are best described as conservative and conventional. In its landscape, playgrounds and renovated factory spaces we also see a beautiful visual representation of two pillars of Hungarian identity — rural culture and industrial innovation — that might otherwise be completely alien to so many children growing up in the city now. That idea alone could be the basis for a book. But the Millenáris is also its own separate institution, a different category from that which I seek to represent in this book. And, though this is a subjective argument, it could also be asserted that it's a place of citywide, even national significance, and as such doesn’t have "neighbourhood" character. And so, if every place of significance isn’t represented here, 1 do believe that those places I have included are all fully worthy of the honor. In their humbleness they may seem unlikely heroes, but they are among our city's greatest treasures. Each of the squares comes with its own story — not just the past of the square itself but of the buildings and streets that surround it. But most important of all, the story of each square is the narrative of the people who keep it alive each day with every chess or football match played, every kilo of home-grown vegetables sold, every lovers' embrace, every sandbox castle and every spontaneous celebration. 1 hope I have captured at least a glimpse of their tales with this book. Mechwart liget Mechwart liget itself is great testament to the power even a small green space has to counteract the worst side effects of urban life. It’s only a few steps from the noise and stench of Margit körút - and already it’s clear that one has arrived somewhere else, somewhere quiet and verdant and lovely. Part of this is passing through a short alléé of trees, which gives the definite effect of entering a room of sorts. It’s a little ridiculous, really, that it has the same 10
