Ferkai András: Housing Estates - Our Budapest (Budapest, 2005)
Housing Estates after 1945
Contemporary opinion tended to be satisfied with the housing estate. The layout of the flats is indeed quite favourable, and with their one-room-plus- closet to two-rooms-plus-closet floor plans, they were somewhat larger than those built in the fifties. Prefabrication and standardisation were seen as opportunities rather than obligations by the architects of the time. "Groups oh mass-pro- duced standard buildings never give the impression of bleak uniformity if a few elements are changed and vivid colours are applied, ” asserts a publication brought out on the tenth birthday of the architectural studio Buváti (in 1959). How is one to evaluate today the first large housing estate of Budapest built after 1956? Fundamentally favourably, is my answer. My opinion will be shared by others when 1 conclude that the Attila József Housing Estate has aged well. The landscaped environment and the majority of the houses are in a reasonable condition, which bespeaks proper functioning. Happily, the majority of the buildings do not rise above five storeys, which is why the average height of the estate is within tolerable proportions. That the individual elements are overshadowed by the wall-like density and closeness of the architectural arrangement, as observed by Ernő Heim in 1963, is a flaw largely rectified by now, as the trees have grown rather large in the meantime. Vegetation in general has done much good for the estate—there are many surprisingly pleasant spots. A well-conceived colour scheme applied with care to the buildings could further improve the overall impression. The housing estate in Kelenföld This is the first large prefabricated housing estate of Budapest. The sites where the prefab slabs were to be combined into buildings were designated to be in localities easy to clear of any existing houses (in Zugló, Újlipótváros, Óbuda), and in the small towns relatively recently joined to Greater Budapest (Újpest, Kispest, Rákospalota, Békásmegyer, etc.). Less-suitable areas were also selected for the same purpose, though. These included the Kelenföld lowland, which was regarded as an area particularly ill-suited for the purposes of large-scale construction due to its position in a depression, the resulting high levels of subsoil waters (made particularly aggressive by the aperient springs feeding them here), and the fact that supporting layers of solid soil lay deep beneath the surface. On the other hand, the 140-hectare wasteland stretching on either side of Etele út from the Kelenföld Railway Station all the way to Fehérvári út was mostly uninhabited. The detailed development plans for the housing estate here were made, on the basis of their own first-prize winning entry of Buváti’s internal competition, 63
