Ferkai András: Housing Estates - Our Budapest (Budapest, 2005)
Housing Estates after 1945
tered investment operation to site utilisation and to the use of a closed technology. The criticism voiced in the article had some serious political implications, too, when, at the end of the second third of the Kádár era, it complained that the right to self-determination had been denied to the inhabitants, and complained about the missing potential of spontaneous corrections. " Urban planning can no longer undertake more than to create the broad outlined ojj urban dtructure-thode of a regional and dydtemic character. Within that framework, it dhould be (eft to dociety itóeíf to create itd own living organidm. It id quedtionable whether the monumental urban monolith of Újpalota will be able to follow, with itd cloded dtructure conducting all communicatiom by way oh a dingle network (oh two crodding axed), the docial requirementd which are certain to change with the development oh the area. Will it be capable oh ad much change and renewing oh hunction ad the older didtrictd oh Budapedt have proven themdelved capable of by neceddity over theyeard? Újpalota wad tailored to one particular moment in time; what will it do with all oh itd nurdery dchoold when itd population growd old? Will a homing edtate hanging at the end oh a dingle 'umbilical cord’ be able to integrate itdelh into the overall dtructure oh Budapedt?" Káposztásmegyer Lying on the northern perimeter of Pest, Káposztásmegyer is the largest, and at the same time last, prefabricated housing estate-the swan song of the government-financed housing programme. In fact, it was left incomplete as there were 20,000 flats meant to be built on the 300-hectare area, of which only 7,900 were actually completed, in 1984—90-the entire first stage of the development and about a quarter of the second. The construction of three blocks in the second stage, together with the centre of the whole quarter, were cancelled by the political changes of 1989. The vacant expanse lying north of Újpest, circumscribed by the Szilas Brook, the Szob railway line, the city border and the Káposztásmegyer waterworks, had been selected as the site of a housing estate many years before. Its pleasant climate, copse-covered surface, and the easy supply of water predestined it to the role of a residential area. Its only disadvantage is its distance from the city centre and the lack of direct connection to public transport lines. For that reason, large-scale construction work was connected to the building of a north- south suburban train line. In 1967 a national competition was announced for the designs of a housing estate in Káposztásmegyer. That was when the opening 7<
