The power of landscape, the general
quality of urban landscape, the urban fabric and the specific image of the
location play an ever increasing role in the development of small towns and
villages and the shaping of the local community.
The developing
small settlements in the central region of Hungary are now reshaping and
renewing their images, which has a decisive role in the shaping of local
peoples? sense of identity and the forming and reinforcing of their ties to the
place and the small local communities.
Earlier,
the image of villages clearly used to be dominated by the church and its direct
environment, or the castle and the tastefully designed mansion buildings and
their gardens ? in contrast or harmony with the residential houses and their
surroundings. The function and shaping of public spaces was aligned with that.
The building mass of the new functions, placed usually schematically in the
second half of the last century, such as kindergartens, schools, cultural
centers appear until today as ?foreign bodies? in the urban tissue.
In
the central region we opted for the settlement of Nagykovácsi, as a sample area.
It is a ?dead-end village?, free of through traffic, with 6500 inhabitants, and
with the establishment of 3500-4000 new inhabitants in a ten years period.
The
historical town structure is determined by two focal points: the Teleki castle
and the Roman Catholic church, and the wide, long Main Street between them. The
municipality places an important emphasis on the renewal of the town centre.
Our plans for the Main Square
were carried out; the reconstructed square won in 2011 the award for excellence
for public space renewal of the ICOMOS. For the Main Street a tender was announced by the
municipality. The concept plans of the landscape architecture students have won
the first prize.
Although Nagykovácsi is undergoing a
strong urbanization process, it still is a village; and this is the core value
of this place, the power of the landscape that also holds the small local
community together. This is also enhanced by its renewing public spaces.
- Title Original : Kistelepülések arculata
- Website : http://
- Project start : 2010
- Project end : 2013
- Contact Person : Kinga Szilágyi,
- Funding Agency : CUB
- Project Partners : Eszter Bakay, Imre Jámbor
- Project structure : Students' competition for the renewal of urban open sapces in a small settlement in the Budapest agglomeration. Renewal plan as a good example for characteristic and protective planning and design. The power of the site, the settlemenet, the landscape as a key element in the renewal concept. The power of local community as a source in the development plan.