Dec '04 - Aug '06
Here are some pics from my wanderings around Budapest. I'll do another post soon with images of my site (and maybe some project info too).
Looking along the Danube on our first night in town.
Some Hungarian guys practicing their parkour on the Buda side of the Chain Bridge.
Looking East from Buda Castle across the Daunbe towards Pest.
Early morning on Buda Castle outside the National Gallery.
Two doors: one in the tourist area around Buda Castle, the other in the centre of urban Pest.
I took far too many photos of bits of doors and windows and other bits of decaying buildings. It amused me that, while other tourists go and look at all the beautiful pristine parts of a city, everyone on our trip went straight for the most delapidated and dangerous areas. Architects are a contrary bunch.
Some graf in Pest and a close-up of the junction between a new development and old building in Jozsefvaros (the district my site is in).
Comparing communist-era tower blocks with the older building stock that makes up most of Jozsefvaros.
A tram shed on the outer edge of Jozsefvaros. I love trams, probably because I've never lived in a city with a tram line so they're a real novelty.
A park in Jozsefvaros. The weather was amazing for early November.
Evidence of the constant stream of demolitions in Jozsefvaros since the end of communism. There are so many empty lots the whole area looks like it's been bombed. Great choice of sites though!
All the buildings around this one had been pulled down in preparation for a new development (designed with the help of a studio from Harvard GSD a few years back).
Click here to see my full set of Budapest photos on Flickr.
8 Comments
Wow, I was a part of the Corvin Promenade studio last year. I'm so curious what the new plan is and what the they're progressing with the plan.
Also, I'm curious what will your studio project be? I'm guessing it's sponsored by the same people.
...I mean "how they are progressing with the plan?"
I didn't realise that project was still going on at Harvard. I thought it was from about 5 years ago. I only found out about it while asking questions around Budapest university and Rev8, the Jozsefvaros development agency.
There was nothing so organised as "sponsorship" with our fieldtrip. Peter & John (the tutors) operate more on the level of: they pick a couple of cities and suggest we travel between them. It's then up to each student to decide their own site and brief.
This year I think we have (estimating off the top of my head) 6 projects sited in Budapest, 5 in Venice, 3 in rural Hungary, 2 in England and 1 in Hong Kong. The briefs are ridiculously varied.
It was interesting, though, that of the 6 people wanting to design for Budapest, 3 have ended up with sites in Jozsefvaros. I guess there's just a lot in the make up of the area (social and physical) that attracts architecture students.
So what was the Corvin Promenade studio like? Let's compare stories! Did any of the female students get attacked by gangs of Romany kids on bicycles? Ours did. Three times!
wow, actually none of us were attacked. But the first couple of times we walked around the site we were part of a whole group of people (the local mayor, the developer (sponsor) and some photographers and film people - they were really trying to promote this thing.
The studio was very enjoyable (also well-funded) and it was a fun urban design exercise. We stayed in Budapest for about a week and one of our students is half Hungarian so we were able to get around and find some interesting night life. I remember some bizarre dance clubs around the train station/mall.
That reminds me, the saddest thing about our visit was realizing that the one active urban place in Budapest was the new mall...but hopefully this is largely due to the time of year we visited (very cold).
A couple of us were solicited by high-end prostitutes along Vaci Utca. No takers though.
Good stuff Daniel, and interesting photos as always. I'm thinking of going to Budapest potenitially - I may send you an email on the matter!
Did you experience any 'Kontroll' like moments?
Some bief replies because I am very tired right now. Too many late nights, not enough lie-ins. (I hate that all my post timings on Archinect appear in the US timezone. It's 2am here!).
Walldrug:
I know what you mean about the malls in Budapest. Coming from London I had never seen anything like it. All the mainstream shopping activity seems to have been herded into the vast malls built in the last 10 years. There seemed to be this massive divide between (mostly western) chain stores and smaller independent outlets. The chain stores were in the malls with all the shoppers. the independents were like stray dogs hunting for scraps in the cold emptiness of deserted boulevards (see how tired I am? I'm getting all metaphorical here).
Signum:
Plenty of "Kontroll" moments, thankyou. I actually went out of my way to create them by...
a) not buying tickets in a bid to see what happened (got checked once, claimed ignorance)
b) constantly wearing headphones in the metro and listening to as much pounding euro-techno as I could stomach. When sick of that I switched to hip-hop in various languages I don't understand (Estonian, Hungarian, Finnish, Greek).
c) Wearing a hoodie and beanie all the time and trying to look shifty and local.
It was great fun, but sadly I never got chased down the platforms or witnessed any fights between Kontrollers and local football gangs. Mores the pity.
For anyone who doesn't know what I'm talking about, look here:
http://www.apple.com/trailers/independent/kontroll.html
Enjoy.
Well good effort anyway, regardless of not being chased - I will keep these in mind if/when I go there! I already have more than enough dance music to keep me in the mood anyway...
Still can't believe Kontroll hasn'd had a wider release...so much better than most Hollywood fare out there.
If this is the result of bare-faced cheek (and of course not only that) then I'll be sure to deploy it more often ;-)
hi there!
girl from hungry...and excited ...
I'm arch student as well...but (2nd year)
ny.bara@gmail.com.. if someone got in touch...
good luck there!
byebye
Block this user
Are you sure you want to block this user and hide all related comments throughout the site?
Archinect
This is your first comment on Archinect. Your comment will be visible once approved.