Paper

‘Brown’ is the New ‘Green’: Post-industrial Sites as Potential in the Development of the Green Infrastructure on the Riverfront of Budapest, Hungary

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Abstract

In Budapest, Hungary and all-around Europe in the capital cities, the sight of degraded, industrial landscapes in urban areas became usual during the last decades, due to the unexpected growth of cities. In the last 30 years, many sites have gained new functions and have been reused for different purposes, but still, huge areas remained unused and presumably polluted. According to my hypothesis the unutilized areas – especially in the riverside area - could potentially become the part of a new green infrastructure element, which could make the green infrastructure system of Budapest more complete, usable and ecologically valuable.

For this paper we will analyze the existing research data, maps, concepts and plans for the Budapest riverside area from the past years, and among these especially the actual and planning state of the postindustrial brownfield areas. The research goal is to find out if these documents and plans adequately support the indicated goals and professional proposals of the concepts.

Thereafter, the paper presents international examples and best practices, which may shape the green infrastructure development in Budapest in the future. In the second part, we will analyze and compare a post-industrial renewal residential area which is important for green infrastructure development, and the regulatory plan and design competition of an unused brownfield of Budapest, both in the riverside area and with lots of similarities, with the aim of developing a typology of different approaches, goals, and design means that have been applied, and distilling a set of guidelines for the design of future projects. This means not only comparing potentials and limitations of the site and of the future program but also investigating the different long-term strategies, for instance, a choice for a master plan.

One of the conclusions from the analysis of the Hungarian capital and the international examples is that an integrated approach of the development documents and regulatory plans is needed to ensure the longterm development of the green-infrastructure of Budapest. From the second part, the case studies show the realization of the plans, and help to conclude the successful and failed acts on the riverside for the future real estate developments, and exact actions which would be able to promote the development of the riverside in the hope that future real estate development will deliver the new green infrastructure element of Budapest to adapt the city for the 21th century.

Keywords: green infrastructure, post-industrial, riverfront, budapest, hungary

How to Cite:

Adorjan, A., Pecze, A. & Szilágyi, K., (2019) “‘Brown’ is the New ‘Green’: Post-industrial Sites as Potential in the Development of the Green Infrastructure on the Riverfront of Budapest, Hungary”, Fábos Conference on Landscape and Greenway Planning 6(1). doi: https://doi.org/10.7275/pfeh-sm61