The number 2 in „cult²street” marks on the one hand that Ráday Street alredy functions as one but perhaps not entirely the way the publishers of the design contest imagined, on the other hand it can also refer to that it is not simply a second stage of developments realized so far that would be necessary. It is true though that culture is present in Ráday Street in the forms of various galleries, but it is tpyically consumer culture both in quality and quantity, and the overall streetscape is primarily defined by restaurants and cafés. In the light of this it would be understandable and also welcome if a 2.0 version of Ráday Street would be born to elevate the street itself and maybe the concept of culture as well to a new level. This new quality would probably be virtual only as re-designing the facades of the street was not a viable alternative. The genuine solution would be of course to realize the „face-lifting” on the narrow boundary of design and architecture, in the material world of street „accessories”. A kind of plastic surgery revolution would be more than welcome changing the characterless greenish historicizing wrought-iron visual culture of today’s  „cultstreet” and if a kind of interactive architecture would take people by the hand to guide them out of the urban space becoming more and more functional.

Sándor Hornyik

Constant Nieuwenhuys: New Babylon, 1959-74