Landscape design competition announced for the renewal of the City Park in Budapest – More attractive and greener City Park thanks to the Liget Project

Hungary’s landscape architecture profession has been charged with a task of historical importance since the landscape architecture competition announced by Városliget Zrt. – supported by the Landscape Architecture and Garden Design Division of the Chamber of Hungarian Architects and the Association of Landscape Architects – facilitate both the 21st-century renewal of the park and the historical rehabilitation of the Városliget. The aim of the open international tender is to have a larger and green area that will be better tended, providing more opportunities for sport and recreation and, overall, the creation of a City Park renewed in every respect. Thanks to the Liget Budapest Project, new, world class museum buildings will be constructed in tandem with the renovation of the popular institutions that already operate here, and the green area of the City Park, one of Europe’s oldest public parks, will be increased.

In recent decades the City Park, which is almost 200 years old, has gradually deteriorated, its vegetation has denuded and been neglected, the opportunities for communal recreation and sport have dwindled, while the dilapidated buildings that have not been in use for a long time and the parked vehicles have become all too common an eyesore in what used to be one of Pest’s most popular public venues.

The green area of the City Park covers only 60 percent of its area, while the buildings located in the park occupy a mere 5.5 percent of the total area. The remaining 35 percent is either concreted over, occupied by parking lots and roads. Thanks to the landscape architecture competition, some of the aforementioned paved surfaces will be converted into parks, thus increasing the green area of the City Park by 5 percent, i.e. to a total of 65 percent. Based on the result of the single-round tender with a total prize money of 21.5 million HUF, after the detailed planning in 2016, park renewal works will begin in 2017, and a greener and more attractive City Park revamped in all its elements will be ready for use by the public in 2019, following the completion of the new museums.

In addition to the rehabilitation and enlargement of the green area of the park and the protection of its vegetation, the comprehensive competition also places great emphasis on the development of new paths, the instalment of new public furniture and the renovation of old pieces, building new playgrounds and sports grounds, including a two-kilometre illuminated, circular running track, the rehabilitation of the City Park Lake and the provision of accessible facilities, as well as on establishing connections between the park and the new buildings. In recent years ideas about the renewal of the Liget have been expressed by countless organisations, institutions (schools, old people’s homes etc.), associations (e.g. those for bikers, dog-owners, environmental organisations, large families) and local residents. Hence, the competition text incorporates numerous elements that were proposed in the course of negotiations and talks with the civil sector in regard to the development of the City Park.

A design competition of such a scale and complexity as this one provides an historical opportunity to the landscape architecture and garden design profession, which will participate in evaluating the submitted competitive projects through its professional organisations. The majority of the 12-member jury are landscape architects; the jurying process and the announcement of the results are expected to take place in May 2016.

Application deadline: 28 March 2016

More information and registration: www.ligetbudapest.org/park