Facelifting of Public Places and Changes of Ground-Floor Functions in Downtown Pest

Text: Tibor Germán, Zsolt Szendrei

Kossuth Lajos Street, Budapest

In cities the size of Budapest, the issues of sustainability tend to be on the agenda more and more frequently. By the triple pillar of sustainable development we mean ecological, economic and social sustainability, the third category used primarily as a synonym for communal designing.
The present research focusses on the facelifted public places of downtown Pest or those in need of renewal. The goal is a twofold one here: first of all focussing ont he already facelifted public domains of the inner city, trying to systemize, categorize and evaluate them. Secondly: to look into the future, assess the adapting capacities of the inner city regarding projected deamnds and requirements, the possible ways of developing public places, to present and concentrate on long-run advantages achievable and viable via „good design”. The overall objective of the analyses is thus the elaboration of a complex system of assessment adapted to local conditions. By including the data in a spatial informational system and translating the effects into numbers we can provide an effective tool for preparing decision concerning urban development.