Megastructures and their designs realized in Hungary

Text: Balázs Gurdon

The three decades between 1960 and 1990 were undoubtedly the period of impressive numbers in the history of urban architecture in Hungary: there have never been so few dwellings built during 30 years in this country before or even since then. The pressure to construct at a forced speed and pace when there was a shortage of housing resulted in several interesting experiments in the field of urbanism: initially, the goal was to increase the efficiency of developments as intensely as possible, whilst later on the emphasis gradually shifted over to quality from quantity and to make human environments as attractive as can became a priority after realising the lessons of urban complexes constructed earlier. This article presents a total of four residential buildings built in Hungary, including the conditions of their birth and construction, the special structures applied, as well as their follow-ups. It also covers comparisons with international counterparts that came handy not only owing to the dimensions of the buildings but also because these comparisons are justified by the generosity of their urban architectural concepts, the brave gesture of their designers they reflect, their experimental character, the close connections of the applied building structures and their morphologies as well.