The Birth of a Future City

Text and drawings: Péter Magyar

According to his own admission, Péter Magyar has always wanted to invent a “self-designing” work. He actually drew a few sketches in the right proportions and scales, then in the summer of 2022, on his way from Budapest to the Bauhaus in Dessau, he also drew the plans in the noisy context of the airport lounge. He framed the initials of his own name and the date of that special day, then used the year to create a logo, and looking at the resulting number (2222) he began to wonder what kind of architecture there will be 200 years from now. The house he drew then is in fact a larger unit of the city of the future containing 35 ‘hanging’ high-rise buildings to house kindergartens, schools, shops, workplaces and even the frequently mentioned urban agriculture. “Housing machine”, but in a liveable form. He called it Cathedral City, by which he meant a more sophisticated name with the poetic meaning of “House of the Soul”. When it came to spatial layout, he inverted the shape to create an archetype of towers. The ‘future city’ of around 50,000 inhabitants would occupy less than 25 hectares, much of which could be leafy and green or arable land. The large roofs will also add to the amount of land that can be cultivated. The pavements integrated in this design will be used to generate electricity thanks to their photoelectric properties.