Before the Next Metamorphosis

Text: Béla Nagy

The limitation of traffic in Ráday Street in 1995 resulted in radical changes influencing the history of the street. Restaurants, cafés and terraces were opened to replace parts stores. Fulfilling a cultural mission, the bookhouse of the street, Ráday Könyvesház is set in the neighbourhood of several universities, museums, exhibition halls and cultural institutions. Traditions are conveyed by ecclesiastical centres located also near here. The remodelling of the street and the transformation of its environment brought about a total change of image: this is how Ráday-Kultucca (cult street or cult-de-sac) was born as a complexity of exciting sites living side by side. Now in 2009 Ráday Street is about to undergo yet another change of operative model. The co-existence of interesting sites does not guarantee enough driving force in itself anymore. Something else and more is needed here: the strengthening of interrelations and the accomplishment of cooperations will mutually reinforce one another. Ráday-Kultucca has the potentials of exposing the fabric of the city straining between values of culture, with buildings and venues of events turning into nodes.