VÁROSMEGÚJÍTÁS: Az Urbanisztikai Tanszék és a Városépítészetért Alapítvány 1. nemzetközi konferenciája

The Department of Urban Planning and Design of the University of Technology and Economics declared the year 2010 the year of „Urban Renewal”. As part of that undertaking the task of various university courses and several research projects  that our department has initiated are connected to this theme. The Conference on the 24th of November in the main Assembly Hall of the Central Building of the University is also part of that program.

The importance and extent of the transformations of the last decades of the 20th century in major cities of Western-Europe can be compared to the scale of the urban interventions of the 19th century, when unlivable medieval urban structures had been renewed with the demolition of city walls and with burning new large scaled structural elements into the tissue. The 20th century urban renewals were made possible by the neglected industrial areas and railway yards of the metropolitan areas. These, by that time very valuable areas, have been treated in different ways in various countries of Europe.

In some cases the missing green spaces of the city have been developed here, at some other locations new urban centers were created with flourishing public spaces and there are numerous examples of these areas becoming the victims of 'real-estate development', fully developed with residential and office spaces providing an environment without a public realm, completely unapproachable for a regular city dweller. All these 'solutions' are considered urban renewals, but there are major differences, in how much they take into consideration the existing natural and built characteristics of the area, which actually could be one of the metering tools of the quality of rehabilitation projects. Defining the concept of urban renewal and necessitating the quality in the renewal of built up or historical inner city areas is particularly important. Even recent events in Budapest warn us on that!

The actualities of the conference are given by the fact, that Budapest and most of the former socialist capitals and metropolises, having a time-lag related to their Western-European mates, still have not lost their opportunity for a high quality renewal. The former industrial areas and railway yards are still mainly undeveloped, our inner city is intact, although the pressure of the real estate developers who do not take into consideration the existing values of the capital is enormous.

The conference provides ammunition for the grand professional battles fought against such developments and for finding the best possible strategies of urban renewal.

Programme

08:00 Opening of the Reception

Registration - MEK points

Registration will take place in the foyer of the BUTE, 1st floor

All participants are invited to report to the registration desk on arrival.

08:00 a.m. – 09:00 a.m. and 13.30 a.m – 14:30 a.m.

09.00 Opening Ceremony and Introduction to the conference

Gábor Becker DLA – professor, dean of the Faculty of Architecture, BUTE, Budapest

Sándor Pálfy DLA – professor, head of the Department of Urban Planning and Design, BUTE, Budapest

09.15-10.45 Session I.

Melinda Benkő PhD – architect-urbanist, associate professor, Department of Urban Planning and Design, BUTE, Budapest

The Role of Urban Renewal in Architectural Education

Tiberiu Florescu PhD – architect-urbanist, associate professor, head of the Urban & Landscape Design Chair, Ion Mincu University of Architecture and Urbanism, Bucharest, Romania

New approach in Urban Renewal: Trans-forming the cities

Kinga M. Szilágyi PhD – landscape architect, professor, Department for Garden and Open Space Design, Faculty of Landscape Architecture, Corvinus University of Budapest

From Environmentalism to Urban Landscape

10.45-11.15 Morning Tea and Coffee

Tea, coffee and refreshments will be served in the foyer of the BUTE

11.15-12.45 Session II.

Lubica Vitková PhD – Assoc. Prof. Ing. arch., PhD., architect - urban designers, dean of the Faculty of Architecture Slovak University of Bratislava

Transformation of Urban Fabric in Bratislava

Bálint Kádár – architect-urbanist, PhD student, Department of Urban Planning and Design, BUTE, Budapest

Urbanity Research - Twenty Years Later

Éva Beleznay – architect-urbanist, former Chief Architect of Budapest

Means for successful urban renewal programs

12.45-14.30 Lunch time

14.30-16.00 Session III.

Jean-Michel Knop – architecte urbaniste en chef de l'Etat, Director of ENSA Grenoble, Ministry of Culture and Communication

Protection of Heritage and Urban Renewal: the “French Paradox”

György Alföldi DLA – architect-urbanist, associate professor, Department Of Urban Planning and Design, BUTE, Budapest

Interaction between social and urban fabric

Gábor Sonkoly PhD – historian, professor and head of the Atelier Department for European Social Sciences and Historiography, Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest

Historic Urban Landscape - a conceptual analysis

16.00-16.30 Afternoon Tea and Coffee

Tea, coffee and refreshments will be served in the foyer of the BUTE

16.30-18.00 Session IV.

Socrates Stratis PhD – architect-urbanist, assistant professor, Department of Architecture, University of Cyprus, Nicosia

Architectures of Encouraging Publicness

Árpád Szabó DLA – architect-urbanist, assistant professor, Department of Urban Planning and Design, BUTE, Budapest

Sustainability patterns

Zoltán Erő – architect-urbanist, Palatium Ltd., Budapest

Urbanistic Action – Spontaneous Development