Living in Budapest, Part II

Here, we continue our story about housing estates of Budapest. See also Part I covering period from from 1908 to 1940s.

By the 50s Hungary fell under Soviet dominance, and era of planned economy has begun. These were the times of standardization in many areas, including architecture.

Behind the Socialist Realism façades of the 50s there were standard floor plans, the identical 1-2-3-roomed apartments to meet the demands of working class.

The housing estate on Béke út/Fiastyúk utca had houses from 4 to 8-floor ones with 2300 flats altogether, mostly 2-room ones with a bathroom, and some “reduced-comfort” ones. The estate also had schools and nurseries close to the houses.

The city was expanding, and the new roads were built to cover the mud. This now obsolete little gadget was in front of every entrance.

In 1958, the Hungarian government has introduced the legislation providing for range of housing parameters, including the average floor space set at 43 square meters.

It was the era of innovations with cutting-edge technologies, such as production of concrete on the building site itself, use of pre-fabricated wall segments, fixtures and even built-in furniture. Over 150 projects were submitted to the Ministry of Residential Construction. The idea was to adopt the best projects and spread them throughout the country.

Óbuda Experimental Housing Estate was based on some of those new designs. The flats in the experimental houses had built-in furniture which allowed enlarging the living space.

Shell chairs, pole lamps, casual sofas, all the light and sleek designs that first appeared in those exemplary apartments in Obuda became the trend of decade.

The József Attila housing estate on Üllői út that can be seen on the way to Budapest airport was built between 1958 and 1964.

It is a mixture of designs with some houses distinctively in 50s style, others leaning towards the 70s.

The houses were built from prefabricated units of various standard designs, painted different colours and decorated with different elements to avoid the bleak uniformity.

The estate was broken into sectors, each with a school, a nursery, and cluster of shops.

Thanks to growing production capacities, the urban jungles of the 70s became taller, longer and wider.

The House Factories No 1 and No 2 were coming up with many varieties of prefab moulds to construct the high-rises for many thousands of workers, and teachers, and doctors.

These towers had shops on their ground floors the wide fronts of which provided streetlight in the night, and also cafes and restaurants to entertain the residents.

The microdistricts of 70s and 80s were the well-planned areas regarded as real cities with their own microstructure. One of the biggest was <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Ujpalota.JPG" target="new">Újpalota</a> of 13500 flats for 60,000 inhabitants.

The government-financed housing program in Hungary was cancelled by the change of political regime in 1989. Gone with it were the prefabricated, standard designs.