IN-PERSON: Prague – Section B
Abstract
The socialist leadership of the time promoted large-scale restoration works of many bomb sites in Budapest after WWII, such as the Power Station designed by Csaba Virág and built in 1979, an outstanding building of its time and a document of the modernist period, no matter its invasive character in the medieval surroundings. On the contrary, for many aspects this “machine” pointing towards future’s modernity remained respectful of the historical environment, regardless of its contextless brutalism. The wise placement of the mass on a contradictory plot, the reflecting façade connecting the historical surroundings to the modernist interior, the tower element evoking the spire structures of the district and all the high-tech standardized details made this building an exceptional element inside the medieval urban fabric. But after the function was moved out from the Castle District in 2007, the building was abandoned. This caused several deteriorations on the non-maintained facade and a total functional decline. Highly growing antipathy and public rejection towards the neglected Power Station made its demolition possible for local Municipality, so to replace it by a conservative building which represents the same walled structure system of historic houses in the bailey. Thus, by 2020 only the original basement and staircase elements survived. The traditionalist attitude from the government shows how radically they want to maintain the historical architectural image of the castle district, by permanently deleting the evidence of recent history and the hidden significance behind modernist architectural language.
Balázs Árpád Polito is a 26 years-old Master student in Architecture-Built Environment-Interiors at Politecnico di Milano. He has achieved a bachelor’s degree in Architecture at the Budapest University of Technology and Economics in 2019, during which he developed his interest in the sociological character of Architecture. Consequently, Balázs attended selected courses, where he exploited the regenerational power of architecture in certain neighbourhoods. He has just begun his Master Thesis under the supervision of Architect and Professor António Carvalho about the Buda Castle district.
António Carvalho is Associate Professor of Architecture and Urban Design at Politecnico di Milano, Milan, Italy. He is an award-winning architect and urban designer with varied built work who studied at Oporto School and graduated at FAUTL, Lisbon in 1988. He holds a Ph.D. in Architecture from IST, Lisbon. His PhD thesis “Housing for Older People in Lisbon: from Collective into Assisted Living” was awarded the national prize “Prémio André Jordan 2014”. He is researcher at DASTU, Politecnico di Milano, and his main research domains are age-friendly environments, active and healthy ageing, multi-generational housing, shared urban space and inclusive design.
1:00 pm - 2:30 pm
Thursday 29th June, 2023