The various urban developments are determined and planned by the values of current economic policy, and these values can be read on our public spaces. If our visible world is the tip of the iceberg, what do our public spaces say about our society, our shared values and our relationship with the living world? What kind of vision lies at the bottom of the iceberg at the tip of which, in a European capital, a mall is built on a public square and a tower block on a riverbank?
Space robbery and misappropriation is not a private matter for property developers and investors, but a public matter in the purest sense. The social space is part of the urban silhouette, of the spectacle itself. Therefore, any change that has a significant impact on the urban landscape is a public matter. Tower blocks that change the urban skyline, shopping malls and parcels of land cleared from urban forests turn social space into transport or consumer space. By contrast, well-functioning urban spaces also provide opportunities for encounter and leisure. There are a number of factors that make a place a place to stay, and the installation aims to draw attention to the evidence that public space is necessary. The space that is not taken, that is, the place itself. The installation, consisting of plexiglass mounted on building scaffolding, draws attention to the abduction of space in an interactive way. Entering the scaffolding, the contours of the buildings likely to be constructed on the site complete the view (for example, more high-rise buildings on the Kopaszi Dam, a mall at the Puskás Stadium).
The visitor is made aware of the importance of open public space and its fragility.
Boglárka Jakabfi-Kovács graduated in Architecture from MOMÉ in 2012 and is currently writing her doctoral thesis. Her research interests include sustainable design strategy building based on systems thinking, the architectural aspects of the paradigm of non-growth and the integration of the above into design education. She is a regular speaker at national and international conferences. As an external lecturer he teaches courses on climate adaptation, adaptive reuse, gamification and systems design at the MOME Institute of Architecture and at the Budapest Metropolitan University. He is a founding member of the Ecological Film Workshop, where they make documentary films about the country’s water management problems. His family house, designed in collaboration with Marp studio, won the House of the Year Grand Prize and Big See Award in 2020.
Date: 12PM-6PM on the 5 September 2024, 2PM-6PM on the 6 and 7 September 2024
Location: in front of Puskás Ferenc Stadion metro station, 1143 Budapest, Hungária krt. 48.
Contributor to the discussion related to the art project: András Lányi writer
Moderator: Péter Hámori, architect, GUBAHÁMORI
Date of the discussion: 6.30 PM on 5 September 2024
Location of the discussion: 1093 Budapest, Nehru part, where it meets Bakáts street
Language: the art piece is English-friendly, the discussion is in Hungarian
The programme is free of charge.