Strategies Resolving Spatial Fragmentation: Case Study in the Brownfield Zone of Budapest

Abstract

The transitory belt of Budapest contains a great number of underused, brownfield areas awaiting rehabilitation as a result of the economic transformations of the last few decades. The paper deals with a characteristic problem of this belt, the visual and spatial fragmentation, and examines it at one specific location: the neighbourhood of the Gas Works area in Óbuda. Through this example, it proposes specific urban design and landscape oriented spatial strategies that could be applied to this fragmented site. These strategies use densification tools, deal with the reprogramming of the open landscape, and propose urban landscape design interventions with the goal of hydrological management. The objective of the paper is to identify approaches dealing with the fragmentation of the neighbourhood and propose tools for articulating a more connected, visually more integrated environment.