’70s

By choosing this topic, we wanted to start a dialogue about the architecture of a decade, and even a whole era, about which little information is available due to the lack of research. In the absence of knowledge, many buildings of great architectural and heritage value are at risk of demolition or renovation that completely obscures their original character. Because of their historical context, there is often a negative public perception of buildings from the socialist period, but at international level there is a growing number of projects dealing with the values and legacy of late modern architecture in the Central European region, as well as a number of initiatives exploring the links between East and West. We joined in these efforts with this year’s programme, which was also one of the highlights of the “Modern Season” of the program’s organizer, the Hungarian Contemporary Architecture Centre (KÉK). This year, for the first time, we had the opportunity to meet the architects and the first residents who moved into these buildings, and to see how concepts have been implemented and how neighbourhoods and districts have changed and been renewed over the last fifty years. From the outset, we were sure that these often drab, unwelcoming-looking houses could be brought closer to the people through the means we had already succesfully used before, namely personal stories. The Professionals’ Day on Thursday preceding the Weekend of Open Houses, which has been part of the Budapest100 program since 2022, was guided by the same idea: on 9 May, we conducted 45-50 minute, quick interviews with twelve architects from the 1970s at the Contemporary Architecture Centre’s office on Bartók Béla Road. The interviews were

published, and we held a book launch on 29 August 2024 in the OKISZ headquarters, an iconic office building from the ’70s, combined with a PechaKucha Night. The presentations can be re-watched on KÉK’s youtube channel. A limited edition of the publication is available at the KÉK’s office, and in pdf format on the KÉK “Tudástár” website. We also plan to publish the talks as podcasts. Friday’s Urban Walks Day was organised in collaboration with the KÉK Urban Walks team, and the houses covered by the walks were also uploaded to the freshly established ModernTéka database. In total, 11 thematic walking tours were held by invited experts, all of whom have been connected to late modern built heritage for some time. In total, 39 houses opened for the weekend, including many unique apartment houses, a church, an observatory, a swimming pool, a funeral chapel, a few office buildings, and, of course, housing estates reflecting the industrialisation of the period. The 292 programs included more than 30 urban walks, led by our volunteers. The positive feedback from volunteers and visitors alike was that the program had achieved its aim and, even if “only” for a weekend, thousands of people were able to discover the late modern buildings of Budapest, once again testifying to the motto of Budapest100, “Every house is interesting”.