Historic Urban Green Network Development – A Case Study of the Buda Green Corridor

Abstract

Depending on their nature and size, settlements influence and modify the natural landscape of a place to varying degrees, while the landscape is constantly changing and becoming more urbanised. The complexity of the functions of a metropolis, the complex set of functions, the scale of the buildings serving them, the exceptionally high density of development and the complex network of transport systems are not able to adapt sensitively to the natural features of the place, but rather to transform them, often degrading and destroying the very landscape value and potential for which the city was originally established. Therefore, the city is not a form of settlement with a character that fits in with the landscape but dominates the landscape from functional, ecological and visual-aesthetic points of view.
This is particularly true in terms of the vegetation and the green infrastructure of the place. The city is gradually halving its green space potential, with ever-larger areas intensively built up. The green space network thus created, or rather left in between the built-up areas, is losing its original value and is gradually being reduced to smaller and smaller fragmented areas. The ecological conditions of a liveable settlement are thus deteriorating at an ever-increasing rate. This process is taking place both in the whole and parts of the city. For example, the Buda Green Corridor (BGC) development is now one of Budapest's most important fresh air channels and a vital element of the green space network of the capital. It acts as a linear element of cultural and historical significance, which, over a 5.1 km stretch above the former Ördögárok (Devil's Ditch),1 links up a series of important public green spaces, parks and promenades. The protection of the urban and ecological heritage of the remaining green spaces along the valley is of paramount importance in today's urban layout.
The relevance of the topic is that more and more attention is being paid to this green corridor which plays a decisive role in the urban layout and is of cultural and historical significance: it appears in the development plans of the capital as a green corridor to be preserved and developed, and development plans of various types are being prepared for the parks, one after the other. In 2020, the authors participated in the preparation of a multi-volume detailed research study for the Buda Green Corridor (commissioned by the Budapest Fejlesztési Központ), which was later used for the Városmajor planning application. The results of the study were used in the present publication. The strategic plan for the Gellért Hill Public Park and the strategic plan for the Vérmező Park have been approved by the Municipal Assembly. In March of this year, the competition for the renewal of the Városmajor landscape design was closed. In recent years several tenders have been submitted for the corridor, including the Gellért Hill and Citadel design idea competition. The Tabán sports and leisure park area has been renewed through community planning.
The BGC deserves a full book's worth of coverage, including a whole series of parks and promenades. Instead of focusing on each, we take a brief, comprehensive look at the corridor, seeking answers to two research questions based primarily on an analysis of the current urban layout, and a brief historical overview:
1. How it is possible to develop the connectivity of the green corridor within the established and valuable urban fabric?
2. Is it possible to restore the surface watercourse and integrate it into the urban fabric using the tools of landscape architecture?