This first site is located in the south-west, industrial outskirts of Budapest in District X, the neighborhood is called Kobanya. The site measures 20 hectares (roughly 50 acres), excluding 20 kilometers (12 miles) of underground tunel systems. The Dreher Brewery was constructed between the 1880- 1900, and the site has since hosted various temporary industrial uses. Many of the remaining Dreher buildings are now under protection.
"S1" is a very large scale and long term redevelopment plan, which includes reusing the site, including the tunel system, for housing and cultural functions. The leading architects are Erick Van Egeraat, Zoboki & Demeter, and Noas/Sporaarchitects.
View from one of the preserved buildings, slotted to be a theatre. Between the "S1" site and the city, you can see the typical ring of large communist style housing blocks.
Above is a trace of the master plan by Erick Van Egeraat; the black slices are new entrances to the tunel system which lies below the northern half of the site.
An unusual attic space in one of the buildings that is planned for demolition.
Below, a different, tentative plan to reuse two warehouses along the Danube, in the city center, as a commercial center/living units.. I did not go very in depth here, because the design and implementation strategies seemed too top-down for my interest.
Below, another quick glimpse at a converted electric factory, which is now a recreation park, called Millenaris Park.
Below, the Wax Gallery, part of which was originally a 1900's tannery in the northern industrial region of Buda. In 1996 Inarchi Design Team of Budapest made the addition which you see in front- "eye candy" for passerbys and museum goers who ventured so far out of the city. For political reasons the museum, originally called the MEO, was renamed the WAX and changed into a strictly private gallery. Access was difficult, to say the least. Oh well, the thin and insulating polycarbonate siding of the new addition was enough to visit.
