Dogma

In Bloom

The main goal of our proposal is to create a coherent and legible urban form. While variety and difference play an important role in such a large-scale master plan, this should not result in a fragmented plan. We believe that the sites’ relative uniformity in terms of ownership presents an opportunity to develop a coherent urban form that can be developed in phases. The master plan consists of permeable urban blocks, the size of which is adjusted to fit the surrounding area. These blocks form an incomplete urban grid, continuing the existing street patterns into the project area and thus reinforcing the connection of the communities living around the Rákosrendező area. The project grid is interrupted, when necessary, to make space for existing buildings or areas that need to be preserved. However, the unitary character of the grid ensures that these differences do not undermine the coherence of the overall scheme. At the heart of the area lies a ‘central park’, a green oasis offering respite from the surrounding density. This central park incorporates the railway tracks, rendering them almost invisible. Rather than being completely sealed off from its surroundings, the central park expands through the permeable urban blocks, and its green ‘tentacles’ extend across the entire site. The main feature of the master plan is the urban villa typology: a four-storey housing type that combines density with a park-like atmosphere. The medium size of the urban villa is ideal for housing a variety of households, ranging from market to cooperative housing. The scale of this residential typology—neither too big, nor too small—is ideal for forming communities that share spaces besides their private apartments. Furthermore, the punctual footprint of the urban villa ensures ground permeability and spatial openness, both of which we consider crucial for the city of the future. Urban villas are arranged in elongated blocks that frame gardens. Designed as communal spaces, these gardens are intended to foster a sense of community and shared values among the inhabitants. As well as housing, these blocks contain retail outlets, services and multi-storey car parks that can be converted into housing over time. The area around the station is denser and consists of towers on plinths. These plinths contain either rows of townhouses or services, retail outlets, or workspaces. The plinths replace the urban villa blocks, but they are arranged in a way that maintains the grid’s orientation. This ensures diversity and coherence across the different parts of the master plan.

The urban villa is the main protagonist of the master plan. This type of housing originated in the 1800s and is characterised by its medium size and multi-family design. It is present in many European cities, including Budapest. The urban villa is distinguished by its density and openness to its surroundings. Whenever they have been built, urban villas have proved successful due to their appeal to all kinds of residents. They are generally compact in form and contain apartments linked by shared vertical circulation. Urban villa apartments face two, three or even four sides. For this reason, urban villas always have generous fenestration and balconies surrounding the entire perimeter of the building. Due to their symmetry, urban villas counter the front-back condition typical of urban blocks, making all surrounding spaces equally important. In terms of urban forms, urban villas are a surprising case. At first glance, their pavilion-like form appears to create a fragmented urban fabric. However, walking through them dispels this impression. The landscape created by urban villas is both dense and open, and both uniform and varied. The repetition of urban villas reinforces the street profile without closing it off. The repetition of the building type creates surprising views through the gaps between the buildings.

In our proposal, the urban villas are clustered within blocks whose width is 70 meters and length is adjusted to correspond to the pattern of the surrounding streets. Organised in this way, the urban blocks become the ‘garden apartment’, a popular housing type in New York City between the 1920s and 1940s. At that time, New York was expanding towards Queens and developers opted for a housing type that was dense enough to accommodate large numbers of people, but which also allowed for gardens between buildings. We believe that this block type is preferable to the more popular ‘perimeter block’ because, whereas the latter creates a strong opposition between the front and back, the former opens up the block. The open block design of the Garden Apartment allows green spaces to expand across the blocks, rather than remaining enclosed.

In terms of architecture, we propose a simple typological diagram for the urban villa that can be developed in different ways, and that would be easily reproducible and adaptable to different circumstances and formal resolutions. We recommend that the design of this type of housing adheres to the following criteria. Firstly, the building should be as compact as possible to maximise the façade in relation to the enclosed volume. Secondly, the urban villa’s façade should have as many windows as possible, within budgetary and energy performance constraints. Thirdly, all four sides should be identical to drastically reduce the number of details required. Fourthly, the apartments should be spacious and open-plan. All the apartments should have access to ample outdoor space, such as a balcony, loggia or winter garden.

The size of the urban villas—neither too big nor too small—allows the formation of communities that, with time, can start to share spaces like gardens, balconies, or any space in between buildings. Some of these urban villas, or entire blocks, can be used by cooperatives or other collective initiatives. Considering the public nature of the land, we believe it would be a priority of the municipality to also support the development of affordable housing, by leasing land to non-profit collective housing initiatives such as cooperative housing associations and Community Land Trusts (CLTs). In terms of construction, Urban villas have an ideal size to be constructed using cross-laminated timber panels with concrete vertical cores. This design maximizes flexibility in apartment layouts, accommodating various apartment sizes and allowing residents to modify their living spaces as their needs change.

The area next to the station is developed through residential towers placed on plinths. Due to its position at the edge of the city centre, this area is intended to serve as a gateway. The gate’s defining feature is the contrast between the station’s horizontal lines and the towers’ vertical lines. The station acts as a bridge between the two main parts of the project area. The plinths comprise low-rise housing, retail outlets and services. The plinth expands the tower’s footprint so that it becomes an urban block that defines a clear street front. When not occupied by a tower, the plinth can be used as a collective terrace or green roof. The towers are arranged in a chessboard pattern to minimise the impact of shadowing. Moreover, this pattern creates interesting spaces, where the regular placement of the towers is offset by a variety of oblique views across the site. The towers have the same planimetric organisation as the urban villas, with apartments facing two or three sides. While the type remains the same, variations are mainly concentrated on the façade and balconies. As with the urban villas, the design of the apartments within the towers adheres to a few key criteria, such as ample fenestration and access to spacious balconies, loggias and winter gardens.