Magdolna Workshop

name of project: Magdolna  Workshop    
location: Budapest    
year of  design: 2012
architects / landscape architects: Christian  Burkhardt, Árpád Kovács, Péter Pozsár, Stefan Rettich, Gábor Szohr and  Dominika Tihanyi - Újirány Group – Karo* Architekten

The aim of the Goethe Institute's project „Making Heimat” was to bring together German and East European groups of architecture to think about a specific problem of an East European city. Karo Architekten and Újirány set out to create the concept of the Roma Home 2050.

The formation of KARO Architekten and Újirány Group focused on the site of the Magdolna Quarter in Budapest. The workshop has set the base for the “Roma Home 2050” project. The workshop was coordinated by Yorck Förster (DAM), Dr. Angelika Eder, Ulrich Everding and Wolfgang Franz from Goethe Institutes in Eastern Europe. The Frankfurt and Hamburg workshops were the initial start for a complex urban renewal strategy, as Budapest municipality of the 8th district is in need of primer ideas to enhance the rehabilitation of the Magdolna quarter. Maintopic of the workshop was the refinement of the “Roma-City” concept in close relation to the site specific conditions as well as the question how architectural interventions can lead to a physical and social improvement in Magdolna. The Hamburg workshop was followed by the Budapest workshop. The workshop focused on the potentials of temporary architectural interventions as a new planning instrument to stimulate the urban regeneration of Magdolna, physically as well as socially.

Since the main potentials can be seen in the rich ethnic culture it was an overall aim to activate and to integrate the locals in the design process of a culturally enriched 'Roma Home’. In order to achieve this we have outlined a STRATEGY for the involvement of the local residents. We have also defined a series of interventions and workshops for specific sites in the quarter to be realized during the year 2013.

Coordination by: Frankfurt: Yorck Förster (DAM), Dr. Angelika Eder, Ulrich Everding and Wolfgang Franz from Goethe Institutes in Eastern Europe. Hamburg/Budapest: Márta Nagy and Zsuzsa Galamb (Goethe Institute, Budapest)
partner: Rév 8 Zrt. György Alföldi, Dániel Horvath