Shine, Create, Promenade! Sunbathe, Read, Moisturise! Welcome home in Budapest, living room on the side of the Danube. We showed how to rethink a public space, whether it is only a small car park or a huge riverbank. In line with the Municipality’s ambition for an open, green and empowering capital, RAKPART 2021 was a diverse recreational public space that invites citizens to use it as many different ways as possible, while lounging by the riverside and enjoying the sunshine.
The Danube embankment used to be only accessible by car, without any possibility for pedestrians and cyclists to enjoy the river. In 2021 June as part of a space redistribution development, renovation of the embankment has begun, to provide more green area and space for pedestrians. Between 18 June and 15 August 2021, taking advantage of the otherwise dysfunctional enclosure created by the embankment developments, Budapest have created an experimental, creative public space on the lower quay between Kossuth Lajos tér and Lánchíd under the name RAKPART 2021. The aim was to test how to rethink a public space with citizens, that used to have a different functionality, without heavy investment. In this experimental public park, benches, sunbeds, toys, colourful asphalt paintings, 100 new plants and a drinking fountain were established for the enjoyment of the citizens. People used the embankment as a “common living room”, where they could enjoy meals together, rest, read and have social gatherings with friends. Children could use toys drawn on the asphalt and tables. One of the first micromobility points of the city was also piloted here, enabling safe and organized parking of both shared and privately owned micromobility vehicles. RAKPART 2021 was not an event, but an innovative way to use public space. It was a diverse park that calls for more city dwellers and visitors to use common space in as many ways as possible. The project was very successful, many people used the space, and enjoyed spending time near the Danube on the embankment. The project was administrated and financed by Budapest Brand Nonprofit Plc. – the official creative agency of Budapest, supporting the city's brand and tourism strategy objectives, and was designed & operated by Valyo - City and River NGO for bringing the city and the river together, but multiple stakeholders were involved such as the Municipality of Budapest and its utility providers, companies and other civil society members.
Please highlight how the project can be exemplary in this context
The project created an experiential public space where people enjoyed spending time outside, which is a great opportunity to transform citizens’ perceptions, and to transform the city in the long term. Presenting different ways that make the city enjoyable encourages people to spend time outside in public spaces, and will shift people's perceptions about the functionality of common space and the city itself. Spending more time in parks and other green areas encourages active mobility, walking cycling and use of other micromobility vehicles. The project was a low-cost, inclusive and innovative initiative, that can be easily replicated locally and Europe wide. Replicated projects should target initiatives to shift societal perceptions complementing bigger investments. The project popularized closure of the embankment, for cars, and opening it for pedestrians, contributing to space reallocation efforts and sustainability across Budapest.
Please highlight how the project can be exemplary in this context
One of the main objectives of the project was to redefine the area covered and thus put this section of the quay of the Danube as a public space on the mental map of the citizens. The Danube embankment has been a World Heritage Site since 1987, but in the minds of the people of Budapest, the area referred to as "Rakpart" (river bank in hungarian) used to be associated with an industrial/logistics functions, and nowadays the only thing that comes to mind is its function as a service for car traffic. The aim of the project is to ensure that people in the city now think of the site as a communal place, an urban public space.
Budapest Brand Nonprofit Plc, was responsible for producing cultural content and communicating a liveable and likeable image of Budapest, and therefore aesthetics and artistic visualisation were also incorporated into the project. The signs, inscriptions, installations and murals surrounding the area were created in a unified and minimalist design, with colours that evoked the yellow of the summer sun and the blue of the Danube, and accompanied visitors throughout the area. This showed a different image of the riverbank, compared to the grey colours of the asphalt seen before.
As well as relying on the local people's competition entries to shape the space, the organizers also enhanced the liveability and likeability of the area with aesthetic and multi-functional street furniture. One of this furniture is a concrete pebble, that imitates small pebbles that can be found along the Danube, reminding people of childhood games played with them. The furniture emphasises the experiential nature of public space activities. The friendly, familiar form of the object is, according to the designers, a stimulating feature of public spaces, with the stated aim of being suitable for a wide range of uses, both communal and individual. They are not only street furniture, but also works of art.
Please highlight how the project can be exemplary in this context
As the project organisers wanted local people to have their words in the design of the embankment space, they launched an open competition to create public artworks. Also, as an integral part of the creation of the space, they used the tools of tactical urbanism to shape the space with temporary, communal, DIY methods, installations, asphalt painting, street furniture, flower boxes and other visual interventions that, in addition to changing the function, stimulate creativity and activity among users. As furniture was mobile, users were constantly included in the instalment. People could change the location of benches and tables, making the space fit their immediate needs. As regarding accessibility and affordability: at weekends, more access point to the area was opened to making it accessible to residents with stroller or wheelchairs as well. The area functioned entirely as a public space for the duration of the project, and the organisers were determined not to establish catering facilities in the area, so that it could remain entirely a place without the need to consume, and in no way to exclude social groups.
Please highlight how this approach can be exemplary
Encouraging spending time in urban green area and the use of micromobility have contributed to sustainability goals. The contribution of the company Budapest Brand, ensured an aesthetically pleasing design and fun colour scheme that contributes to change the city landscape from abundant asphalt and grey colours, to a colourful city with a lot of green areas.
The project was a multi-stakeholder initiative, and all project partners were responsible for different segments, ensuring that all three objectives came together. BKK – Centre for Budapest transport, the transport authority of Budapest, was in charge of the micromobility points, and use of active vehicles, the Municipal Gardening company, the horticultural company of the city provided the 100 plants (sustainability), the Municipal waterworks, the water supplier of the city set up a new drinking-fountain on the spot, Budapest Brand was in charge of the branding, copywriting, communication and aesthetics, and Valyo along with the coordination of the project made sure to include citizens’ and to monitor their opinion (inclusion and public participation).
1. Provided recreational space in the city centre for communities. During the Covid-19 pandemic and the frequent lockdowns, the importance of green, calm, recreational spaces inside the city have risen. People wanted to spend more time outside, as leisure options inside were often closed and unavailable. The RAKPART 2021 project have thus aligned citizen’s needs, with that of the authority, to provide more space for pedestrians through space reallocation efforts, by restoring previous function and old glory of the embankment. The project has clearly provided solution for a need coming from the citizens of Budapest.
2. Citizens' ‘got back’ another piece of the Danube. The river Danube is an integral part of the city as it divides the Buda and Pest sides. Yet, until now, the embankment was only used as a transport corridor. With this project, people could experience what would it be like to fully get back the space along the Danube. While it was a local intervention, along an approximately 2km long part of the quay, this experimental space was visited not only by citizens’ living near the embankment, but by those living further out as well.
3. Community and sense of belonging. The communal use of a shared space created a special community among the users. The project encouraged all to think about the space as a common living room, that is shared among all citizens’ in Budapest, further encouraging to think about fellow city dwellers, and people in the neighbourhood as parts of the same community.
3. Increase in active mode use. As the park was not accessible by car, people were encouraged to use active modes, walking, cycling or using other micromobility vehicles. According to a traffic counting of Valyo, more than 600 persons used the embankment park on a given Sunday, all of them using some form of active transportation modes. Micromobility points also made cycling and e-roller use easier.
Please also explain the benefits that derived from their involvement.
Valyo NGO is in close contact with the citizens of Budapest and other civil society members. During the implementation various civil stakeholder groups were contacted, such as the Hungarian Cyclist Club, or habitants of Budapest, who could propose innovative ideas to be installed on the embankment. Valyo also has closely monitored users' perception and feedback on the project. During the implementation phase, a public user count was held, where citizen's volunteered to count users of the park, and passers-by based on their mode of transportation. The results have contributed to the evaluation of the project, and the documentation of the increase in use of active transport modes. The movable furniture also revealed different user cases, and provided immediate feedback.
The increasing car traffic associated with urban development and growth has sprawl affects not only Budapest, but also in most European cities, as well as cities in other developed and developing countries around the world. In many cities, the high proportion of public space used for transport has led to a deterioration in the quality of life of the population.
Climate change is causing extreme hot and dry weather which is even harder to bear in cities' urban built environment, and which hits even harder the disadvantaged groups since they can't afford to protect themselves from heatwaves. The project involved replacing the 100 parking spaces in the area with 100 mobile plants moved there by the capital's horticultural company, which provided shade for walkers and resters who could spend their time in a public space without the need to consume as a response to urban problems and social inequality caused by global warming.
The local solutions used in this project can be exemplary in terms of redefining public spaces, with the return of liveable and attractive areas from transport to people and communities. On the other hand, for cities, in terms of launching creative and experimental projects with formal options, as the project was implemented on an area that had been disused due to a major infrastructure project.
This project pioneered experimental urbanism in the city. Usually, developments and installation of new furniture require administration, permits and long waiting period. The project has showed, simple tools and street furniture can be deployed quick and easy, without the administrative burden. Implementation periods can also be smaller in scale, and temporary. Not every development should be time and money consuming. Temporary, tactical urbanism can test different approaches, until a final solution is reached by all the stakeholders. Small scale pilots are useful to test user satisfaction in real life, and to amend project design accordingly. With this approach, the neighbourhood can really be involved in the process, the implementation and the design as well.
Please provide clear documentation, communication of methodology and principles in this context.
The project is based on 3 main principles; a clear inspiration, involvement of partners and original ideas formed to local conditions.
- Get a clear inspiration
The project was inspired by the transformation of the quay of river Seine in Paris, where a 3.3 km long riverfront has become a permanent pedestrian and cycling zone, where locals and tourists, children and adults alike can walk and cycle, play games and sports, and in the summertime restaurants and bars open their terraces to make the riverbank even more comfortable to spend some time.
- Involve strong partners.
Involvement of potential partners is key factor for implementation. Partners should come from both administration and non-governmental sides. Residents also needs to be part of the planning and implementation phase, to make sure the project responds to citizens’ needs and wishes.
- Have an original character and be experimental.
Not all intervention has to be permanent and cost a lot of money. Piloting and experimental projects contribute to testing different solutions, to choose the most adequate response for local problems. In this project, the experimental design was a key part of the methodology. Seasonal adjustment of public space emphasizes different use cases throughout the year. An original character makes the place unique, attracting not only locals but people from other part of the city too.
The project was so successful, soon a similar communal space was established by Valyo at a different location in Budapest, alongside the Danube, and the project organisers with the Municipality of Budapest are planning to carry out a temporary public place on another section of the quay in 2022. The experimental nature of the project makes it easy to transfer and to scale up.
Video of the project: www.youtube.com/watch?v=GjizSjzQO4Y
@VALYO, 2021
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