From parking lot to community space: City Hall pop-up park opens its gates in Budapest – PHOTOS

On 17 May, the City Hall pop-up park opened up to the public in the space that formerly functioned as the car park of the City Hall. Gergely Karácsony, mayor of Budapest, spoke at the opening, highlighting the importance of green community spaces in the heart of Hungary’s capital.

The refurbishing of the City Hall Park has been in plans for a long time

As Telex.hu reports, Gergely Karácsony had already indicated in his mayoral campaign that the City Hall parking lot would be demolished, and the repurposed area would be opened to pedestrians.

Ultimately, the design of the park was put out to tender in November 2021, which received a total of 19 entries. The winning design was then selected by landscape architects and urban planners. The development project was launched by the municipality in April.

“We are giving back to the people of Budapest the fenced-off area in front of the City Hall, where we are creating a landscaped agora. We are bringing the daily operations of the City Hall closer to the people, and we are creating space for diverse events to make the City Hall Park a place of culture and encounters,” Telex.hu quoted the Mayor’s Office when first works began in spring.

According to plans, the former 4,000 square metres of open space will be increased to 7,000, and the new community space in the courtyard of the City Hall will “offer recreation in the centre of Budapest with an exciting design, unique street furniture, and plants.”

In his speech at the opening of the pop-up park at the City Hall, Mayor Gergely Karácsony emphasised that the project has a symbolic message, as it shows “that the city’s leadership wants to share its ideas, its problems, and its opportunities with the city’s residents. That it is more important for us to have another open space in the city where everyone can enjoy themselves than to keep it closed off to ourselves.”

He also highlighted that Budapest is in desperate need of green spaces and that the city government believes that “in the era of climate change, we should take every opportunity to free up land to green the city.”