Wekerletelep
Budapest, Hungary
Garden estate in the Hungarian capital Budapest.
| Garden City Type: | Mixed (housing association / municipality / other) |
| Country: | Hungary |
| City: | Budapest |
| Years of construction: |
1908 Start construction (Years mentioned in different sources as the year construction was finished are 1921, 1925 and 1928.) 1921 Completion
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| Initiator/client: | Municipality of Budapest |
| Architect or related: |
Róbert Fleischl Róbert Fleischl (November 16 , 1864 – February 24, 1926) was a Hungarian architect and member of the Association of Hungarian Architects. He prepared the proposal for the tender for the construction of Wekerletelep. Károly Kós Karoly Kos (16 December 1883 – 25 August 1977) as a Hungarian architect, writer, illustrator, ethnologist and |
| Heritage status: | Yes |
| Explanation: | In 2011, Wekerletelep was made a national monument. |
| General condition of Garden City: | Good condition |
General description
Wekerletelep is a garden suburb on the outskirts of the Hungarian capital Budapest and part of its XIX District, known as Kispest. Like many cities, the population of Budapest grew significantly towards the end of the 20th century, creating housing problems and unhealthy living conditions. Architect Róbert Fleischl proposed building planned housing estates, similar to the ideas of the Ebenezer Howard's Garden city movement. The new settlement, which is nowadays surround by the expanded Budapest but retains the atmosphere of a small village, was named after then prime minister Sándor Wekerle. He was an advocate of the idea of building comfortable, human-scale housing estates for government employees, and was instrumental in launching this project of creating a garden city habitat.
Architecture / Urban planning
The layout of the settlement is regular and based on geometry, hierarchically arranged, with two huge gates built of wood and stone leading to Kós Károly tér, its main square. 48 types of one-story and one-story condominiums were built here for the workers' families according to type plans, surrounded by gardens, in a network of streets lined with rows of trees. For this fifty thousand trees were planted during construction. The estate even had its own gardening service, who not only took care of the many plants, flowers and trees of the community spaces, but also helped renters to groom their own gardens as well. Four fruit trees were planted for each apartment; altogether 16.000).
Several residential and public buildings based on type and individual plans were also built. Wekerletelep had its own churches, schools, kindergartens, bakeries, medical clinics, shops serving the residents, and the police station of Kispest was also built here. A restaurant and hotel operated here, as well as a large movie theater, the Wekerle movie theater, later Ady cinema, in a house on Kós Károly tér. Many of these have retained their original function to this day.
Sources
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