Hungary
traffic planner, where the long- or short-term plans
of developers and investors can turn the balance.
However, the renewal of the city by central govern-
ment and the municipalities should always take the
long-term view. Urban reconstruction has created
opportunities for new open spaces, such as gardens
and pocket parks, on sites brought into being by the
demolition of industrial buildings or the selected
demolition of blocks of flats in densely built-up trad-
itional residential districts.
Regions that have avoided urbanisation, to a greater
or lesser extent, provide another type of task for
landscape architects. Owing to Hungary’s wide-
ranging landscape heritage, almost 10 per cent of
the country’s territory is protected natural areas,
assets of local and national importance. These natu-
ral and cultural landscapes are considerable attrac-
tions in terms of recreation and tourism. At the level
of spatial and development planning, the landscape
architect, recognising the capacity of the landscape
for development in relation to recreation and tour-
ism, must ensure that such development does not
damage the existing character of the landscape.
Accession to the EU could bring changes to agri-
culture, such as an increase in traditional organic
farming and land management. Moderate economic
development can be beneficial, if it is motivated by
a thorough knowledge of landscape features and
traditions, and if the rural landscape can provide
semi-natural sites for recreation and ecological
conservation. At the same time, such development
must be done in such a way that the distinctions
between different types of landscapes are not lost.
Hungarian landscape architecture was shaped
by modernist functionalism until the end of the
1980s. Landscape and open space structure were
very much determined by the basic principles of
everyday usage, so the clearly expressed function
appeared as an aesthetic value without ornamental
decoration or l’art pour l’art. After the events of
1989, a change can be seen in both the content
and the function of Hungarian landscape architec-
ture, as a consequence of the transformed insti-
tutional, administrative system and the new circle
of investors. It also might derive from the quick
spread of new theoretical ideas and trends from
western countries and from new building materials
and technologies. Regarding the content, a freer
approach to the ground-plan structure of open
space designs and towards ornamentation was
noticeable. Later, the self-assertive intention of the
designer to articulate a clear artistic essence could
also be seen. The fashionable philosophical trends
from the West, such as the architectural reflection
of post-modernism and deconstructivism, have
had an influence on landscape architecture, but
only in a gradual way.
