Cityscape, streetscape, green space, green surface – we explain the most common construction concepts

2023-05-29 19:01:05

They appear many times in various articles, but their meaning is not obvious.

In articles on architecture, as well as in our series, which tries to avoid complicated technical terms as much as possible, in Ismeretlen Budapest, which shows the destruction or the survival of the domestic built heritage, terms that are less understandable appear regularly, so it is high time to clarify them.

Let’s see in line!

City and street view

An entire volume of architectural theory could be filled with an explanation of the two concepts, because there is no simple answer: most of the time we mean visual similarity, but not stylistic similarity, so even in a street in Pécs or a square in Budapest, the minimum expected is that new buildings only imitate the facades of those standing in the area , however, it can be expected from them that

with their use of materials, height or any other characteristic, they should still fit into the rhythm of the rows of houses in the area.

Ideally, a 40-story high-rise building would not appear suddenly in the middle of the city center, and there would not be a succession of garish signs or portals on Nagykörút.

Márton Mohos / 24.hu Detail of Teréz boulevard, with signs touching each other.

Stopping the destruction of the city or streetscape is the task of the bodies and persons issuing building permits, but for acceptable decisions, a stricter system of requirements would be needed, and that some architects should not play with building boundaries, resulting in absurd floor plans and building masses, or the most it is led by mediocrity that can be seen in action in apartment buildings.

Bálint Szajki / 24.hu The capital is flooded with dozens of often faceless buildings.

Green surface and green area

At first glance, it might seem that the two words have the same meaning, but nothing could be further from the truth:

the green area is a subset of the green area and can only be a public area accessible without barriers (park, forest, tree line, playground green belt, cemetery),

while the term green space is also used for the grassy area, rows of shrubs and trees visible on the facade or roof of a house.

Márton Mohos / 24.hu In the autumn of 2020, the dog run created in the Városliget along Dürer row in Ajtós was covered with artificial grass – missing the opportunity to increase the proportion of green space.

The minimum size of these on a building plot is set as a percentage by various regulations – such as the Government Decree on the National Urban Planning and Construction Requirements (OTÉK) or the local/district building regulations (HÉSZ, KÉSZ) – but they often do not state that the once established Surfaces must be maintained in good quality and alive in the years following the handover.

Installation ratio

Among the constraints affecting investors, builders and architects, the most important is how much of the given property can be built on: this is determined by the built-in ratio, which covers separately the parts of the building above and below ground level, so in extreme cases, even an underground garage or there may be underground levels, but people walking on the street see only a two-story apartment building.

Building, facade and cornice height

The formulas that seem complicated at firstand in addition to the building and facade height, which can be calculated based on rules and can be intelligently varied with different planning tricks – such as floors with a smaller floor area than the ground floor – the architect must also pay attention to the location of the cornice, which in the case of a high roof determines the maximum height of the point where the facade wall plane and the roof meet, and for a flat roof, the top plane of the uppermost closing slab is taken into account.

Varga Jennifer / 24.hu Of course, there is an exemption from the rules: this is given by the government’s emphasis, further expanding the boundaries – excellent examples of this are the reconstructions taking place next to the Buda Castle, in which the cabinet once again implements the errors of scale that were already committed at the turn of the century, by placing buildings of exaggerated size and height on top of the Castle Hill .

Level area indicator

The data obtained by dividing the gross floor area of ​​all building levels (balconies, lichthofs, side-open corridors, and without porches) by the size of the lot is also important, as this must also remain below a predetermined value. The maximum can be regulated separately by local ordinances, so there are places in Hungary where the area of ​​storage units attached to the house or underground parking spaces does not have to be taken into account, but basically they also count.