"Sometimes I used tricks"
"I had a very clear conception: I would not allow the city's traditional, characterful patchwork to decay," said the 57-year-old Istvan Schneller, former chief architect of Budapest, who reigned last week. After mounting a spirited 12-year battle against megalomaniac investors, he said, his freedom of manoeuvre had become too constrained.
© Dudás Szabolcs |
After serving two terms I started to reflect. I hesitated for a long time, because it was a great job. It is a fantastic feeling to have a say in major decisions. I worked on the refurbishment of the Exhibition Centre, the Korut, the small underground line. My most recent idea was to create a city centre that could compete with the shopping malls: we held a design competition for ideas that would cut traffic on the inner Korut, looking for ideas that would make better use of the space between Erzsebet ter and Astoria. The tram line would be extended from Madach ter to Nyugati station, we planned to widen the pavement on Bajcsy-Zsilinszky ut.
You're still enthusiastic, what changed?
I was happy working so long as the mayor continued to protect me from the Socialists and their associates' attacks. This changd last year when 11 Socialist district mayors turned against me. I told Gabor Demszky, the mayor, that I would stay for as long as I enjoyed his confidence. At the time he was considering a reshuffle to show he could start afresh in the wake of the controversy surrounding his Croatian holiday villa. We decided I'd leave, but then Zsolt Tiba, the city clerk spoke up for me, and Demszky changed his mind.
But a few weeks ago, Demszky said in an interview that Budapest needed a proactive chief architect.
This wasn't a coded message. Shortly before that interview I told him I was leaving. He didn't hold me back, I didn't want to continue tilting at windmills. The chief architect can't conduct city politics on his own.
What were your failures?
I couldn't stop the shopping centres from spreading. I now realise that my critics were right when they said that these problems could not be solved without the help of suburbs like Budaors, Budakalasz, Dunakeszi and Fot. If I veto something in the city, then it will shift to the outskirts. The other, less personal defeat was the fact that almost 300,000 people moved away from the cty.
Imre Lakos, the Free Democrat leader in the City Assembly, also turned against you by scuppering a plan for redeveloping the area near the Bottomless Lake. Why do people feel so strongly about an official with so few powers?
© Dudás Szabolcs |
Did you have anything against tall buildings?
Absolutely not! But why is a tall building more modern than any other building in the city? Once, such buildings were symbols - companies competed to have the tallest buildings. But how can any individual tall building have symbolic value if it is surrounded by others? Buildings that are more than 120m tall are irrational. They consume energy, it is expensive to make them safe and earthquake-resistant, and people who work in them get acrophobia. The World Trade Centre in New York had enough people working in them to fill a Kaposvar-sized city, but their only contact with the city around was via an underground shopping centre. Cities gain atmosphere from churches, pubs and parks. In Paris, no new building can be more than 37m high - all the skyscrapers have been moved to La Defense, which is outside Paris's administrative boundaries. As it happens, buildings of up to 55m high can be built beyond the Hungaria korut, so I'm not opposed to tall buildings, but lets not have them right next to the Chain Bridge!
GÁBOR SZABÓ
The scientist returns
"Arisztid Kovach was one of my teachers. He already had a lab in Philadelphia at that time. He wasn't an Academician either," said the 38-year-old pharmaceutical researcher who has waded into controversial waters since his return home to Hungary one year ago.
Literature will not survive the 21st century
The 96-year-old writer Gyorgy Faludy worries that literature will not survive the 21st century. The art of conversation is in decline, he believes.
Hungarian Academy of Sciences
The president of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences and two former presidents have joined forces to make the case for lifelong and irrevocable membership of the Academy, and to argue that members should also receive a substantial honorarium, which should also last until the member dies. At the Opera, people are arguing about whether to revoke the public servant status of every last employee, ensuring that everyone be paid on the basis of their performance. However, the great scholarly body is behaving as if its most important job were to preserve its privileges.
On the minority councils
The law on the representation of Hungary's minority is a treatment worse than the disease it was meant to cure.
Tickets, please!
Almost everyone has a story about the ticket inspectors: people who were ordered off the vehicle or allowed to pass, inspectors who were obstructive or sympathetic, who were difficult with foreigners, or who kindly gave directions. HVG.hu travelled with the inspectors, on the trams, on the bus and on the metro.
