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"Sometimes I used tricks"

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"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
When did you first feel it was time to call it a day?

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
It's not just about powers. The City Assembly tends to accept the advice of the Chief Architect's Office. Developers obviously want to bring about the largest investment possible, while we are more interested in their concrete actions. I won't claim that we always managed to find the happy medium, but I always tried. The Savoya Park in Budafok was a deserted field for years. We wanted to develop it into a proper city centre, but we didn't have the money. So, when an investor expressed an interest, I insisted that the company extend the number 18 tram route in exchange. But it was impossible to force him to link the new development to a nearby highway. We learned from this: with the West End City Centre, we forced the investor to repair the Ferdinand Bridge, which serves the shopping centre. Sandor Demjan was furious. The contract also obliged them to repair the pavement on Nyugati ter, but they wriggled out of that one.

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