Greyfields in South-Pest: Investigation potentials

Abstract

Underused urban spaces are traditionally associated with the concept of brownfields, although a broader categorization is available in the international literature. In the 21st century, brownfield sites have also changed and no longer exclusively refer to contaminated areas abandoned by industry. This conceptual change has given rise to many concepts such as the greyfield, which is a specific case of brownfield left behind by the service sector.

As early as the late twentieth century, there was already a remarkable academic debate in the international literature on typical examples of specific types of greyfields such as underutilised shopping centres and business parks on the urban periphery. In the United Kingdom and Europe, the concept relates to areas within cities that are underutilized and whose utilization can be enhanced through urban planning tools. There is also an approach that places less emphasis on the building itself and focuses specifically on the surrounding transport infrastructure and parking facilities. In the US, the term „greyfield” refers to shopping malls or strip centers which showed signs of prosperity in their early days, but due to a lack of investment, they were surpassed by their larger competitors with more practical and wider selection stores.

Research in Hungary, however, has mainly focused on areas with high industrial concentration, and the subject of greyfields is still under-researched even today. Mainly because after the socialist period, instead of big shopping malls industrial structures with large transport infrastructure lay around abandoned.

The aim of this study is to examine the applicability of the concept of greyfields in Hungary, to localise potential greyfields and to present their regeneration potential. The research shows the underused shopping centres of four Budapest districts (XIX, XX, XXI and XXIII) and the service centres typical to socialist countries on the basis of a field survey. The paper begins with an extensive literature review, both briefly covering the changes in the concept of the brownfield, and then also discussing the interpretations of the concept of the greyfield over the years and continents. The paper is also giving a thorough review on the shopping centres in the suburban areas as well as service buildings closely tied to socialist housing estates, which was a typical form of commerce in socialist Hungary. In addition, it describes the potential greyfield objects in the study area: poorly performing shopping centres and service buildings closely tied to the above mentioned socialist housing estates. The results of the study address both preservation and rehabilitation options on both investigated matter, thus reflecting the international theoretical discourse on the issue and its applicability to other areas in the Hungarian capital and beyond.