In the 8th district of Budapest, a 25-hectare zone has been cleared to make way for a new shopping mall and housing for wealthy Hungarians and foreign investors. Corvin Promenade, as it is to become known, is a property development scheme with a destructive legacy. The 18th and 19th century architectural heritage has been swept aside and the "Roma ghetto" has been demolished. The former residents have been forced out, as the there is no social housing in the new scheme.
more »In the 8th district of Budapest, a 25-hectare zone has been cleared to make way for a new shopping mall and housing for wealthy Hungarians and foreign investors. Corvin Promenade, as it is to become known, is a property development scheme with a destructive legacy. The 18th and 19th century architectural heritage has been swept aside and the "Roma ghetto" has been demolished. The former residents have been forced out, as the there is no social housing in the new scheme.
The Corvin Promenade project is emblematic of increasing homogenisation and gentrification of cities in Eastern Europe.
Marginalised communities existing at the periphery, are often moved aside when the land they occupy is considered too valuable. The unreconstructed secessionist architecture remained dilapidated but standing firm on their solid brick foundations. Their demise was sealed with the tenants who lived inside. The removal of the Roma became more profitable than leaving them to their ghetto. Their dispersement, considered a small price to pay for a city intent on transformation.
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