Circle of paradigms? Or ‘15-minute’ neighbourhoods from the 1950s

Abstract

The concept of neighbourhood units has been existing for almost 100 years.Its basic elements have been continuously re-emerging in both theory and practice. It has recently been highlighted by the concept of “15-minute cities”, with which it shares many similarities.Although the communist leadership of the post-WWII Eastern Bloc demanded the Western principles of urban planning and architecture to be denounced by architects, Perry's neighbourhood unit concept was integrated into Soviet professional practice under the name “micro-rayons”. Afterwards, it was widely and rigorously used in other communist countries as well.This paper examines - based on the example of two actual housing estates built based on the neighbourhood unit concept in the 1950s in Budapest – which characteristics, seen as attractive during the planning phase, of the for-sale apartments located in the example areas are still considered valuable by owners, and which are used as buzzwords to bring up market value. The goal is to evaluate which urbanistic/urban design guidelines, formulated and prioritised during the planning phase, are still relevant in the eyes of the current inhabitants. To answer this question, the study analyses the text of real estate advertisements.