Name: Urban Garden, diploma project, 2022
Location: Budapest, Hungary
Consultants: Balázs Marián DLA*, Dominika Tihanyi DLA*, Kinga German Phd

Gardens have long been fundamental to human habitation, once forming an inseparable part of the home. With urbanization, however, gardens became detached from dwellings—now existing as private luxuries or in the form of community gardens. This separation has not only changed the spatial reality of gardens but has also disrupted the rituals and practices that once accompanied them, leading to a loss of certain aspects of daily life that are increasingly absent in contemporary society.

My master’s diploma project addresses these issues by proposing an architectural response to the evolving role of gardens in the city. The design considers not only the spatial and ritual significance of gardens but also the broader economic, social, and political challenges facing contemporary urbanism. The aim is to create a group of spaces that can ease the tensions of a constantly changing urban fabric and restore a sense of stability and belonging.

In today’s neoliberal urban landscape, both residents and urban gardens often find themselves in precarious, transient positions. Community gardens, typically established on temporarily available brownfield sites, lack permanence—forcing communities to relocate much like tenants, undermining stability and the possibility for deeper social and spatial connections. This instability prevents the cultivation of lasting rituals and a true sense of home.

My project proposes a new type of urban garden that maintains a permanent home while preserving the open, adaptable structure characteristic of community gardens. The selected site—adjacent to the Dohány Street Synagogue in Budapest, on Dohány utca 10 and Síp utca 8–10—offers a rare urban enclave with existing and partially demolished buildings, providing a unique opportunity to integrate new communal spaces into the city’s historic core.

The intervention introduces a prefabricated column framework between the brick buildings, accommodating housing, markets, production, and education alongside consumption. Attached greenhouses serve not only as spaces for cultivation but also as essential elements of the buildings’ infrastructure, making the garden an inseparable, functional part of the architecture.

This approach enhances urban food production and supports the city’s economic autonomy, while the greenhouse’s enclosed character preserves the garden’s sense of sanctuary. Unlike the temporary nature of most urban gardens, this project embeds the garden as a permanent, intentional feature of the city—offering stability and autonomy for its community in the midst of urban transformation.

By reimagining the urban garden as a lasting, integrated element, the project seeks to restore lost rituals, foster community, and provide a resilient, productive, and meaningful space for urban life.