A case study on Budapest: Lessons on urban resilience

The city of Budapest was chosen to demonstrate how bottom-up initiatives are able to facilitate participatory design, provide a sense of ownership, giving back the sense of place and the 'right to the city' (Lefebvre, 1996). The post-socialist city has been subject to rapid urban transformations in the past years, most of which are via a top-down approach, presenting challenges which are considered typical due to its socialist history. Its recent policymaking is studied with the impact on the urban fabric and society and how it seems to be unique in some aspects in spite of its historical context, offering lessons to other cities on societal and urban resilience. A number of bottom-up civic initiatives are enumerated in order to analyze how they respond to policymaking fallacies thus leading the way towards resilience. Furthermore, how might they contribute to empowering communities and in the long-term, create an impact what may prospectively support the transition towards a low carbon future.