English summary
KÉK’s potential roles in urban regeneration. Two years later, KÉK moved to another location: the 7-storey, 6000m2 downtown office building offered very different possibilities. Learning from their lost investment in the previous location, and conscious of their short–term, 6-month contract, KÉK’s members did not invest extensively in the building. They opened the premises to the public as a “found space”, adapting their events to the building’s peculiar, 100-room layout. However, by using the façade and roof for exhibitions and screenings, KÉK attempted to bring the building temporarily back into the public realm. Although KÉK’s presence in the downtown offices lasted only a few months, its legacy was long-lasting. The experience of using two radically different buildings in distant parts of the city taught KÉK about the importance of space in the life of an organization, and about the possibilities and obligations brought along by running a space. It also inspired KÉK’s members to think about potential multiplications of the experience. Understanding the transformative role of creating temporary presence in physical spaces, KÉK began to help civic organizations, cultural initiatives, and social enterprises learn about their spatial needs, capacities and costs, and access spaces to experiment with them. The problems and possibilities of vacant properties had been present in many of KÉK’s projects. We guided walks to the city’s unknown spaces as unused resources since 2006, organized workshops about architectural possibilities in vacant lots and attic spaces in the late 2000s and launched our first community gardens in 2012. From the mid-2000s, we witnessed entire streets losing their commerce and foot traffic, and adjacent public spaces turning into avoidable spots. Aware of the emerging problem of vacant properties as a combined result of bad management and the economic crisis, KÉK began a structured research into the phenomenon of vacancy. In 2012, we launched a program to understand the causes, patterns, and potentials of empty shops, offices, schools, hotels, department stores, cinemas, and theatres all across the city. The Lakatlan program, referring to the Hungarian word for “Uninhabited”, is a combination of research, advocacy and mediation activities. After a lecture series bringing together
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