Planning healthy cities - the role of markets in urban life

摘要

Liveability of urban areas depends on the quality of common urban places, on the places where people unintentionally meet with their neighbours. Thus it is the quality of life in the neighbourhoods and within it the routines of our everyday life, which defines the quality of our urban lives. Food shopping is a necessary activity of our urban lives and we spend more and more time on the urban places for shopping. The places of shopping, the food malls and markets are taking an important position in our everyday life in the city. The importance of markets is visible from the many markets which have been redeveloped and being under reconstruction in the past years in Budapest. But how can we foster good quality urban places from markets? What are the architectural considerations for creating a welcoming community public space and what other urban development arguments lead the work of our urban planners, these are the questions, my paper tries to unfold. Therefore the question of my research is not about the architectural quality of the buildings but rather the quality of life created in these market places. The research is based on the qualitative interviews with urban planners and architects active in Budapest in the last 5-6 years in reconstructing urban public spaces in and around market halls.