Aerial Photography as a New Perspective in Planning and Rehabilitation: Regional Conceptualizations along the Danube and around Lake Balaton in Socialist Hungary

Wettstein, Domonkos (2025) Aerial Photography as a New Perspective in Planning and Rehabilitation: Regional Conceptualizations along the Danube and around Lake Balaton in Socialist Hungary. SOPHIA JOURNAL ARCHITECTURE, ART AND IMAGE, 10 (1). pp. 18-38.

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Abstract

Aerial photography has also influenced the modern interpretation of the landscape and the development of modern architectural concepts. An example of this is the aerial photo series documenting the developments of the Lake Balaton Region by Hungarian architects. The modernization of the largest lake in Central and Eastern Europe, has also achieved significant recognition in the international professional history. However, aerial photos soon played an important role in ecological restoration beyond planning. The Balaton resort project started in 1957 with a new scale and methodology of regional planning process. The project leader was Tibor Farkas, who continuously documented the transformation of the landscape by taking aerial photos from an airplane. These aerial photos provide the primary material for the research. The photos also show the interpretation of the landscape and the formation of architectural concepts. A year earlier, he had successfully prepared the regional plan for the Mohács Island recovery after floods on the Danube. In this process, he already experimented with the use of aerial photography as a design tool and used the experiences in the planning of the Balaton region. The innovative methodology of the Balaton regional plan, which he developed together with Charles Polónyi, later a member of TEAM 10, integrated the scales of architecture, urban planning and regional planning. The Balaton plan was successfully presented at international forums, including the regional planning congress in Liege in 1958 and the last CIAM forum in Otterlo in 1959. In 1965, the Patrick Abercrombie Prize of the UIA was dedicated to “Tibor Farkas and his team” for the integrated methodical treatment of landscape and architectural values. The Balaton regional plan brought a new scale of planning not only to architects and urban planners, but also to the garden designers who worked closely with them. Over time, the modernization of the landscape also brought ecological problems to the fore. In contrast to the visual landscape interpretation of architecture, a more complex landscape interpretation of ecology was needed, which also revalued the role of architecture. The development of Hungarian landscape architecture can also be linked to the Balaton project, when earlier garden designers began to develop landscape-scale concepts, which soon resulted in the institutionalization of landscape architecture and the launch of university education.

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