The role of narratives in the preservation of post-war built legacies in Budapest

Abstract

Hungarian professionals have highlighted the vulnerability of post-war built legacies in Budapest. Their reference point is the recent transformation of central areas showing a significant number of demolitions and a small number of conservative refurbishments. This is commonly attributed to the narratives of revisionist memory politics and/or the stigma of architecture built under state socialism. In contrast, professional activism and recent official listings have indicated a change of paradigms towards the extension of the official patrimonial acknowledgement to post-war built legacies. Throughout the case of the House of Diplomats, this article presents the origins of diverging narratives and discusses their impact as risk or potential in architectural preservation.