In Budapest, at the intersection of Árpád út and Váci út, one of the most innovative residential parks in the city was built on an empty plot of land that has been unused for more than ten years. Historically, the area is known for its manufacturing industry, which, however, collapsed after the regime change in 1989, and the buildings previously standing here were also demolished. After that, the building complex now known as Panoráma Lakópark (Panorama Residence) was built here as a brownfield investment between 2018-2020.
The novelty of the buildings is due to the fact that, unlike the Hungarian practice in general, significant attention was paid to green spaces. On the one hand, the complex of four buildings has significant green areas (in addition to the playgrounds and decorative coverings), and on the other hand, each building has a large, continuous flat roof with extensive green roofs.
In addition to the aesthetic experience, green roofs play an important role in increasing the thermal insulation of the buildings and in the treatment and utilization of precipitation, as well as in slowing down the surplus, thus easing the load on the sewer network. Some of the water stored in the drain system supplies the green surface from the plates, and the infiltrating amount is collected in cisterns so that it can even be used for irrigation.
In addition, the most characteristic element of the building's façade and its overall appearance is the "green wall", which has been an attractive example in architecture since its appearance of Bosco Verticale in Milan. The use of vertical green space in Hungary is a novelty, so the construction required innovative solutions. Live strips of plants have been planted on each level, including trees that can grow up to a height of six meters (their roots can be grown in one-cubic-meter boxes) to be visually joined together between stories. In addition to the future appearance, the urban ecological and air-conditioning effect of the plants was also taken into account: the evaporation of the foliage, the ability to shade the trees and the ability of the vegetation to bind dust and smog create a unique microclimate for the buildings. It is interesting that the treatment of the facade vegetation can only be solved with alpine technology, and for this task the condominiums employ a specialist.
