Economy 31 May 2017, 5:10pm

Hungary's Orbán would tear down top floor of blocks of flats

Portfolio

Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has flagged the other day that one way to make living in tower blocks more likeable is to demolish the top floors of the buildings. His chief of staff János Lázár noted last April that flats in tower blocks are generally extremely hot, so he figured a few top floors should be taken off and those living in those flats should be moved to detached homes.

Local economic news portal hvg.hu reported that Orbán’s plan would primarily mean the tearing down of the top floors of 10-storie tower blocks. There are no details available at this point, only that the PM said that if the affected tenants agree, then Hódmezővásárhely - the home town of Lázár - will be ground zero for the project. A ten-storie building would be refurbished there, including the tearing down of its top floors.

There are about 800,000 homes in concrete blocks of flats (panel buildings) in Hungary, which was the main urban housing type in the Socialist era, a quick remedy for the shortage of flats. These buildings still dominate the landscape all over the country. About two million Hungarians live in blocks of flats.

Things we do not know about the consequences:

What will happen to tenants that will lose their homes this way, where will they move?
Who will finance the partial demolitions? These could cost a lot more than the renovation of homes. The state will need additional funding, but we don’t know how much. The flats to be torn down need to be purchased from the owners, and demolition works are not cheap, either.
What makes a panel building nicer if it has eight or nine floors than if it has ten or eleven?
Why would a flat be less hot in the summer for those who now live on the 8th or 9th floor which will become the top floor after the demolition?

Although partial demolition may be an easier job than construction, and it has been used elsewhere in the world, the panel buildings are unlikely to go for this option in great numbers.

Tearing down the top floors is feasible

This would not be the first time a concrete “panel" building is demolished in Hungary. Hotel Volga at a busy intersection of Budapest was erased from the face of the earth by Futureal to give space for the current Vision Towers. Up until 2012 it was the largest building of this kind.

The building proved much more resilient than anticipated. And there is little difference between one panel building and another. The panels had been manufactured by two or three factories, although some of the buildings may be less solid structures than others due to possible deficiencies during construction. Overall, the biggest problem in panel buildings is usually engineering (pipes) and the electric wiring. Their insulation is bad, while statically they are generally solid structures.

The demolition of Hotel Volga. Photo by Portfolio

Hydraulic shovels are out of the question when it comes to tearing down the top floors of panel buildings, but it is not an impossible task, theoretically that is. It has been done elsewhere in the world.