In the summer of 2024, we created a temporary rest park and public space on the Pest lower embankment between Chain Bridge and Elizabeth Bridge, on Jane Haining rakpart, bringing people closer to urban spaces and the river.
The RAKPART project was born in the spirit of the urban planning movement called placemaking. Placemaking aims to reimagine areas underused by city residents, demonstrating possible future uses through temporary interventions and leisure activities. The long-term renovation of the Pest lower embankment holds the potential for a livable, human-centered capital.
The VIADUKT spaces beneath the tram number 2 are located where former warehouses once stretched for several kilometers. These distinctive spaces housed exhibitions, installations, cultural programs, and hospitality. At RAKPART, programs organized by residents and coordinated by Valyo brought life to the Budapest Danube bank.
We named and inaugurated the RAKPART stairs and spaces, opened the Valyo Community Viaduct, where on weekends visitors could explore the Valyo historical exhibition curated by Balka creative studio and Lőrinc Rácz’s light-sensitive installations.
With the debut of our joint publication with Fortepan, we traveled back in time and imagined together what the embankment was like then and what it could become in the future.
In September, community programs launched. For two weekends, you filled the RAKPART spaces with one great event after another: group meditation, K-pop, readings, concerts, performances, conversations, children’s activities, and of course the beloved summer evening strolls. We inaugurated the open stage, shade structures went up, grills were fired up, and children played happily in the sand. We were just settling into our rhythm—instead of cars, brilliant programs filled the RAKPART… and then came the flood. Everyone moved as one—volunteers, performers, residents—to clear the newly inhabited embankment within days. We were sad, but had to admit: the water is the boss.
As soon as the water receded, we built a monument from driftwood to the Danube that peaked at 830 cm, then took possession of the embankment one last time with our favorite programs and bid farewell to the season in fitting style with the now-traditional candlelit farewell dinner.
