Lakatlan is an initiative by the KÉK – Hungarian Contemporary Architecture Centre to reactivate the vacant spaces of Budapest. We work closely with NGOs, social enterprises and community initiatives, as well as with professional organisations, municipal officers and decision-makers, to elaborate the legal and economic frameworks that allow eligible organizations to use vacant properties for a defined period. The program consists of activities including identifying local organizations in need of space; finding empty properties and matching them with the organizations; developing the samples for legal and commercial contracts defining the in-between use of these spaces; mentoring and incubating the organizations as well as helping them elaborate an organizational strategy; negotiating with owners; and organizing professional and large public events and media campaigns.
WHAT WE DO? We discuss, map and activate vacant spaces.
We discuss
Lakatlan aims at finding solutions to the emerging problem of vacant properties in our cities. We investigate causes and look for answers: with the help of international and local experts, and in the frame of workshops, lectures, discussions, we examine a diversity approaches, methods and best practices. This website operates as a professional platform, helping the exchange of ideas and experiences.
We map
Lakatlan launched its community map in December 2012, inviting citizens to upload data about vacant buildings, complexes, shops in Budapest. The map helps us in creating an inventory, accessible to everyone and encouraging the public to save and reactivate these properties.
We activate
The Lakatlan __Reload! calls for projects with communal, social and cultural features that need space (a building, a shop, an office, a workshop, a parcel) for their accomplishment. We cooperate with these initiatives and our partners in order to develop the project ideas into sustainable models, and to bring them into those currently vacant spaces that can accommodate them with favorable conditions.
LAKATLAN is a project of Hungarian Contemporary Architecture Centre.
