On March 30 2026, Budapest announced the winner of the largest urban design competition the city has seen in generations. The site in question, Rákosrendező, spans a 244-hectare planning area between the XIII and XIV districts—86 hectares of it disused railway land acquired by the municipality—vast enough to feel, even now, more like an absence than a neighbourhood. Over the next two decades, that absence is meant to become a new piece of city: a place where nearly 30,000 people will live, move through, and spend their days.
The international competition was launched by the Budapest Metropolitan Municipality in September last year, with the aim of transforming the current railway brownfield site into a liveable, environmentally conscious and socially inclusive new district. The winning proposal came from a consortium led by the French architecture studio Coldefy, working with Cityförster, Sporaarchitects, Treibhaus Landschaftsarchitektur, Marko and Placemakers. ZOA Studio produced the renderings and aerial images that introduced the scheme to the jury, the municipality and, eventually, the press.