News

MRI News: Social Rehabilitation and Urban Planning in Budapest

2015-05-18

Recent domestic works of Metropolitan Research Institute staff include the coordination of Social Rehabilitation Handbook for the use of Budapest municipalities, and the in-depth sociological and housing mobility study of residential areas of Budapest’s District 21.

URBACT: Iván Tosics on Post-Crisis Urban Planning

2015-05-14

The financial crisis raised limitations to city planning, but innovative approaches channeling bottom-up initiatives into large-scale programmes could help overcome challenges – informs MRI Managing Director Iván Tosics’s recent article on the URBACT website.

REPLAN – Innovative Solutions to Urban Housing Challenges (2014-2015)

2015-05-07

After a year-long research project, the socially inclusive architectural design volume REPLAN – Innovative Solutions to Urban Housing Challenges was presented by Holcim Hungaria Home Foundation on 6 May 2015.

URBACT website: Ivan Tosics on Growing Cities

2015-04-06

Growing cities: how to expand in a sustainable and integrated way? – is the question Ivan Tosics, managaing director of MRI, attempts to answer in his recent article of the URBACT project website.

CIVITAS CAPITAL (2013-2016)

2014-11-04

Title: CIVITAS CAPITAL – Making the best of CIVITAS!

Client: European Commission, Seventh Framework Programme (FP7)

Bloomberg Mayor’s Challenge 2014

2014-10-06

This year’s Bloomberg Mayor’s Challenge 2014 was closed on 17 September.

Effects of Governance Models on Affordability, Sustainability and Efficiency of the water Services in Three Transition Countries – Project Closing Workshop

2013-12-08

The Metropolitan Research Institute (MRI), supported by Open Society Institute (OSI) and Global Development Network (GDN) conducted a research on water sector management in three countries (Armenia, Hungary, Romania). On February 1, 2013 MRI,

OECD conference on rural development, Bologna

2013-11-18

Iván Tosics participated in the OECD 9th Rural Development Policy Conference “Rural-Urban partnerships: an integrated approach to economic development”, 23-25 October, 2013 Bologna, Italy. In one of the sessions he gave a presentation entitled “Integrated development in metropolitan areas”. His blog-post about the topic and the conference can be read here.

Sustainable Regeneration in suburbs – promoting social integration in deprived neighbourhoods through ERDF housing interventions (2011-2013)

2013-11-10

Complex urban development programme in Most (Czech Republic) financed from ERDF. Photo: MRI.

Project duration: November 2011- September 2013

Client: Directorate General of Regional and Urban policy

The aim of the study was to improve the understanding of European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) used in housing projects, and how ERDF has fostered integrated approaches addressing housing, energy and socio-economic needs of deprived urban areas and communities. The study drew together information from all stages of policy and project development concerning the programming period of 2007-2013 to help assisting the use of ERDF in the 2014-20 programming period and the new Operational Programmes. MRI participated in the elaboration of the final report and led three case studies out of the ten (Hungary, Czech Republic and Poland).

The detailed analysis on the use of ERDF for housing purposes showed that ERDF was primarily used for the renovation of private multi-unit buildings in East-Central Europe while it contributed more to the refurbishment of the public housing stock in the old member states. The definition of “deprived neighbourhood” was differently interpreted in the different member states and while the subsidy schemes focused on the lowest status estates in some member states (like in Hungary) they supported the renovation of middle class housing complexes (e.g. in Poland) and concentrated less on social and more on energy problems of the housing stock.

Client: European Commission DG Regio

Period: 12/2011 – 08/2013