The Debrecen Házai (Houses of Debrecen) online website was launched in 2019 by architect Attila Harangi. The young architect, who is mapping the civic residential houses of Debrecen, started the site with 200 civic residential houses listed.
His university research project was about the civic houses in Debrecen and their utilization possibilities. The aim of his website is to create an interactive, online collection of the remaining civic houses in the city. He identifies the preservation and utilization of buildings as the most important task ahead and looking for an answer to the question “how these historic buildings can survive in the developing and transforming urban environment.
Many historical houses in Debrecen are called a civic house, but they are actually not.
Civic houses are the oldest of houses in Debrecen. They face the street with a triangular pediment, reaching deep into the plot in a comb-toothed arrangement and side border. These are the original civic houses.
According to the architect, unfortunately, most of the civic houses that remain are in very poor condition today. They were last built in the early 1900s, after which this civic design culture disappeared. Then the city suffered very severe damage from the 1944 bombing, and in recent decades they have not been much dealt with, their condition has quickly deteriorated greatly. Now, they are in such bad shape that it will be technically a big challenge to make them usable.
There are roughly 1,400 properties in Debrecen, Civic houses that have survived in some form. There are places where it is very bad, and they can not be saved, elsewhere some are in very nice condition.
The architect found 300 houses that have retained their character and are usable. See some civic residential houses of Debrecen on the website Debrecen Házai.
