Yves Marchand/Romain Meffre: Budapest Courtyards

Between 2014 and 2016, Yves Marchand and Romain Meffre visited 400 of the more than 4,000 internal courtyards in Budapest. Their large number and variety of styles incorporating different facets of classicism and modernity make them a remarkable architectural phenomenon-a charming second city within the city.

Marchand and Meffre systematically documented these courtyards, producing a typological series that describes this particular form of collective housing and reflects the city’s tumultuous history, its changing political regimes and economy. Budapest Courtyards allows us to delight in the crumbling grandeur of the courtyards, and observe the developments and personal strategies of adaptation which they evidence.

In line with their work on Detroit and Gunkanjima Island, Marchand and Meffre have managed to navigate two extremes at the intimate heart of the Hungarian capital to best superimpose the Budapests of today and the last century, producing an extensive series that offers an untarnished view of this unique heritage. Helene Bienvenu