Townscape Image Handbooks

The Townscape Image Handbooks (TAK) provide a brief overview of the history of settlements and the related cultural and local built heritage values. The volumes compiled by the relevant experts also present the neighbourhoods of the settlement with different character, thus helping to inform the residents who intend to build a new building or refurbish an existing one, and to comply with the requirements of the planned development to environmental integration. By providing awareness of local building traditions and presenting examples to follow, these handbooks provide guidance to builders, interested parties and professionals alike. The presentation of good examples include the appearance of public spaces, advertising spaces, proposed plantings of plants, solutions for architectural details. After the adoption of TAKs, based on the handbooks, local governmental townscape decrees (TKR) were created and adopted by the local governments. According to these, both the buildings built bound by permit and the buildings built on the basis of the simple notification procedure, as well as other environmental elements can be controlled from the townscape point of view.

Prior to the elaboration of the TAKs, a consultation webservice at http://tak.lechnerkozpont.hu was created, with the use of which the data services were carried out and where the remarks on working materials were also provided. Modifications and additions that may have become necessary in the meantime were reconciled online. Remarks on draft regulations prepared on the basis of the TAKs – TKRs – can also be conducted here. The approved TAKs of the settlements of the country are continuously posted on the website http://tak.e-epites.hu operated by LTK, where builders, planners and decision-makers can also get acquainted with the building culture of the settlements – and good examples provide further inspiration to implement their plans.