Title

Author(s)

Michele Dovere

Leonardo Junior Pagano

Affiliation

Università degli Studi della Campania “Luigi Vanvitelli” – Dipartimento di Architettura e Disegno Industriale

DOI

https://doi.org/10.65686/JJNY9978

Keywords

Industrial Heritage; Adaptive Reuse; Intangible Reuse

PP

321-327

How to Cite

Dovere, Michele, Leonardo Junior Pagano. “Ruins and Reels The Kelenföld Power Station in Budapest as an Emblematic Case of Immaterial Adaptive Reuse through Cinematography.” In Proceedings of the International Conference on Adaptive Reuse. Volume 1, edited by Andrea Crudeli, Francesca Molle, and Emanuele Carrai, 321–327. Firenze: STH Press, 2026.

Abstract

The Kelenföld Power Plant, located in Budapest, stands as an emblematic example of industrial architecture which, although decommissioned since 2005, continues to hold symbolic and cultural significance. Despite the building having lost its original function as an energy production facility, its presence has been revitalized through cinema, appearing in films such as World War Z, Chernobyl Diaries, Spy, and Terminal. In these contexts, the plant is not merely a backdrop but a narrative element that contributes to the construction of cultural and historical meaning. The reuse of Kelenföld is not a physical recovery in the traditional sense, but a symbolic reactivation that grants the structure a new value. The architecture of the building, even in its state of abandonment, becomes a “site of memory”—to use Aldo Rossi’s terminology—a place that retains its meaning not through practical use, but through collective memory and its reinterpretation. The reflection on industrial architecture as a symbolic space has also been explored by other thinkers such as Richard Sennett and Umberto Eco, who have addressed the relationship between buildings and cultural memory. The power plant becomes a fragment of a city that no longer exists in the same way, yet still manages to live on in the present through forms of adaptive reuse that reinterpret its significance. In this sense, adaptive reuse is not merely an architectural intervention, but a cultural practice that allows abandoned buildings to preserve a new vitality, integrating into the contemporary urban landscape as tangible testimonies of the past.

Edited by
Andrea Crudeli
Francesca Molle
Emanuele Carrai

Publisher
STH Press, Firenze

ISBN Paperback – 9791281661141
ISBN Ebook – 9791281661158
DOI – https://doi.org/10.65686/SISY7263

Year
2026

Proceedings of
International Conference on Adaptive Reuse
hosted by The University of Pisa, Italy
15-19 September 2025, at the Gispoteca di Arte Antica dell’Università di Pisa.