PLANNING HORIZONS –

THE HUNGARIAN EDITION Final project brief for the RTPI and the MUT

Prepared by:

Roland Láposi

11-05-2015

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PROJECT BRIEF: PLANNING HORIZONS – THE HUNGARIAN EDITION

1. Overview

With the Planning Horizons the RTPI took an unique approach to look into future of planning

profession by taking a ‘...step back from immediate policy concerns and offer a long term as

well as well as global view of planning and the contribution it can make to some of the

major challenges we face in the 21st Century.’.

The proposed voluntary project aims to contribute to the international planning knowledge

pool available to Hungarian planners and connect them to mainstream research made on

planning’s future by translating and publishing online the RTPI’s Planning Horizons series in

Hungarian.

The expected outcome is that the online Hungarian edition will see numerous downloads

and planners will be more familiar with future issues and global challenges beyond

experience gathered in physical planning.

1.1 Project Brief

The RTPI, the MUT and the volunteers’ team cooperate to produce a Working (draft) Paper,

a ‘Jargon Buster / Zsargonszótár’ and a translated and interpreted Hungarian edition to

RTPI’s Planning Horizons – Thinking Spatially booklet through a pilot project. The Hungarian

edition will keep the same design, layout and graphic elements as the English original apart

from the reviewed Foreword/Introductions page.

The new Hungarian version will be made in ‘pdf’ format and will be published on MUT’s

website with allowance for other key institutions to mirror it to promote through their own

website and social media channels for reaching wider audience.

The main aim of the project is to produce a high quality Hungarian Edition of Thinking

Spatially and in case of welcoming reception by professional audience to pave the way to

translate the rest of the series.

1.2 The Pilot

As a pilot Thinking Spatially the first part of the Planning Horizons series introducing all

topics and themes of unfolded in subsequent parts was chosen by volunteers’ team to see

how parties can work together and cooperate in the project, while exploring opportunities

of translating the other 4 parts of the series based on reception of Hungarian audience and

the effectiveness of group work.

1.3 Project Participants

RTPI – Royal Institute of Town Planners

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Represented by Mr Richard Blyth, Head of Policy and Practice for the RTPI

MUT – Hungarian Society for Urban Planning

Represented by Mr Ongjerth Richard, Chief Executive for ‘Magyar Urbanisztikai

Tudásközpont NKft.’ – the Knowlegde Center of Hungarian Society of Urban

Planning,

Ms Paksi Adrienn, Communications and ER Officer

Ms Szabó Alexandra, Office Manager

Volunteers’ team

Mr Láposi Roland, urban planner, MSc Real Estate and Planning postgraduate

Mr Soóki-Tóth Gábor, urban planner, real estate professional, lecturer, chairman of

the Planning & Development Professional Group of the RICS Hungary

Mr Zsigmond László, urban planner

1.4 Project Budget

Volunteers do work on pro bono basis and raised funds (£100) towards financing any

possible charges of graphic design and desktop publishing.

RTPI and MUT have no cost to bear out with their own usual activities in promoting and

publishing spatial planning researches.

2. Project details

2.1 Roles and commitments

RTPI: copyright owner and author of Planning Horizons

- Appointing a contact person to communicate with MUT about the advancement of

the work done;

- Providing the booklet in editable desktop publishing format to make possible

keeping the original design and layout while replacing the texts;

- Writing a new foreword to Hungarian edition which would be placed next to a newly

inserted MUT foreword on the same page;

MUT: project management, quality control and proof reading, promotion and online

publishing

- Appointed Ms Szabó Alexandra, Office Manager to oversee the process

- Appointed Ms Paksi Adrienn, Communications and ER Officer promoting the new

edition through its own and its partners’ channels;

- Appoint a dedicated MUT member proof reader to perform quality checks at the

Working Paper and in the final stage before publishing online;

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- Online publishing of the Hungarian edition and the Jargon Buster on www.mut.hu

under the ‘Knowledgebase/Tudástár’ – ‘Studies/Tanulmányok’ submenu on a

dedicated web space with elements required by RTPI;

- Providing a direct link to the same sub-menu to the original RTPI Planning Horizons

series website;

- Writing a foreword to the Hungarian edition;

- Providing feedback and project evaluation on pilot to RTPI

Volunteers: translation, interpreting and proof reading, desktop publishing and graphic

design

- All team members: Developing a Jargon Buster to explain British spatial planning

terms used in the original series used in translation;

- Mr Láposi Roland : Translating and interpreting of the Thinking Spatially to

Hungarian chapter by chapter; Providing feedback on pilot to RTPI;

- Mr Soóki-Tóth Gábor: Proof reading each translated chapter and the draft Working

Paper;

- Mr Zsigmond László : Desktop publishing and graphic design to replace English text

with Hungarian and to edit the individual pages

2.2 Project Phases and Timing

Phases

The project has four main phases with overlapping activities. Phase 1 is to develop the

Jargon Buster and get prepared for Phase 2. Phase 2 is the main translation and proof

reading section on a chapter-by-chapter basis; its end product is the draft Working Paper. In

Phase 3 the final proof reading of the draft, the desktop publishing and the final proof

reading of the Hungarian edition is to be done. Phase 4 will see the media announcements,

promotion and online publishing of the Hungarian edition.

Schedule of activities broken down by participants

RTPI

April May June July August September

Agreement with MUT

Providing digital publishing format of Thinking Spatially

Assistance if necessary

Assistance if necessary; Foreword to Hungarian edition

Receiving feedbacks on pilot

Evaluating pilot project; Decision to stop or go forward

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MUT

April May June July August September

Agreement with RTPI

Providing project management framework

proof reading of chapters

proof reading of chapters; Foreword to Hungarian edition

Final proof reading; Sending feedbacks on pilot;

Final proofreading of Hungarian edition; Promotion and publishing

Volunteers

April May June July August September

Project proposal and detailed brief to RTPI; pre-consultation with MUT

Development of the Jargon Buster

Translation and in-house proof reading of chapters

Translation and in-house proof reading of chapters

Producing Working Paper; Sending feedbacks on pilot;

Producing Hungarian edition; Promotion and publishing

2.3 Quality control

To ensure quality translation and the production of a high quality Hungarian edition an in-

house proof reading will be following each of the 4 chapters’ translation (approximately 8-

14 pages / chapter). The fully translated Working Paper will be proof read again by an

appointed MUT representative. Only proof read texts will be inserted into the original

layout. An experienced volunteer is enlisted to deal with desktop publishing and graphic

design editing tasks. Before publishing on MUT website a final quality check will be done on

the Hungarian edition.

2.4 Promotion and Publishing

Only a web-based online version will be published in ‘pdf’ format which is secure, easy to

download, and to read on screen or to be printed by individual user.

MUT will provide a dedicated web spaces for online publishing and promote the Hungarian

edition through its channels. A conceptual idea of the dedicated MUT webpage on mut.hu

with Planning Horizons sub-menu can be seen in Appendix 1. MUT will also promote the

new Hungarian edition through its media partners if possible, and keep contact with other

institutions hauled up by volunteers.

A short evaluation on the outreach capabilities of different possible media partners were

done prior to the final project brief. The basis of the evaluation was the number of followers

of social media sites and where it was published the media audit (usually done with Google

Analytics). The counting was made on 5th May 2015.

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While there isn’t any exclusive list for announcements to be placed, volunteers ask for some

to be included:

- Epiteszforum (www.epiteszforum.hu) : the leading Hungarian online architectural

and urban design dedicated to professional readers with 9279 followers on

Facebook;

- HG ( www.hg.hu): a design magazine with dedicated urban design and planning

topics has 13434 followers on Facebook;

- Oktogon (www.octagon.hu) : the leading paper printed Hungarian architecture

and design magazine with 3110 followers on Facebook;

- MUT’s and MUTK’s own dedicated news section on www.mut.hu and www.mu-

tk.hu ; with 1338 and 559followers respectively and

- MUT’s Mutato blog (www.mut-mutato.blog.hu)

During the project proposal writing period the alumni of the volunteers’ and other key

players in urban planning and architecture has been approached. Volunteers received

welcoming answers regarding the promotion of the publication of the Planning Horizons

from the Science University of Pecs – Department of Urbanism and the Hungarian

Contemporary Architecture Centre.

Built on this experience a follow-up on other key players such as the Budapest University of

Technology and Economics – Department of Urban Planning and Design and other main

education places would be advantageous and useful as they can provide a vital direct

contact to students.

2.5 Follow-Up

All parties are will be asked to produce a feedback for RTPI to highlight on their own

respective experience during the pilot project to provide to help making decision to go

forward or stop to do the rest of the Planning Horizons series.

3. The Hungarian Edition

3.1 Design and Layout

The Hungarian edition will keep the original layout, page numbers, chapters and all

significant design elements and only replace the existing English text in the main body and

descriptions of figures in Hungarian. It will require some editing to keep the layout and get

the word count right, but otherwise design won’t be changed. The only exemption of this

will be a new Foreword page where RTPI’s and MUT ‘s forewords to Hungarian edition shall

be inserted in addition to two brief descriptions of the two organisations. A conceptual idea

of the new Hungarian edition’s page order compared to the original can be seen in

Appendix 2.

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4. Backgrounds

Why a Hungarian edition?

The idea of developing a project aimed to raise awareness of Hungarian planners towards

future global challenges and their consequences was inspired by the presentation of Marion

Frederiksen at Heriot-Watt University in the spring of 2015.

The idea was debated within the UrbaNEXT group - an informal alliance of young Hungarian

planners - and received a warm welcome. UrbaNEXT is a Facebook based spin-off group of

the MUT’s Tolna-Baranya chapter, working as a forum where members can debate and

dissect everything we like or don’t like in planning practice as well as making others aware

of new, enticing studies, researches ect.

The debate and my own experiences while writing my dissertation on a Hungarian case

study led to the realisation that there is a huge shortage of available contemporary research

on spatial planning issues in Hungarian. The available publications and periodical journals

has two further disadvantages for Hungarian readers, they require a very good knowledge

of planning jargon in English, and a considerable budget to pay for them, which proves to be

too expensive even for universities let alone individuals. At the moment there is no well

known think-tank or research centre to fulfil this gap.

Why the RTPI?

RTPI’s unique approach of going beyond of the immediate concerns of the British town

planning in Planning Horizons and looking into the future globally was one of the most

convincing points. The fact that the copyrights are held in one hand and the openness of the

RTPI’s representatives to my idea was the other factor which was considered as

encouragement to develop the project proposal.

Why the MUT?

The MUT was the only Hungarian NGO representing planning professionals which expressed

an immediate interest to embrace this initiative and offered to be the host of a possible

Hungarian edition in cooperation with RTPI and proposed an opportunity to use its

background infrastructure for the project. MUT has a recent strategy for the 2013-2016

periods aiming to prepare the planning profession to renew itself by introducing social,

environmental and economical considerations into the otherwise strictly physical and land

use oriented Hungarian planning system. It did count that RTPI has also suggested the MUT

as partner.

Why volunteering?

The example was set by the RICS Hungary which regularly translates its Red Book to

languages of member country chapters involving volunteers with deep understanding of the

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property industry. On this analogy it seemed to be possible and feasible to work on a

voluntary basis, if project management could be placed to a professional organisation with

links to planners’ community.

5. Volunteers profile and personal experience

Láposi Roland :

https://uk.linkedin.com/in/laposiroland

contact email:

rjl31@hw.ac.uk (till end of June 2015)

roland.laposi@gmail.com (in general)

Soóki-Tóth Gábor:

https://hu.linkedin.com/in/sookitothgabor

Appendix 1 – Planning Horizons web site concept for MUT

Appendix 2.

Page 2 shows a possible way to insert the introduction of the MUT next to

RTPI

Page 3 shows the same with Forewords to the Hungarian Edition by RTPI and

MUT representatives.