Budapest’s central Városháza Park is frequently empty, despite its prominent location beside bustling Deák Square – but during the past several months, this cobblestoned plaza hosted creatively curvaceous installations designed by Hungary’s Hello Wood association, serving as both eye-catching artworks and extended benches that drew crowds of locals and visitors alike to relax amid this urban nexus. Alas, as indicated by its name, the “pop-up park” was never meant to be permanent, and last week the structures were disassembled – but perhaps a new pop-up park will fill this space again next year.

The creative craftspeople of Hello Wood were first inspired to fill Városháza Park with functional art pieces after noticing how this super-central space was usually underutilized, and when designing the long wavy benches that filled the “pop-up park” at the beginning of July, the primary goal was to welcome the public into this urban oasis. Their efforts worked wonderfully – all summer long, people filled these intriguing lounge areas where the artful benches provided a variety of options to take it easy for awhile, whether sitting upright to read or lying back to sunbathe.

Sadly, the “pop-up park” was disassembled last week – most likely to clear space for the holiday-season fair that Városháza Park hosts during November and December – but according to Hello Wood organizers, they would be overjoyed to build new “pop-up park” benches here next year, almost certainly with a new aesthetic theme.

So far, Budapest city officials have not informed Hello Wood if they will have the opportunity to rebuild the “pop-up park” during summer 2018, but we certainly hope that they will, and that a whole new set of beautifully bizarre benches fill Városháza Park just in time to catch some rays here again.