In Budapest, and in many other former socialist countries, the drastic transformation of urban structures, the scale of the industrial sector and its position within the urban fabric, have resulted in a very different situation compared to the large cities of the western world. Following the regime change and the privatisation process, the large scale industrial districts situated in the central belt are currently underutilised and polluted areas, forming a physical barrier between the city centre and the suburbs. Their utilisation would results in a more transparent, cleaner, and more modern capital. At the same time, the means and criteria used to rehabilitate these districts are important, as these areas have a lot to offer, if we only dusted off the debris of recent decades. The stigmatising labels used in public discourse, the physical separation of former industrial sites from the local community, and the unfamiliar language of technical research discourage the local population and the lay public from using brownfield sites: exactly the layer of society that would benefit the most from the possibilities offered by these structures. The reuse and rethinking of industrial buildings is of symbolic importance, and careful consideration should be given to their rehabilitation. We have to contemplate the message we are passing on to posterity: shall we destroy the mementoes of the past? Shall we erase them from living memory? Or are we capable of living alongside them and respecting them? What truly helps a culture to heal and evolve?