04 02 2021 – 01 03 2021
RE:pres* EPRESKERT RECONSTRUCTION AND DEVELOPMENT – LET’S DESIGN FOR ARTISTS! Department Plan 3
During the semester we are discussing the contemporary educational spaces of tertiary art education. What kind of spatial frames are the most inspiring for becoming an artist? Or the other way round – how can contemporary art affect contemporary architecture? In what way can be an educational edifice that meets all the needs placed into a mysterious garden crowded with statues and monuments that is seemingly out of space and time? Up-to-date, brand new buildings are needed! How are these going to relate to the existing century-old building stock?
In the autumn of 2020, we chose the Epreskert, maintained by the Hungarian University of Fine Arts, for the design site of the course Department Plan 3. In the space located in District VI of Budapest and is bordered by the Streets Bajza, Szondi, Kmety György and Mihály Munkácsy one can find the Depratmens of Painting, Sculpting and Set Design, along the workshops of metalwork, brazier, stonework, gypsum and glassworks. In the past century, the Conservatory of Painting led by Gyula Benczúr opened in this site. It was followed by the painting workshop of Károly Lotz and the sculpting workshop of Alajos Stróbl 5 years later, in 1887. These buildings – after greater or lesser alterations – have been standing there and have been still serving as ateliers. The building stock that was refurbished and extended many times needs a significant reconstruction.
The unbelievably exciting location was perfectly adequate for bearing in mind during the planning process the studio topic triad of the Department of Public Building Design, namely the REMEMBRANCE, SUSTAINABILITY AND INNOVATION.
For the review process our guests were MKE (Hungarian University of Fine Arts) teachers: Judit Csanádi, faculty member of the Department of Set Design, who also gave a presentation about the development plans of the university; and János Sugár and Zoltán Szegedy-Maszák, teachers of the Intermedia Department. Our site visit in Epreskert was accompanied by associate professor, art historian and researcher of the history of the garden, Emese Révész.
The semester had a tripartite basis. In the first part, from class to class we sought to gather sufficient information about the planning location via four assignments. The results were streamed into drafts and proposals. The second part dealt with the installation, the placement of the buildings to the site and ended with a draft plan. In this process, we sought to couple students. The third part was the engagement in the individual design of details of the edifices and their surroundings and led to finalized plans. /Péter Klobusovszki DLA, associate professor, course coordinator/
The Department Plan 2 and 3 of the Department of Public Building Design both dealt with the Epreskert. Faculty members of the course: Mihály Balázs DLA, professor; András Márk Bartha DLA, senior lecturer; Péter Fejérdy DLA, senior lecturer; Tamás Karácsony DLA, associate professor; Péter Klobusovszki DLA, associate professor; Balázs Rose, PhD candidate; Zoltán Schrammel DLA, senior lecturer; Levente Szabó DLA, professor; Miklós Vannay DLA, senior lecturer
Participants of the course in Hungarian: Vivien Ambrusz, András Ábrahám-Fúrús, Dávid Bakó, Eszter Bánkúti, Máté Basa, Zsombor Brackó, Tímea Czap, Anna Virág Farkas, Ágota Gunther, Eszter Gyöngyösi, Erzsébet Horváth, Tamás Kasztovszky, Bernadett Koppány, Enikő Lestyán, Kata macsek; Franciska Márki, Csenge Molnár, Petra Mónus, Júlia Moró, Olivér Nagy, Csongor Nyíri, Liliána Oláh, Helga Orosz, Barnabás Rácz-Szabó, Sára Suri, Roland Szabó, Csenge Szalai, Nikolett Szemmelveisz, Réka Szvath, Vivien Tokai, Bence Tóth, Mihály Walton, Márton Zacher, Károly Zubek
Participants of the course in English: Jovana Bogdanović, Ilham Farah Al-Hajjar, Jaber Haneen, Thomas Sophia, Tamar Kochiashvili, Tergel Bayarsaikhan.
Department of Residential Building Design_ Department Plan 3_ cycle XII
In the autumn semester of the academic year 2020/2021 we dealt with a minor part of the city center of Sopron. We selected the location bordered by Ógabona tér – Petőfi tér – Széchenyi István tér – II. Rákóczi Ferenc utca – Szög utca – Hátulsó utca for our planning site. The location, with the renewed Várkerület nearby, consists multiple empty lots and rundown edifices. According to our assessment, the location has a great potential to give space for a contemporary architectural scape based on the historicity and traditions of Sopron.
For the semester-long course we invited the Sopron University for cooperation, however due to the pandemic we had to abnegate our intentions. At the beginning of the program, we still had the opportunity to visit the site with the colleagues from the Chief Architect’s Office of Sopron Municipality.
In the planning course, students started their works in smaller groups of 4 to 5 people. The first assignment was the research and analysis of the location via on-site inspection, photographing, and historic, sociologic, and environmental research. Once the location became entirely known in-depth for every student, the groups executed joint urban proposals for the utilization of the site. Afterwards, each student selected one building from the joint urban planning concept and designed its detailed plans according to the common regulatory parameters. From year to year, it is a fantastic experience to participate on the Parallel Landscapes Exhibition. This year, despite all the hardship, we would like to exhibit our plans in Sopron either. /Tamás Varga DLA, associate professor, course coordinator/
DEPARTMENT OF INDUSTRIAL DESIGN 2020 FALL TT3 / RECLAIM 2.0
Szilas-patak / Rákospalota – back to the future
When Budapest was created, the Szilas stream had nothing to do with the city, it was only one of the watercourses in the surroundings of the city. Today it crosses multiple districts, nevertheless, it has been marking the edge of Budapest for a long passage, and it is found in a borderline situation between city and “nature”.
In the early 1950s, the stream used to be a mostly natural course, however, for the decades since that it has been passing as a gutter in a concrete channel that was cut off from its sources unemotionally. It seems to be insignificant, but its hidden potential is surprisingly outstanding. It cannot be said that as the Ördögárok did in Buda it would not disappear underground, but a differing screenplay is imaginable either. There is the opportunity, to develop the verdant ring of North-Eastern Budapest along the stream, following the neighborhoods of Újpest and Rákospalota. The estuary section between Káposztásmegyer and Újpest can be seen as a positive example, especially the site of Szilas Park where, among others, high-quality playgrounds and a leisure park were built, in a size comparable to that of Városliget.
The semester did not lay emphasis on the healing of the urban pattern and the construction opportunities, even though these are also extremely important, and their research are inevitable. rather, in the spotlight one found the stream and creation a verdant path along it to establish the grounds of sustainable development. For this task of course we had to bring the stream to the surface everywhere, to landscape its shores in the minimum width of 30 to 40 meters. As far as this “green stream” was created, a wound healed. What is more, a location of great qualities and agglomeration was born that does not be remain completely unbuilt and only requires attention to choose a function that can co-exist with the eco-corridor.
The actual planning tasks and functions had to adapt to this. Students were given carte blanche as regards their priority, they could have dealt with the future bicycle lane, the Liva Mill, the inhabitants of the housing estate, and even the former vegetable oil factory was included in the list of design sites. The word ‘reclaim’ has multifold meaning but in 2020 we paid attention to the healing among them, we sought for the exploration and creation of a new equilibrium. Hopefully with success. /Iván Nagy DLA, associate professor, program coordinator/