Masters of wooden architecture and design, Kengo Kuma & Associates, expert of portable architecture, Robert Kronenburg, prestigious architectural and design studios, Local Architecture Network (France) and SKREI (Portugal), and International landscape and urban designers, Groundlab will be some of the most inspiring guests at Hello Wood international summer school & festival for the arts and architecture this coming summer. This year promises to be a unique one as the three-year-long architectural experiment and research programme called Project Village—exploring the relationship between communities and their built environment by building its own settlement—comes to its final stage calling new participants to question, respond to, build on, or dissect the existing artefacts, concepts and ideas. In a special year, special participants are needed: Hello Wood calls for team leaders and students to apply to the summer school and festival (1-9 July 2017) and join the continued exploration of building a community settlement, responding to the theme "Shaping Communities: Courtyards." Read on to see some highlights from the past 7 years of this unique annual event.
Going back to foundations, Hello Wood’s concept is based on three ideas: socially engaged architecture, learning by doing and the love of wood. The venture started in 2010 and has grown into an award-winning international summer school and festival for students in architecture and design from more than 20 universities and 30 countries. It is seeking replicable models to achieve social benefits and improve quality of life through architecture and design. It is an opportunity for learning by doing, breaking down barriers between different generations, and connecting in ways that are beyond the walls of universities.
During the past years, top designers of the architectural world like Miralles Tagliabue EMBT, Katsuya Fukushima, Kosmos and Urban Think Tank visited the summer camp and participated in the creative process. During the one-week camp, architecture students and academics from TU Delft, AA School of Architecture, Columbia, ETH Zürich, Tokyo University, University of Liverpool and University of Glasgow widen Hello Wood participants’ perspectives of mobility, experimenting and the process of turning architectural theory into practice. Beside its annual nomadic campus in Hungary, just a few weeks ago, Hello Wood organized its first summer camp in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Highlights of the past seven years
In 2011, a Snail, the symbol of the art festival, Valley of Arts was installed for its official opening. After a long period of experimenting, wooden sticks of 4x4 centimeters were swayed in a way to compose a reticulated wooden system. An aim of the creators was to be able to build something that weighs less than 300 kg so that even 8 people can easily move it around.
Team Leaders: András Huszár, Nándor Nagy
Team: Ágota Antal, Anna Hertel, Csaba Lázár, Vilmos Müller, Diána Perge, Bulcsú Szabó
The next year, Hungarian artist Gábor Miklós Szőke conceived and constructed the figure of the Tiger with a special artistic vision. Szakácsi, with its 183 inhabitants, is the third most disadvantaged village in Hungary, facing notable problems every day. The artist and his team installed the enormous wooden "guarding Tiger" in the village that the local community was proud of, could use to gain national publicity and win some funds to develop tourism.
Team Leader: Gábor Miklós Szőke
Team: Ádám Farkas, Eszter Móricz, Tamás Nádasdy, Krisztina Sárkány, Zoltán Török
In 2013 the world’s smallest pub, called Body Bar, opened. At 1.44 square meters, it inspired people with its sense of closeness, even making it to one of Europe’s biggest music festivals, Sziget.
Team Leaders: Suzana Milinovic & Rufus van den Ban
Team: Márton Kőműves, Dóra Medveczky, András Ladocsi, Syndicus Sven, Anna Derriks, Magallón Hernández Cristina, Wilms Joost
Hello Wood projects in 2014 focused on the idea of balance, where the construction called Cornwalk was something very special to plan, build and experience. A secret path of 4x4 wooden sticks had one end in the sea of corn and nobody knew where it led to. The 40-meter long installation was balanced in the corn field where, after a short walk, one could see a wonderful view.
Team Leaders: Ákos Juhász, Dániel Eke
Team: Kata Bóta, Milán Bokor, Lucas Facer, Katalin Gencsi, Eeva Kylén, Guilherme Leick, Anna Petrovicz, Róbert Tóth
A new chapter: building a campus
In 2015, Hello Wood arrived at a new phase. Instead of building projects in teams, they launched Project Village to find the connection between the artifacts, and explore the relationship between the community and the built environment. Hello Wood has been establishing its own settlement, a rural campus for its nomadic faculty. The creators are motivated by the question of whether a week-long exercise in real-time masterplanning, living together, practicing the craft and politics of building can result in a new form of settlement. In the first year of 2015, a Portable Village moved around, and became a catalyst for events and interactions for its temporary communities. The second year of Project Village was the year of Settling at a permanent site where village functions were explored and accommodated by the newly built wooden structures.
2017 will be the final year of moving in, and inhabiting this site. New community members will be asked to continue building on the first threads of the settlement to further define the spatial identity and complexity of the campus by adding new patterns of collaboration. Shaping Communities: Courtyards is the third and last step in envisioning the permanent campus for Hello Wood’s nomadic faculty. Applicants can develop new forms, spaces, places and rules of participation fundamental to shaping a community. Constructed on the border of the ideal and the real, Project Village is an architectural experiment. It is a construction site, a place of debate, reflection and disintegration. A place where participants work, party, learn, eat, sleep and contemplate.
To become a team leader or a participating student, please apply to the summer school and festival (1-9 July 2017).
Students: http://www.hellowood.eu/student-application-for-pv-2017.html
Team Leaders: http://www.hellowood.eu/call-for-proposals---pv-17.html
Location: in Csóromfölde, Vigántpetend, Hungary
The curators of Hello Wood’s Project Village are Johanna Muszbek (University of Liverpool School of Architecture) and Peter Pozsar (Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design)
Hello Wood Team: Péter Pozsár, András Huszár, Dávid Ráday (co-founders of Hello Wood), Orsi Janota, Niki Lakatos (project managers), Gergely Szőke (graphic designer), Anita Farkas (project coordinator), Csaba Bányai (product designer), Réka Holánszki (carpenter), Dani Kiss (architect), Gyula Végh (architect), Laci Mangliár (architect), Renáta Pikó (finance manager), Márton Szabolcs (logistics manager).
Title
HELLO WOOD PROJECT VILLAGE 2017Type
Festival / BiennialOrganizers
From
July 01, 2017 12:00 AMUntil
July 09, 2017 11:59 PMVenue
Csóromfölde, Vigántpetend, HungaryAddress