Yearbook of the BME Doctoral School of Architecture, 2014-2015
BME, 2015, editor: Levente Szabó

At the end of the 2014-2015 school year, not only the thematic year with the motto ‘By the Danube’ was closed but also the first five years of the new operation system of the Doctoral School of Architecture, which was launched in 2010. Half a decade is not a long period in the relative human perception of time, but it is perhaps enough to deduct certain lessons and form some conclusions.
The basis of the new methodology is the system of thematic years in which the subjects of the course are all connected in some form to the essence and motto of the current topics. This concentration searches for links within the inconceivably complex fabric of the world around us, as well as for the context-based real knowledge within the fragmented mosaic of information, thus for confident orientation in the practical and theoretical issues. In our Doctoral School these two sides are represented by the subjects of creation and research.
In the doctoral schools of art creative work is an inevitably essential element of the practical training. However, in addition to this common and general characteristic, in our case there is a unique feature too, namely that creative work is not a personal and individual act but the team work of smaller or larger creative communities. In our curriculum the subject officially called ’thematic design’ is the only creative form of training. Within the framework of the course – according to the practice crystallized over the years – the plans, which span two semesters, are prepared only in joint creative work with the participation of small teams of three-four-five people.
On one hand, the common creative work is justified by the well-known features of the architectural profession; on the other hand it is supported by much larger and more general arguments as well. One of the commonplace themes (hence affecting everyone) of our present world is the atomized society or community disintegration. With the words of Vilmos Csányi:

“The autonomous personality is the final group reduction, the singleperson group organizes his actions and constructions on his own, selects his believes by himself, he is only loyal to himself, but is ready to negotiate with others. Therefore, in the modern society the biological role of binding is continuously decreasing (or the alienation increases, as it was formulated by social scientists from another point of view), and the structure of society can be described more and more with the negotiating structure of single-person groups and autonomous individuals.”