The Competition of the Association of Hungarian Architects for Young Architects and Landscape Designers

Text: András Borsos

Piac-tér-fal, Bogyoszló, 2012, építész: Köninger Szilárd, Kupi Adrienn, Péter Zsuzsanna

The competition is a follow-up of a program launched in 2006 also successful between 2008 and 2010. It is meant to survey how the young generation can contribute to the architectural character of a site, sustainability, the strengthening of communities and how they could co-operate with local initiatives. The Association of Hungarian Architects selects the submitted designs for an exhibition, publishes them in a catalogue to be spread both in Hungary and beyond the borders. Since 2003 the program has been open to young Hungarian landscape designers too. This kind of opening up enriched the applicants, the cause of architecture and also The Association of Hungarian Architects by widening the concept of architecture with a European approach. The range of designs came to include the exemplary and progressive revitalizations of public spaces and parks, and the variety thus embraces designs of interiors, buildings and open spaces matched with the scales of landscapes. Of the designs submitted for the competition the jury managed to make a valuable selection also in the year 2013 but could not help feeling that more courage and originality is needed in order to elevate this profession. Actually, we badly need to do so if we want to regain our consciousness after the shock caused by the ever-decreasing number of commissions and the disastrously low level of the construction industry nowadays. The energy of young people is vital for us so as not to lose creativity and the mood to play, even in such critical periods.