2010/2

The architect Mihály Vargha Dipl.eng. was definitely a leading figure in the Hungarian architectural media, a member of several design boards and councils, and of the Association of Hungarian Architects. He was one of the founders of Építészfórum (The Hungarian Architectural Forum). Before starting up that portal he was Editor-in-Chief of Hungarian Architecture.

III. World Conference of Hungarian Architects
“Olympic games – tradition, crisis, solutions?”
5th of March 2010
Budapest, Institute of Italian Culture
(1088 Budapest, Bródy Sándor Street 8. Hungary)

The Association of Hungarian Architects (MÉSZ) was invited to organize an architectural festival by the Hungarian Institute in Paris with events such as an international conference of architects, Hungarian historic and contemporary architectural exhibitions, outdoor shows, joint programmes for French and Hungarian students as well as creative weeks.

On Friday we may have visited the most expensive elementary school ever built with Csaba Valkai and János Dobai, the designer of the house. We arrived in and against penetrating wind in this out-of-reach location: it is beyond family houses competing with pub beauties but still on this side of the nearby motorway.

From the ten-storey prefab houses one can have a full view of the single-storey U-shaped building of the surgery building. In 2007 the local authority decided it was time to have it reconstructed and updated. Launched as a reconstruction, the project evolved into a complete remodelling.

Törökbálint and the industrial park named Depo within its confines is a typically inappropriate location: it is situated in the jungle of three motorways and the lanes connecting them where rush, not-being-present and even provisionality are basic and primary experiences. The DVD factory sits on a steep terrain compared to the neighbouring buildings and it makes the best use of this condition.

Krisztina Palace office block in Nagyenyed Street connecting Krisztina Boulevard with Böszörményi Street has been completed as the first project of Brussels-based Codic International in Budapest to house offices with a total area of 18,000 square metres. The district would like to have a centre with the atmosphere of a provincial town here.

Venice has been successfully applying the strategy of „preservation and continuation”: besides conveying history, the town excellently functions as a contemporary art centre. By having hosted the François Pinault Foundation for Contemporary Art for three years now it supports arts with its institutional presence.

The beginning of this March saw the official opening of the pavillion by Alvaro Siza erected on the rocket base on Hombroich Island near Düsseldorf. The building is an evocation but also the follow-up of brick structures by Erwin Heerich and thus pays tribute to the sculptor who designed the museum island itself.

The American educational system as such is based on the project of „building up” a person with little lexical knowledge but with the capability to know where knowledge is available, how to think and focus on correlations, articulate opinions, respect differences whilst seeing them as a whole, being able to work in teams whilst also holding on as an individual.

In one of the northern districts of the Danish capital close to the sea, the local authority made a decision about building a new school back in the late 1990s. A Copenhagen-based office of architects named Arkitema won the tender published for the project.

The paronomasia of the title also expresses the urbanistic orientation of the volume. Its authors are lecturers with the Urbanistic Department of BME (Budapest Technical University) – they are professionals who do not separate the terrains of urbanists from those of architects.