Text: Krisztina Somogyi, Balázs Mihály

The BME Doctoral School of Architecture celebrated its 30th anniversary at the end of 2023. The following article is the editorial introduction to one of the publications published for the anniversary (Contemporary Hungarian Architecture / Architecture and Identity, BME, Budapest, 2022).

The BME Doctoral School of Architecture, in cooperation with the Ministry of Construction and Transport, carried out research in the academic year 2022/2023 titled Contemporary Hungarian Architecture / Architecture and Identity. Its topic is that the notion of „civic good taste and architectural quality” has strongly appeared in the public discourse on architecture as well as in the principles of the new law on architecture. Some discuss it within the context of nation and architecture, others talk of national architecture, whilst others interpret it as a stylistic issue. The Doctoral School, as an academic workshop, offers a more abstract perspective than these. There is a sense that the focus of thinking about the built environment has shifted from energy and environmental aspects, social aspects and aesthetic approaches to the role of architecture in identity formation, and the relationship between global and local.
Fifteen studies were carried out within the framework of the research carried out in the Doctoral School, organised around five themes. The keywords of the topics are: language and architecture, freedom, myth, walls, material. The examples, references and stories cited in the studies show convincingly that personal motivation is the basis of quality architecture and that an autonomous creative personality is a fundamental component of architectural culture in all times and in all situations.