The 70 years jubilee exhibition of the Department of Public Building Design, BME Faculty of Architecture
Curator: Krisztina SOMOGYI
What does KÖZÉP mean?
Public buildings are called common buildings in Hungarian and the root of the word has rich connotations linked to its etymology. It opens the interpretation towards many directions, such as: centre, interval space, general, public and people.
Among students – therefore in the Hungarian architectural community – the long name of the department is abbreviated to KÖZÉP (meaning centre). That also suggests the importance of this atelier that was founded 70 years ago.
KÖZÉP also means that it is important to find balance in both architectural and teaching practices, to identify a central position that helps the dialogue between the clients, the users, the public and the designers. This central position is also a general attitude of Budapest University of Technology and Economics (BME) that believes technical, art and social knowledge are equally important in architectural training.
“We cannot exactly define what is a public building and what is not.” - Says the editorial of the hardcover textbook of public buildings published 12 years ago by the university.
This quote does not indicate the uncertainty of the authors but it expresses the fact that this notion is open to interpretations linked to the changing character of the world and contingent of the way one thinks about the role of public issues in society.
Projects that are open to public usage, that form collective memory, identity and that are socially engaged are in the scope of the selection. The interaction between the built environment and people became the focus of study; we offer the issue of public buildings worth for general interest.
The Department of Public Building Design is the most successful atelier of architectural education that has trained the most influential architects in Hungary for 70 years now. In spite of this rich heritage we are not presenting our history at this jubilee but a thematic with a contemporary interest. We are using this occasion to create an open platform for dialogue about public buildings.
We present 30 projects designed by the teachers of the department after 2000 to start the conversation. We invite people to our big consulting table taken out from the university and placed into the exhibition room. We encourage students and young architects to bring their designs with them and pin them onto the wall, and we organize talks around the subject by architects whose works are presented.
The jubilee 70 offers a nice occasion to establish contact with our alumni. The department has started collecting data. All alumni are kindly asked to contact us on our website or to register at the exhibition location.
Exhibiting architects: Mihály BALÁZS, Ferenc CSÁGOLY, Péter FEJÉRDY, Tamás KARÁCSONY, Károly KASZÁS, Péter KLOBUSOVSZKI, Balázs KEMES, György MAJOR, Bálint MAROSI, György RADVÁNYI, Zoltán SCHRAMMEL, Péter SUGÁR, Levente SZABÓ, Miklós VANNAY
Information: http://www.kozep.bme.hu, https://www.facebook.com/kozep.bme/