æctivators. Locally active architecture
Hungarian Pavilion at the 15th International Architecture Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia
Press release
Curator: Gábor Fábián and Dénes Fajcsák
Exhibitor:
Commissioner:
Organiser: Ludwig Museum – Museum of Contemporary Art, Budapest
How can a group of young architects find their home in today’s world without money and commissions? Only if they create a suitable environment for themselves, from which the local community can also profit. The North Hungarian town of Eger presents a great – a small but emblematic – example of this.
“We contacted the local government to provide us with a building that no one finds the inspiration to refurbish. We were granted a 15-year lease of the decaying building located in the middle of an old park. We had outlined a sustainable model hinged on local needs: we had undertaken to implement a value-added reconstruction and fill the building with cultural content.
We reversed the usual course of planning: first, we found material support for the required tasks and then came up with architectural solutions to match the materials offered by sponsors. In less than a year, we managed to fill the building with content, and using the construction materials received and recycling the objects found on site, we wrapped it in a new exterior.
In addition to NGO sponsors and our contacts in the construction industry, we managed to involve students of a local polytechnic high school and convicts from the local penal institution.
The planning process gained new meaning, and the construction became a collective activity, which even pushed the building itself slightly into the background: the greatest added value of the project turned out to be the growing social network of organizers and collaborators.”
Gábor Fábián – Dénes Fajcsák
architects - arkt
Curator’s contact: fajcsak@arkt.hu; fabian.arkt@gmail.com
Press: press@ludwigmuseum.hu
Hashtag: #aectivators
