HOME - Winner of DECODE Award (category: architecture) - by Anna Ditta Fehér
I am 26 years old, trodding the final steps towards growing up. I am designing the house, our house, The Home. There used to be a family nest, then five rented flats in Budapest, sofas at friends’, room B306 in the university, India with a 60L backpack…..So where is home?
“So where is the house of the fairy, the butterfly
Where is the house of man?
It can be anywhere, yet he cannot find home.
Which way shall I go now?”
(Tibor Szemző: A Guest of Life)
I am surrounded by places, spaces, people and memories. Our constant interrelation defines my personality that shapes its habitat accordingly. As the world around me is changing I am changing too. What was I yesterday, what am I today, what will I become tomorrow? How do I live and how will I live? Is there a “right here and right now it is just enough” in this calamity?
According to Juhani Pallasmaa the house is an “articulation of being in the world”, to me it is a second skin. How far does this skin stretch, what sort of physical and mental boundaries does it have and what defines it?
Throughout my planning I experienced the process of moving from two completely different premises:
- from my rented flat in Budapest – surrounded by objects, memories, unnecessary and important things
- and from off the top of a hill near Szentendre, where I was living in a tent in a weekend garden among trees.
I observed the two places of living through spaces as layer systems (atmospheres, functions, postures) and objects – based on my relations with them and I recorded these in a map of sensation. Comparing the two places I decided to design a home on the Szentendre plot and I continued to observe what were those things that I took with me from the previous two locations, the real important things in my life.
Based on the existing facilities and the experienced space layers the house, with a little fine tuning almost created itself:
- the circumstances of the plot and our intuition define how we take our place
- thus the impression we made on the location and the atmosphere we aimed to preserve defined the dimensions of the building and the quality of the horizontal surfaces
- on the horizontal surfaces the functions and spaces are defined by the function pairs, positions, elements and group of objects so how to open and close the space was pretty obvious
- everything is falling to their place if we observe all the layers at a time.
The building is based on the past but looks into the future too. With its constantly changing outlines, simple structure and material it merely wants to stay in the here and now and with this it aims to become a second skin.
KINTSUGI-HOUSE Transition home for the homeless - Winner of DECODE “Promising Project” Award (category: architecture) - by Flóra Offra
“- home!
but this is such a relative notion!
the germ stuck on a sweeping bullet most certainly feels like being at home there.” – Karinthy Frigyes
Home
is not only a physical place.
In order to feel at home in the world our soul needs to feel at home too.
The factors influencing feeling at home are different from person to person. Each individual gathers pieces of their home throughout their lives as if they were collecting pieces of a collage. Childhood memories, important people, experiences, objects and places are gathered into an imaginary backpack. If this bag is torn and its content spills out, it is very difficult to collect them once again.
The more you mend a collection, the more fragile it will become. When we look at a backpack full of patches we tend to see the tear albeit we could see the seam too.
There is an ancient Japanese form of art called kintsugi. Broken ceramics are welded with precious metal. The pieces are put back together with hard work and the result is a unique and valuable object. The main philosophy behind this is that traumas are considered as natural shares of life. Thus the cracking will eventually be a strength.
Every layer of the house was created driven by the philosophy of kintsugi. I consciously and subconsciously included treasures from my collection into this design which I considered to be my own, personal, yet they are part of the collective compilation. Transparent, rough, smooth surfaces, blurred and crystal clear, reflections, light, plants, shadows, order and escape. The responsibility of the transition home on a city level, within the boundaries of the plot and in human measures alike is about putting the pieces back together again.
This is about a transition home where the homeless could have a chance to be part of the whole (i.e.: society) again. They could gather their spilt treasures. The experiences of safety, cooperation, responsibility and appreciation.
Based on all these the task can be defined as the double aim of a supportive position and organic reestablishment. These attributes can be implemented within the city, in the Zugló district on a vacant-lot. Seemingly blending in to the neighboring row of houses the two blocks face the street and the inner connecting garden with different facades.
On the building level the similar living units can each be made unique. In addition to these there are the community areas for cooperation and common work. There is a personal space and time but it is interwoven with common space and time. Everyday routines are monitored by social workers. Traditional housework such as cooking, cleaning, gardening, relaxing are extended into an unusual notion of home.
This is a restricted freedom of course, as society has its rules and regulations too. And yet here one has a chance to jump out above a protective net – there is help and assistance. Many people lose these when they lose their homes.
X RAY – Winner of DECODE “Promising Project” Award (category: architecture) - by Dóra Komáromi, Nikolett Magyar
One of our university projects was to design a smaller museum, an homage to the modern architects of Vienna. The main initiative was that the building archives and makes available the important works of the generation. An other aim was to provide space and opportunity for scientific round table discussions, conferences and organizations. The building site was near Werkbundsiedlung in Vienna. The location unifies and introduces the works of the well known architects from between the two world wars such as
Adolf Loos, Josef Hoffmann, Margarethe Lihotzky and Josef Frank. There are terraced and semi detached houses and villas in the neighborhood, all built in the 1930’s.
Our project is based on our research of the works of Loos and the writings of Beatriz Colomina. After studying „Haus Moller” we were truly amazed by the privileged position of the sedilia. We focused on visual control and material usage. We were eager to find out how visitors of the exhibition could become part of it.
Through the buildings of Loos we analyzed the colors and light transmittance of natural stones. Thinly sliced stones are protecting the exhibited objects like UV filters while the narrow spaces are flooded with an abundance of filtered light.
We constructed the building step by step starting from a cuboid shape. Two worlds are born in this body based on the programme of the building: a public one for the museum and a private, introverted one for the researches. The museum part is created by the addition and deduction of spaces. Thus visual connections are established between the rooms which get lit through the atria. Between the two blocks there is an inner, transparent marble facade so these are connected visually at certain points.
This duality on the facade is from Loos’ doctrines. The museum part is covered by 1:2 ratio marble tiles. The private part of the facade has windows, so looking at it from the side it gives the impression of a private house.
The neighborhood was also quite important for us: the square in front of the museum is a meeting point. Larger events can be organized in the back open-air stage that provides further view on the museum. The transparent case lets light through during the day and becomes a torch at night that projects inner life on the facade.
The building is situated in a district full of family houses. In order to protect the neighbors we positioned the building on the narrow plot further inside, far from the street. The main entrance can be accessed from a ramp so the visitors can dive straight into the museum. The private entrance cannot be seen from the street. The open air theatre is connected to the street with a path, this actually invites people into the garden.
PLEXI PLAY – Winner of DECODE "Spotlight" Award - by Balázs Bata, Nóra Ludányi, Manda Máté, Tamás Molnár, Balázs Szigetvári
Since the virus appeared, parks and playgrounds where people used to relax have emptied. We reflected on this by creating a tool people have already got used to in their everyday lives.
Just as the pandemic has turned our lives upside down we turned this play out of its horizon. The main idea of PLEXI PLAY is that from its earlier horizontal table level it is replaced to a vertical plexi sheet dividing players from each other. People sitting on the two sides of the board do not have direct contact with each other, they move their counters on their own side, yet they can see their counterparts.
Different boards can be painted on the plexi surface, that can be disassembled so it’s easy to switch to a new one. Everyone can find their own favourite. We created PLEXIPLAY for playing Chess and Nine Men’s Morris and we made up the pieces for them too. The concept of chess pieces is also based on being turned inside out as the pieces appear as negative space. Since everybody tries to search for the usual patterns when they face a new situation we turned to the basic tools of children’s toys and followed the rule of form on form. This way the piece patterns became clear and logical.
Although the design seems to be simple, we had to face many challenges throughout the implementation. First of all we had to solve how to fix the pieces on the vertical surface. After having decided on using a magnet we had to figure out how to make the plexi magnetic. Also we had to create a durable board that can stand the frequent movement of the pieces. Plus we had to consider open air usage and create dimensions that are easily used on all size of tables.
The board is covered with magnetic paint so the pieces can stick on it. With the help of a vice and the wooden holder everybody can assemble the board easily and quickly.
PLEXIPLAY has a dual aim: the thing that has separated us so far, now connects us safely.
GENIUS LOCI - Winner of DECODE Award (category: visual and applied arts) - by Eszter Nagy
I studied costume and stage design and now I work in a bar. My father was an artist. His sudden death destroyed everything I believed to be reality. I felt that I did not only lose him but my connection to art too. Preparing for this competition was a self experimental process for me through which I had to face all my traumas so far. The result of this is a 15 minute video performance and the presentation of this. The locations in the video are such stages of my life that connect the past and the present: the bar where I work or the restaurant in front of which my father had collapsed. These are all similar spaces. Music had a significant role throughout the project. The crude and explicit remake of Mike Nylons helped me enter the state in which I could express and let out all my rage. The song of Omega: Black Butterfly has a symbolic meaning to me. This song was played at the funeral and it represents everything I tried to struggle with throughout the accomplishment of the project. Shouting out the lyrics was frightening and liberating at the same time.
PHASE IN PHASE OUT - Winner of DECODE “Promising Project” Award (category: visual and applied arts) - by Judit Eszter Kárpáti DLA
Multichannel textile system
Sound installation
Textiles are the metaphor that string together the macrocosm and microcosm, the interwoven reflection of the senses, the linking of vertices and edges to create a network, the second skin and the next interface for human-computer interactions. Tissue, textile and fabric are excellent models of knowledge, whereby knowledge can be understood as a perceptual experience.
Phase In, Phase Out uses sound, space and textile as materials to build structures that address the poiesis of here and now. The research includes reading philosophy and new materialism, holonic studies, somaesthetics. Sound as an informational source is described in terms of auditory attributes, such as timbre, tone, pitch, or duration. These characteristics are analyzed and give relevance to the delivery of musical meaning. But sound is not only about deduced meaning, it is about physical energy shared. Sound as a vibrational force links humans bodies and matter at a material level via physical resonation. Human beings perceive sound, either when it is heard by entering the ear canal or when corporeally experienced. It is on and in our body that acoustic waves become discernible.
Phase In, Phase Out is the result of an art-based study on the crossmodal, using different media as materials: sound, space, textiles, and senses. By augmenting textile into a multichannel electroacoustic transducer, the work explores the alogogenic properties of sound via the unique timbre of textile, through sound compositions or electronic poems specifically written for, and performed on a purely textile-sound system. The intrinsic materiality and expressivity of textiles, with their sensory-rich haptic experiences, create new methods to interact with and to experience sound. Patterns of high, mid and low range frequency tones sweep across the textile pieces, creating sound and resonating in physical territory. Phase In, Phase Out deals with the audio-physical experience of sound, space and matter which are determined in form and content by controlled vibrations of independent channels on the textile in order to reach new, elevated states of sensing and awareness by transforming our perception, unfolding the joint potentials of textile and sound as a spatiotemporal material process.
Sonorous phenomena are always on the verge of becoming something else. As it unfolds, sound constitutes spaces, mediates presence, articulates time. To make sound is to sculpt the air. The raw manifestation of sound as an existential pattern, and its vibrational force amount to a polysensorial experience and an exercise in liminality.
LINES – Winner of DECODE “Promising Project” Award (category: visual and applied arts) - by Ádám Boruzs
My artistic approach is conceptual, I focus on on the dialectics of painting and video art, extending these to the medium of installations. My works concern the audiovisual perception and counter perception. I like to work with such notions and phenomena that connect art and science metaphorically. Time, light, sound and matter appear in my works holistically creating a personal creed, a philosophy..
The elemental interrelations in our daily lives that appear in the counterrealtion of men and nature are thought-provoking. I used scientific phenoma from quantum physics, like quantum superposition, the quantum tunnel effect or quantum correlation. These phenomena appear in the case of electrons circling around the nucleus too, which can be analyzed in the form of absorbtion color patterns, lines. In order to observe these there is an experiment comprising of two parts. My intention was not to create a physical experiment, I intended to record more moving pictures about an analogue system or space where artificial or natural light and the different electric sound waves make an impact on each other in real time. In form sound waves and their amplitude are similar to my ideas. I created a heart pace like atmosphere in which the vehicle is a plexi water tank the surface of which has waves – a cuboid shape placed on a bench. I shaded the source of light with cardboard lines (I edited the distance of lines based on the doppler effect) and finally I framed the built equipment. I fixed a microphone to the bench and to the side of the water tank which were connected to a speaker. I made closeup recordings about the physical impulses made on the surrounding. This was very important from an audiovisual point of view. I chose a forest and a gymnasium as shooting premises. In order to get the necessary optical effects I turned the pictures with 90 degrees.