Why only think about future living, when you can also experiment with new forms of architecture and design in real life to find out what works best right now? Since 2010 the Hungarian “Hello Wood” Project has been living up to this philosophy with remarkable results.Initiated as a summer camp for art, architecture and design students by Budapest-based design practice Hello Wood, or rather its cofounders Péter Pozsár, András Huszár, Dávid Ráday, the interdisciplinary project has been appreciated as an international get-together for some time now, with students and architects from all over the world participating.This summer, students from more than 20 universities in 30 countries met in the Hungarian town of Csoromfolde, near Lake Balaton, in the second edition of a three-year project. Their assignment for the week: build a timber village that addresses “actual needs of the community, from the most mundane and pragmatic ones to the utmost spiritual.”The idea for the Project Village is as ambitious as it is didactically intriguing. Participants were asked to collaboratively create a new settlement from scratch, from real-time master planning to the politics that come with building projects, ensuring safe and professional construction in cooperation with local crafts people. The universities of Oxford, Cambridge and Goldsmiths college in London as well as ETH Zürich, and TU Delft were among the participating educational bodies who sent students and lecturers, alongside international theoreticians and practitioners such as Zurich visionaries Urban Think-Tank; Moscow, New York, and Basel based Kosmos Architects; Greek architect collective FORA, and German installation artist Markus Heinsdorff.And they were very busy: 14 timber structures were created in the one week, partially applying century-old woodworking techniques, as well as latest technologies. Now, the village prides itself of a bath house, an observatory, a “parliament”, and even a “cathedral, ” all modeled after the group’s understanding of contemporary communal living.After its completion next year, the village is intended to serve as a regular rural campus for the Hello Wood faculty’s summer school. Interested visitors are welcome throughout the year.Click here to find out more about the project.Take a tour of the Hello Wood Project Village in the slide show.
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