PET Hacks – Rethinking Public Toilets 2020

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PET HACKS – Sustainable aid tricks to shrunken rural settlements

UFLab participated in The Little Big Loo – Rethinking Public Toilets 2020 – Architecture Competition by Volume Zero.

REASON – The main trend of the world is the experiencing unprecedented demographic growth of cities. But this process also connotes the extraction of residents from rural settlements, who have the opportunity to move to the city in the hope of a better life. In order to balance this accelerating process and avoid the deterioration of the living conditions of people in extreme poverty there is a need and demand for alternative survival techniques.

SITE SELECTION – Tarnabod is a desolate, Hungarian rural settlement, that do not have any public transport connection to other settlements. More than 80% of residents are minors of Roma origin in extreme poverty, who have moved in local, abandoned properties. It is hopeless to build sanitary rooms in these old-fashioned peasant’s houses and in addition, the village does not possess an existing sewerage system. Drinking-water is supplied from groundwater wells, holes for collecting rainwater make the traffic on the streets more difficult.

THE PUBLIC TOILET – The PET HACKS public toilet is a modular construction, which applies both nature-based solutions and simple physical laws, while its main construction materials are PET bottles. The creative usage of these bottles (qualified as rubbish) may substitute several building materials and engineering systems. They can be used to create plasterable or transparent wall system, water filter configured to be facade cladding, nature air cooler or water-heater as well. Ideas that work in large systems can be implemented and used by residents in their own gardens and properties, and through the production of sufficient bath- and washing water by themselves as micro societies, their state of health and hygiene circumstances may be improved. The three-module building comprises a public laundry, shower rooms and toilet blocks, and in addition, meetings, hygiene and lifehack education take place in a large, covered-open public space.

Architects: Olívia Kurucz and György Alföldi DLA

BP9 / JALTP – Studio Works – Urban Planning and Design 2

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BP9 / JALTP – Studio Works – Urban Planning and Design 2

The focus of the Urban Planning and Design 2 course was the future visions of József Attila housing estates in the 9th district of Budapest.

Based on online databases, maps, documents and social media platforms, we analyzed the area’s economy, built environment, natural endowments, social stratification and transport infrastructure, and then outlined various visions of the 2070 state of the housing estates. Because of the pandemic situation, we could not organize „regular” public participation events, therefore we created online platforms to encourage citizens to share their viewpoints of the future plans. Based on the multiplatform alayzes the students made suggestions for the development of the city center.

Urban Planning and Design 2 – 2020
Consultants: prof. György Alföldi DLA, Olívia Kurucz
[Students: Azeb Mehdi / Bodó Sára Borbála / Borics Péter / Bugovits Janka / Fekete Adrienn Eszter / Gaál Renáta Dóra / Gunther Ágota Anikó / Hernádi Zsombor / Kálmán Mónika / Kiss Barnabás / Kovács Orsolya / Lu Tong Xintia / Márki Franciska / Moró Júlia / Nádasi Ádám / Nyiri Csongor / Oláh Liliána / Rostás Nikolett / Stadler Anna Dorottya / Szakács Domonkos / Szeitl Virág Nóra / Szemelveisz Nikolett / Szilágyi Eszter / Takács Laura Panna / Tóth Bence / Várady Jázmin / Velky Anna Luca / Zacher Márton]

Pecha Kucha Night Budaörs vol.01 – UPGRADE

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Pecha Kucha Night Budaörs vol.01 – UPGRADE

Upgrade was the theme of the first PechaKucha Night in Budaörs, where Olívia Kurucz performed a presentation about Datafication of the city – in context of the UFLab Artifical Intelligence research.

The event was organized by Húsznegyven Egyesület in Budaörs, 11/2019.
You can find more information and photos of the event on this Facebook side of Húsznegyven Assosiation.
Orgainzers: Botond Zsolt Dobos DLA, Judit Gerzsenyi, Olívia Kurucz
Grapics (cover picture credit): Daniel Pucz
Photos: László Regőczy

Community Planning Conference – Budapest

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Community Planning Conference, Budapest, 2019.

From the UFLab research team Prof. György Alföldi DLA and Olívia Kurucz performed at the Community Planning Conference with the presentation title: Experiences of public participation applied in planning courses.

One of the biggest challenges for public participation is to create communication and commence dialogue between participants. For this reason, we considered it important to include this tool in the teaching of urban planning subjects. At first, we started involving the city’s actors with smaller interactive tools, and then felt the need to create a larger, attention-grabbing installation that could be easily shaped for the current event, which invite the person of the street to plan. Thus came the idea of a community information gathering and gamified voting tool – called Urban 3D Diagram. The design process of U3DD was integrated into the Creative Week 2017, where architect students could invent the operation, communication interface and structure of the installation together. The goal was a lightweight construction with the lowest possible storage requirements, the possibility of easy assembly and interchangeability of communication surfaces.

Students built a prototype of the installation during the Creative Week and have since we used it as a means of gathering information and reaching out to the public through a number of research, educational, and public participation processes – like at Pesterzsébet UCL research project and the public events of Salgótarján or Pécel2030.

The event was organized by Borsos Melinda and Dimitrijevic Tijana in Budapest, 11/2019.
Read the Book of Abstracts on Issuu here.
You can find more information and event photos of the Community Planning Conference at the host Facebook page here.
Photos and cover picture credits: Borsos Melinda, Dimitrijevic Tijana and Képkocka.

CAT-ference – Belgrade

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CAT-ference 2019: 8th International Urban Geographies of Post-communist States Conference Belgrade, September 25-29, 2019.

From the UFLab research team Bálint Balázs, Dániel Balizs Phd and Olívia Kurucz performed at the CAT-ference 2019 conference with the presentation title:  The future of shrinking Hungarian cities – From architecture view.

It is well known that the world’s population is growing and more and more people want to live in cities. But some towns, cities or urban region, despite of the ever growing urbanization, are in the period of population and economic decline. Although it has been analysed quite a lot in western countries, in Hungary the decision makers and urban planners still think of this urban downturns as a stage in the history of the city’s ups and downs. Thus these key actors still didn’t recognise how the shrinking phenomenon effect on their cities. Using the example of three Hungarian cities as a case-study, called Mezőtúr, Salgótarján, Sátoraljaújhely, we are trying to show why is it really important to deal shrinkage as a must-solve world issue in its complex way.

Since 1989, from the collapse of the socialist regime in Hungary, these three cities have been struggling. It has led to suffering from population loss, abandoned buildings, social problems, low level of human innovation, lack of entrepreneurship and economic downturn.

Within the limits of a research project at Urban Future Laboratory, we tried to analyse the history and the structure of the cities, the social disorders, and the possibilities that can help to re-develop; with the strong belief all the architects who are working on a declining city should consider other viewpoints besides constructions and new developments. We have already examined three more post-socialist cities (Leipzig, Katowice, Ostrava), and from those experiences we tried to draw the limits of the Hungarian shrinking phenomenon.

During our presentation we would like to showcase what kind of possibilities can help the Hungarian cities to renew and what characteristics do cities have in the topic of shrinkage.

keywords: shrinking cities; Hungary; Salgótarján; Mezőtúr; Sátoraljaújhely

Mastercard Tech Show 2.0

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Mastercard Tech Show 2.0 2019

UFLab was one of the exhibitors at the MasterCard Tech Show 2.0 hosted in Budapest, Akvárium Club. At Tech Show Conference majority of exhibitors – like Vodafone, MOL, etc. – appeared with futuristic technical solutions, but the aim of UFLab was to represent methods for assessing the needs of society. The Laboratory appeared with five digital platforms at the event. Three of the digital surfaces displayed videos and summary studies about UFLab’s public participation projects and two interactive tablets applied gamified questions to facilitate the dialogue about future cities. Prof. György Alföldi attended the Tech Show 2.0 roundtable discussion.

SALGÓTARJÁN – KARANCS FIESTA

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Karancs Fiesta, Salgótarján.

As a result of the Urban Planning and Design 2 public participation event, UFLab were contacted by a local high school research team [Demolab / Kísérletváros] who asked the Laboratory to present the student’s plans to the residents and to promote the public participation method at their city event. The so called Karancs Fiesta event aroused great interest with approximately 700 guests in the main square of Salgótarján, where UFLab appeared with three digital platform and one manual tool. On the digital surfaces people could get acquainted with the future plans of Salgótarján’s main square, the public participation events and the tools of gamification we used so far. The manual tool is called Mapping, where participants could share their visions about the location.

The event was organized by Demolab / Kísérletváros in Salgótarján, 07/2019.
Video credit: Máté Nagy.
You can read more about Karancs Fiesta event and the art pedagogical experiment of Kísérletváros research team here [Artportal] and here [index].

TDK2021 – LIGHT MODE

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  • A képen az AIM Architecture + Urban Matters URBAN BLOOM projektje látható. Kredit: Urban Matters by MINI, CreatAR Images. Forrás: https://www.archdaily.com/927754/11-rules-to-follow-when-creating-vibrant-public-spaces?ad_medium=gallery

TDK2021 // UFLAB / LIGHT MODE / PLACEMAKING

POP_UP helyteremtés Budapest Belvárosában.
A TDK keretei között Budapest két karakteres kerületében Terézvárosban és Józsefvárosban mikro-helyek keresése és kialakítása (POP-UP) a téma. Az UFLab kutatóműhely tapasztalatait kihasználva választható kutatási vagy művészeti téma, helyi közösségi (kutatás-tervezés-csinálás) akciók, közlekedési javaslatok (kerékpáros helyek) felvetése, “okos városi”(interaktív helyek), vagy “zöld karakterű” beavatkozások tervezése hallgatók-oktatók és mindenképpen helyiek közös munkájával. A TDK reagálni kíván a tavasszal lezajló járványt követő közterület használati, gazdasági, társadalmi változásokra. Tavasz végén virtuális indulás, utána reméljük, hogy már nyáron sor kerülhet az “in situ” fizikai helyszíni munkára. A feladatok beadásának határideje 2021. október eleje.

ONLINE TÁJÉKOZTATÓ VIDEÓ / ZOOM MEETING

A TDK kutatást az őszi félévben az PLACEMAKING szabadon választható tárgy keretében folytatnánk tovább (megfelelő számú érdeklődő esetén), ahol a kialakult ötletekkel és tervekkel, egy 2022 nyári megvalósítást céloznánk meg!

Témavezetők: prof. Alföldi György DLA, Kurucz Olívia és Bokányi Imre az UFLab kutatóműhelyből, valamint a helyiek és külső szakemberek (tájépítészek, közlekedés mérnökök, stb.)

Jelentkezzetek! Ezeken az emailcímeken elértek minket: uflab@urb.bme.hu, alfoldi.gyorgy@urb.bme.hu, kurucz@urb.bme.hu

Megnézem a TDK2021 // UFLAB / DARK MODE / EXTREME URBANISM verziót.
Megnézem a TDK hirdetményt az URBANISZTIKA TANSZÉK honlapján.
Megnézem a TDK követelményeket BME honlapján.

TDK2021 – DARK MODE

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  • A képen a Volume Zero által meghirdetett MOONCEPTION 2019 Építészeti Pályázatának nyertes pályamunkája látható. Alkotók: TIM KRUPS - LEONHARDT MICHAELIS - ROBIN RADSZUWEIT. Forrás: https://competition.volzero.com/competitions/result/9

TDK2021 // UFLAB / DARK MODE / EXTREME URBANISM

Egyre realisztikusabbá válik a kérdés, hogy mit tehetünk, ha a Föld már nem tud az otthonunk lenni. Bolygónk átvészeli a klímakatasztrófákkal járó változásokat, de a rajta élő emberek túlélése már korántsem ennyire egyértelmű. Vajon melyik égitesten és milyen kompromisszumokkal teremthetünk magunknak új életfeltételeket? Több kilométeres jégfelszín alatti gravitációkiegyenlítő kapszulába zárva éljünk vagy a szkafander legyen a hétköznapi viseletünk? Hogyan oldható meg extrém körülmények között a lakhatás, az élelmezés és az ivóvíz problémája, illetve további egyéni vagy szociális igényeink kielégítése? Kreatív kutatásunkban elméleti fizikus bevonásával keressük a lehetséges űr-térbeli válaszokat ehhez hasonló felvetésekre és kísérletet teszünk arra, hogy találékony megoldásokat vázoljunk fel különböző bolygókon vagy holdakon kialakítható életkörülményekre. Most a járványban megtapasztalt “kapszula-lét” megélhetővé teszi a megszokott földi sémáktól eltérő, extrém adottságokat, ezek között igyekszünk megfogalmazni a város meghatározó elemeit.

ONLINE TÁJÉKOZTATÓ VIDEÓ / ZOOM MEETING

A TDK kutatást az őszi félévben az EXTREME URBANISM szabadon választható tárgy keretében folytatnánk tovább (megfelelő számú érdeklődő esetén), ahol nyílt pályázatokon vennénk részt a kialakult ötletekkel és tervekkel.

Témavezetők: Kurucz Olívia, prof. Alföldi György DLA, Bokányi Imre, Hauszknecht Péter

Jelentkezzetek! Ezeken az emailcímeken elértek minket: uflab@urb.bme.hu, alfoldi.gyorgy@urb.bme.hu, kurucz@urb.bme.hu

Megnézem a TDK2021 // UFLAB / LIGHT MODE / PLACEMAKING verziót.
Megnézem a TDK hirdetményt az URBANISZTIKA TANSZÉK honlapján.
Megnézem a TDK követelményeket BME honlapján.