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© 2022 OFFICE FOR DESIGN AND VISUALS

koeb | Solar Decathlon Europe 2019 contestant

An interdisciplinary collaboration between the various faculties of Budapest University of Technology and Economics and industrial partners.

In this project we are focusing on local issues, having in mind that some of the pertinent ecological, social and economical aspects can only be answered on a broader, holistic level. Today we could rather speak of losing our population, the population pyramid shows us an aging society. This age structure results in no need for densification, rather in migrating youth and rural areas facing depopulation. Marginalized areas of the country are thus threatened by entering a spiral of economic and demographic demise that also leads to a cultural imbalance in the welfare society. In the housing market there is a big and growing gap between property prices in these rural settlements and larger cities, like Budapest, where housing in the city centre is no longer affordable to people with an average income, who are being pushed further and further away in the agglomeratio contributing to the urban sprawl. At the same time these are also the areas where there is more potential for experiments with alternative lifestyles and for creating local communities.
Today 55% of the world’s population lives in urban areas, whereas in Hungary this value is 70%, out of which 20% lives in the capital, Budapest. With this number constantly growing, we have to find the means for densification outside the already crowded capital, with the development of suburban and rural areas with available intrastructural capacity, space and a strong need for demographic diversity and growth. To make the gap in our country – and society – narrower, we aim to offer quality solutions available for general use – keeping in mind the scenario where living in rural areas is an appealing prospect. Considering the scope of the contest we came to the conclusion that the concept of urban densification and the renovation of rural building stock are counteractive at a regional level. These two strategies envision different societal and architectural future.

Left column: stagnating population at the capital and rural areas.
Middle column: domestic migration leaves the countryside abandoned, Budapest’s growth accelerates.

Right column: decentralization starts to fill the rural cities, living in the countryside becomes as prospective as moving to Budapest.

Facade and shading system of a module element
/ 01. vertical greenwall 02. outdoor shading 03. indoor curtains 04. thermal mass /

For more information, please visit the instagram of the project!

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