MORE TAKE ON AFRIKA – BME projects in FUGA

MORE TAKE ON AFRICA -the Department of Explorative Architecture of the BME Faculty of Architecture's exhibition in the FUGA Budapest Center of Architecture.

The Department of Explorative Architecture of the BME Faculty of Architecture introduced four projects at the TimeSpaceExistence exhibition 2023, held in Venice, with the motto OUR TAKE ON AFRICA. The exhibition in the FUGA Budapest Center of Architecture (21 February 2024 – 10 March 2024) is complemented with further plans, mock-ups, and photos which were only virtually present in Venice due to the physical limits of the installation – this is how the MORE TAKE ON AFRICA exhibition came into existence.

The installation, connected to this year's theme of the Venice Architectural Biennial, displays the Department's activities with a focus on Africa from the past seven years. The composition represents our working method in which exploring a topic begins with field research to gain a deep understanding of the issue. Then, based on analyses at the instructor/doctoral level, it is possible to take care of student design tasks that use and translate the research results into the diverse language of the plans. In accordance with this dynamic, two exhibited projects concern the life works of architects constituting in Africa. One of them is about László Mester de Parajd and his outstanding public buildings and vernacular collection in Africa. The other one is about Hassan Fathy, whose legacy has been at the center of intense fieldwork of the Department since 2015 and is already in the interpretation phase thanks to multiple doctoral and student research papers.

The doctoral work of Mohamed Raslan investigates the possibilities of generative AI in the future of mass housing projects, addressing the housing crisis of the Global South and especially Egypt.

Finally, our fourth and most extensive project related to gradual education is a large-scale educational experiment to create a vertical studio based on the above research projects. The designs developed in the third-year courses of 2021 and 2022 for African locations address the issue of self-sufficient food production. The exhibition material is supplemented by student projects from the 2017-2022 TDK (Scientific Students' Associations) conferences, theoretically based elaborations of MSc courses, and tender works that fit the topic. During these years, we have involved almost 400 students in our plans to create design projects based on research, the results of which we are proud to introduce.

Faculty of Architecture