In the competition, almost two hundred second-year architectural engineering students from three countries were given the task of designing a residential building with a community function on a plot in Debrecen. The host University of Debrecen’s Department of Architecture is represented by sixty students.
In 2009, students of Romanian architecture schools first announced the CASA (house) student design competition, during which second-year architecture students were asked to design a new residential building on an empty plot in Bucharest in the spring semester.
Since then, the event has been held every year, and over time the initiative has even become international. The architectural engineering students of the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Debrecen participated for the first time in the CASA challenge organized by the University of Timisoara last year. The competition was so successful for the students in Debrecen that, based on their results, the Faculty of Engineering will host the program this year, for which a total of almost 200 students from one Serbian, four Romanian and two Hungarian higher education institutions (from Újvidék, Cluj-Napoca, Nagyvárad, Timișoara, Nagy Szeben, Győr and Debrecen) participated. students and 40-50 teachers arrived. 60 people from the host the Faculty of Engineering in Debrecen joined.
On Saturday, they started with the presentation of the task and professional presentations related to the topic.
The students were asked to design a small-scale residential building that would house an imagined civil organization and also have community functions on an empty lot in downtown Debrecen, at 10 Szepességi utca. The interesting thing about the area is that there are buildings in the neighborhood that carry civil architectural traditions
– explained the head of the Department of Architectural Engineering of the Faculty of Engineering.
Tamás Szentirmai said that for the competitors to immerse themselves in the task as much as possible, they were also taken to the location.
Since second-year students are just starting to design houses, they are not burdened with many rules and regulations, so they can let their imaginations run free, which can bring great solutions. The city can even draw ideas from this later
– added the head of the department.
István Puskás, deputy mayor of Debrecen responsible for the cultural area, spoke about how the cívisváros is currently in an era of intense change.
We do a lot to preserve our built heritage. The architecture student project is good because it is interesting to involve external observers and perspectives. These inspirations will certainly be able to give us ideas that can be used
– stressed István Puskás.
The chief architect of Debrecen added:
nowadays, real estate developments in the city are typically formulated along economic aspects. The university student application, on the other hand, prioritizes the environmental approach.
During such a planning process, general solution proposals could even be developed for how to regenerate the remaining parts of the old town of Debrecen
– added István Gábor.
CASA 15 ends at the end of the university semester, in June when a four-member international jury of renowned architects will evaluate the projects, and then the program will conclude with a workshop, the presentation of the award-winning designs, an award ceremony and an exhibition. The winning designs will also appear in the form of a publication.
More details can be found on CASA’s website in English.
(unideb.hu)
