After a year-long research project, the socially inclusive architectural design volume REPLAN – Innovative Solutions to Urban Housing Challenges was presented by Holcim Hungaria Home Foundation on 6 May 2015.
Throughout a research project launched summer 2014 and completed by March 2015, Holcim Hungaria Home Foundation has acted in cooperation with the Residential Building Design Dpt. of Budapest University of Technology and Economics (BUTE), and received support from the Municipality of Budapest. The project goal was to study the socio-economic characteristics of selected residential zones within the capital, and develop architectural designs that address their main challenges in a way that is accessible and affordable to the target population. Six study groups, composed of interdisciplinary teams of young social scientists and architects, worked on six Budapest neighbourhoods, representing typical crisis or at-risk urban residential zones. BUTE students were actively involved in three of the six research and design groups, and staff members of the Metropolitan Research Institute contributed to the research process as well as to the development of the final volume.
The final conference to present the output volume to professionals, decision makers, the press, and the general audience, was held on 6 May 2015 in the C3 Atelier showroom of Holcim Hungary (which also accommodates Holcim Foundation’s events). Guest speakers included Holcim Regional Director Richard Skene; Foundation president Sándor Fegyverneky; Dr. Marie Antoinette Glaser, lecturer at CASE Centre for Research on Architecture, Society & the Built Environment at ETH Zurich; and Sándor Finta, Chief Architect and Head of City Planning of Budapest Municipality. The speakers of the event were followed by the presentation of the six pilot plans developed by the interdisciplinary research groups.
The study volume summarizing research findings and presenting pilot project plans is freely available for non-commercial purposes under creative common licence, and can be downloaded here.