Students and architects from over 30 countries have constructed a “village” of 14 wooden structures at Hello Wood’s Project Village 2016. Founded in 2010 as an art camp for students in architecture, art and design disciplines, Hello Wood has since grown into an award-winning interior summer school program focused on creating design through collaborative methods and bringing together the principles of architecture, art, innovation and social impact. The Project Village, conceived just last year, pushes these ideals to their limit by challenging students, teachers and designers to work together to create a new architecture of community at Hello Wood’s rural campus in Csoromfolde, Hungary.

Continue reading to see all 14 projects with descriptions from the designers.

In the second year of Hello Wood’s Project Village, architects were tasked with constructing a place of “arrival, permanence, and connection.” Participants first discussed current and historical settlement precedents, debating and analyzing which “subtle cues and territorial definitions make the roles of host and guest change or interchange.” This deliberation was then used to develop the 14 different typologies that were to make up the campus. Teams were then formed to realize the vision.

“Project Village 2016 is the beginning of a new era for Hello Wood. We are building a rural campus that will be open throughout the year to welcome architects, artists, social scientists, and students. In our brief we asked for projects that address actual needs of the community, from the most mundane and pragmatic ones to the utmost spiritual. We were happy to see responses to these basic functions such as a sanctuary, a storage or a public kitchen, among others,” says Peter Pozsar, one of the founders of Hello Wood.

“One of the main challenges for us during the masterplanning was to create a real settlement, where the projects are not autonomous installations, but adapt to the needs and everyday life of the community,” adds Johanna Muszbek, lecturer at the University of Liverpool and curator of Project Village.

For the first phase of Project Village 2015, Urban Think-Tank built the Migrant House, a structure that provided the initial point of orientation for a community of travelers. Their proposal for Project Village 2016 seeks to transform the idea of the Migrant House into an idea of Migrant Hous(ing). The current work at Urban-Think Tank focuses on practical strategies of housing while remaining embedded within community-driven processes. The Migrant Hous(ing) builds on their ideas of modular construction, community capacity building, rapid and incremental upgrading and quick, pre-fabricated assembly and disassembly methods. The structures themselves will be migrant in nature. Their ability to be transported and rapidly installed, transformed and dismantled is key and a major performative aspect of the project.

The forest is a point of departure for human colonization and emergence of a modern understanding of space. The project tests the tension between these two poles and aims to make it visible and tangible. The open structure of the installation refers to the surrounding countryside and offers an ever-changing perspective between interior and exterior space. The project also works as a viewing platform to observe the incredibly wide range of biodiversity living in the area.

In the world of communication and global exchange of cultures, walls should unite people and not divide them. As such this project is a wall but a new kind of wall - it attracts rather than separates. It questions physical borders and proposes transforming the typology of a wall from a space-divider into a functional infrastructural space itself which can provide shelter as well as provide for communal, commercial and cultural activities.The structure is built in layers according to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. The ground floor provides shelter for basic human necessities such as sleeping and the top floor offers space for spiritual necessities such as the need for self-expression. The team built one layer per day, each marked by a ritual of one activity: from sleeping and eating on first days to love and self-actualization on the last days.

Before becoming encapsulated within the realm of hygiene the bath was not only a social event, but also a form of collective pleasure. The space of the bath in the city was a public one, where the care of the self was a practice mediated by architecture. The bathhouse featured different environments that regulated the body temperature in relation with varying degrees of socialization. Inverting the contemporary separation between privacy and exposure, the new baths will restore the public function of washing in the realm of the collective, becoming a place of sociality where the body will be rescued from the tyranny of puritan invisibility. Occupying a central role in the village, the bathhouse will provide a space for relaxation from the intense daily routine of construction.

Table is a Parliament Parliament is a Table uses the picnic table as a module to create the parliament project that functions both as a gathering place and as a place for debate.You can sit down by the table at the lower level of the arena structure, share food with others and welcome visitors.­ It fosters inclusivity, diversity and demonstrates the ritual of welcoming: at Project Village 2016 everyone is welcome at the table and welcome to join in the debate. The project aims to re­think the archetypal amphitheatre space. It becomes a tribune for exchange and expression in various media such­ as sound, music, dance and both the still and moving image. It is as much a place for entertainment as a political space. In our community the expression of oneself should be as natural as eating or drinking. Politics, democracy, entertainment and partying simultaneously shape the spaces of communal living.

The history of architecture and spirituality have always been linked. The temple structure, therefore, may be the first architectural form to take actual form within the community. In 2015 the Sanctuary project posed the question “what does spirituality look like in an increasingly non-religious world?”, but perhaps our world hasn’t become less religious, we have just given it a different name. By reintroducing traditional symbolism to practices that have never stopped we call attention to the daily rituals in which we participate. Just as the gate of every Roman city was dedicated to Janus, ritual marks one’s arrival. The act of gathering is a ritual. Built on the 300 year old ruins of a previous settlement in Csóromfölde, the Alt-Cathedral is space that represents ritual in the community. Within there are areas for ‘alter’; a fire providing fellowship; an ‘overview’ deck; interstitial spaces allowing rest or self-reflection and an area of ‘dedication’ honoring those who came before.

Actively bending slender natural materials and combining them with other linear or planar materials into stiff structural hybrids has been prevalent in vernacular architecture since the beginnings of human dwellings and homes. Engaging examples of this can be seen in the traditional Mudhif in Afghanistan or traditional Iranian felt tents. While the concepts and technology of such hybrids is not new, there is great potential for novelty and innovation in the digital tools necessary for their design. All the hybrid structures built for Project Village 2016 were designed using a brand new and highly innovative computational sketching tool with live structural feedback. This project also hosted the village museum exhibiting prototypes from the other projects.

For Project Village 2016 - Settling: Rituals of Arrival the team built and performed a Shou Sugi Ban workshop. Shou Sugi Ban refers to the Japanese technique of charring wood to extend its lifespan. As settling implies an action that requires time, space and craft we wanted to contribute to the longevity of the settlement with one of the first buildings. In order to perform this technique, the team built a fireplace, a table and a shelter. Other settlers will make use of this facility, now and in the future by bringing their material to the workshop and learning the various charring techniques most appropriate for their own purposes.

The house is a seminal reflection of socio-political relations of people in all cultures. Besides being the place that shelters and protects human life, the way it is built, used and divided can reflect how people relate to each other and organize their society. This project is an homage to one of the most brilliant brazilian architects of all time: Lucio Costa. In 1956 Costa won the competition for the urban plan of Brasilia and in 1964 he designed the installation "Riposatevi: an invitation to rest" for the Brazilian Pavilion at the 13th Milan Triennale. Guitars and colourful hammocks displayed the paradox of a country where laziness and sloppiness are stigmas and yet it was possible to build a new capital in a few short years.

The essence of a summer school is people connecting with each other. Their motivation, skills, knowledge and will to connect and exchange amongst each other are most important. The structure(s) of our proposal are amassed singular elements, a structure which reflects a coming-together of individual elements. A structure in an infinite state, to be split, re-arranged and ultimately in parts to be taken home by all participants so they can set up camp anew somewhere else. Just as importantly, every village needs practical items, like tables and chairs.

BuildunBuilt is the architectural version of a virtual cloud. The team’s interests lie in the question of contemporary housing and the relevance and future of prototyping. They pursued an extensive research on the local history of prototyping as a technology of facilitating and defining social and aesthetic change, be it emancipatory and/or disciplinary, progressive or regressive. The future will reveal if this edifice could transform into the Hello Wood-prototype house.

May it be a countryside village or a traditional house, Peru, Turkey or Hungary, Hello Wood, Burning Man or Rainbow Gathering, fireplaces always played an important role in community life. Fire was the centre where the community gather and sometimes cook, warm up, party and socialise. They were and still are the centers of communal living space where people instinctively gather. The FIREPLACE stems from a basic need of participants at every Hello Wood workshop and the idea that a fireplace can be flexible depending on its different functions. The team investigated the old Hungarian fireplace structures and were particularly inspired by the idea of the “nyárikonyha” (open-air summer kitchen).

The project is an introduction to the concept of settling: it marks the event of an arrival. It becomes a reference point when you place down your travelling kit and pick up what you will need. Placed by the entrance on the edge of Csóromfölde. It awaits you as a membrane to pass through both ways, leaving one world with its gadgets behind and gearing up for the adventures to come. You come home to stay, play, work, eat, think, party - to be. Here you will find all you need in one extensible ‘light’, box-like object: the firewood, stones for the fireplace, a saw, a cleaver, a tub, the ladder, a bicycle etc. All are recognisable accessories that inseparably belong to us and once put together will form an inextricable part of the beginning of our story. Inventory is supposed to be an object of identification just like the inventory in Moonrise Kingdom of Wes Anderson. It models the ritual of an arrival and departure through mundane, though very iconic material proofs.

Hermit House is a experimental research space for the individual to orient oneself in the world. A basic roof structure in combination with two different wall elements and a minimal set of furniture for cooking, sleeping and sitting, generates a space to be appropriated. All of this can be changed to accommodate the needs for cloister as well as the best ways to interact with nature and the never-ending distractions from the village. Flexibility is not only shaped by budget, climate and artistic pursuits, but also the aim to create hospitality for possible guests. When there are no guests it is the place to enjoy the silence and contemplation.

More information on Hello Wood Project Village can be found at their website, here.