After a three-year hiatus, the Hello Wood Summer School and Festival, which has been around for more than ten years, is returning this July. For this special occasion, 10 noteworthy projects were chosen to give you a glimpse of its long and fascinating history.
Innovation, social responsibility, sustainable materials, eco-friendly and socially relevant buildings, and great design. All this characterizes Hello Wood, a creative architecture and design studio and an educational platform.
Since 2010 Hello Wood’s art camp has grown into a major international summer school & festival for students in architecture and design. It promotes the construction process as a platform for discussion, innovation, and exchanging knowledge and provides an opportunity for students and young professionals to experience the process of building (of projects, themselves, and a community).
In 2023 Hello Wood is organizing the biggest art festival in its history, the Builder Summit, which is going to take place in the post-apocalyptic mine of Zalahaláp. There will be a permanent central installation, and international architectural and designer superstars visit the post-apocalyptic basalt quarry in Hungary. Team leaders with a concept and architecture students can still apply to participate after reading the Open Call.
Throughout the years, the Hello Wood Festival has counted more than 1000 participants from across 70 countries and over 50 universities and together they built more than 150 projects. Get to know 10 which represent Hello Wood’s long legacy.
Corn-walk (2014, Play with Balance)
This time around the challenge from the organizers was to “play with balance” which generated ideas that investigated the balance between opposing concepts. Set in the bucolic fields of Csórompuszta in the Hungarian countryside, this site-specific installation towered over the cornfield facing the sunset. Get to know more about the project here!
Inventory (2016, Project Village)
2016 was the second year of Project Village, a three-year-long quest challenging participants to build their very own settlement, the rural campus for the summer school of Hello Wood. The ‘Inventory’ project marked the event of arrival through mundane yet iconic material proofs. Get to know more about the project here!
Project Villa (2016, Project Village 2)
Project Villa was the first prototype house in the history of the camp and it also functioned as a lookout spot. Those who climbed to the top were able to enjoy and take in a stunning panoramic view of the surrounding countryside. Get to know more about the project here!
I am a monument (2017, Project Village 3)
‘I am a monument’ was a new take on the Project Villa from the previous Hello Wood camp. A roof and an upper floor with side walls have been built onto the existing stilts providing shade and refuge. The builders used their own ideas to improve the existing structure while they also respected its original features. Get to know more about the project here!
The Tower (2017, Project Village 3)
When climbing the viewing tower, one could not only see the Hello Wood campsite with its new structures from that year but also glance back at Csórompuszta, the former site of the Project Village. It also preserved the past: the shape of the top of the tower was reminiscent of chimneys in the village, and wood from earlier projects was also built in it. Get to know more about the project here!
Hello Wool (2018, Cabinfever)
The ‘Hello Wool’ was a metal-clad, wool-insulated cabin specially designed for use by one person – a space for getting away from it all and getting lost in your thoughts. The tin-roofed building has been designed so that the warm air of the rooftop area escapes via a chimney-like vent and the tiny holes in the wood panels around it. Get to know more about the project here!
Treehouse (2018, Cabinfever)
An iconic feature in Csóromfölde that still watches over the area. The Treehouse is a haven and functions as a lighthouse for lost travelers. It is the small details, such as the closed and tilted angles of the sides that define the final look. Although the building is open on the ground floor, the upper sections are accessible by a ladder, completely closing it off so weary travelers can find solitude, and escape the weather outside. Get to know more about the project here!
Tűzvíznéző (2018, Hungarian Gathering)
The program, which brought together 10 educational institutions from Hungary, saw universities build wooden installations in 8 towns in the region over the course of a week. The MOME’s project was completed in Bodrogkisfalu, where a dam separates the village from the river Bodrog and the rainwater harvesting pond has been abandoned. The students built a resting spot on this pond. The installation, made of traditional local materials, reconnects the river and the small lake to the fabric of the village.
WeMask (2019, Carnival)
WeMask was a performative structure that relied on its participants—holding up the straw roof—to achieve its vision of collectivity. Only then does the cone become a structure, a representation of how a community must work together to achieve its goals. The project was also devoted to sustainable construction, with the roof constructed solely of materials gathered on-site and without the use of any electrical tools. Get to know more about the project here!
Ginga (2020, Superposición, Argentina)
Hello Wood also expanded across borders and in 2017 Argentina organized its first camp, following the Hungarian model. Ginga is a stage that invites Hello Wood participants from rich cultural and professional backgrounds to exchange ideas. During the night, the central lamp illuminates and dyes the space in red, generating shadows and different perceptions thus drawing curiosity. ‘Gingar’ is the basic movement of capoeira, a Brazilian martial art, and it is deeply related to the idea of moving harmoniously. Get to know more about the project here!
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