Presented at Cluj-Napoca Architecture Festival

The Department of Architecture of the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Debrecen (DE MK) also participated in a prestigious international conference of renowned architects and architecture students in Cluj-Napoca, Romania. During the four-day event, 15 students from DE MK created an installation related to the theme of the event.

The event, called FAST - Festival for Architecture Schools of Tomorrow, was jointly organized by the five Romanian schools of architecture, Cluj-Napoca, Oradea, Timisoara, Bucharest and Yasivas, and the Romanian Chamber of Architects.

Tamás Szentirmai, Head of the Department of Architecture at DE MK said: the Debrecen department was invited to the English-language international programmed as a so-called euroregional guest this year. The main aim of the festival was to explore the intersection of architectural practice and academic research, the relationship between architecture and fashion. Lectures and workshops covered topics such as the protection of cultural heritage, the possibilities for sustainable growth of cities, the relationship between ecology and equity, as well as the limits of urbanism. Urban architecture tours were also organized.

- It is a great professional recognition for our department to have been invited to participate in the conference in Cluj. It is important for the Department to present itself, to be present internationally, to cultivate professional contacts and to establish further cooperation. The background of the matter is that between 2019 and 2021, an international Erasmus+ research project called triplex confinium was conducted under the leadership of the Faculty of Architecture in Timisoara, to which we were also connected, and since then we have been participating in joint projects with them - said Tamás Szentirmai.

The head of the department gave a lecture at the international conference on Practical beauty - craft aesthetics. In his presentation, he showed through projects of students from the department that simple, everyday materials can be used to create architectural value. With thoughtful design, finding the material best suited to the task and a construction method that is in harmony with the properties of the material, simple, craft-type construction can be considered aesthetics.

During the festival, 15 MSc students from the Faculty of Engineering in Debrecen built an installation related to the themes of the event, designed during the autumn semester, in the new building of the Faculty of Architecture there. The work reflected one of the main themes of the conference: the relationship between architecture and fashion.