A wonderland közösséget fiatal európai építészek alapították azért, hogy segítsék az egymás közötti szakmai tudáscserét és együtt hozhassanak létre a nyilvánosság felé jól kommunikáló, tudatosságnövelő programokat. 2002-ben 11 fiatal és ambíciózus ausztriai csapat hozta létre, hogy lehetőséget és teret adjon a kortárs építészet bemutatásának. Az első sikerek után a közös fellépés koncepciója újabb építészeket vonzott be; egy vándorkiállításnak köszönhetően a hálózat hamarosan 99 tagúvá nőtte ki magát, 9 európai országból. Ma, 11 évvel később, már több, mint 17 európai ország fiatal építészei csatlakoztak a közösséghez.
a wonderland csapata (fotó: wonderland.cz)
A wonderland céljai a legkülönfélébb programokon keresztül valósulnak meg, egyik ilyen a "Project Spaces", melyet 2013. május 27. és 31. között a Lakatlan Budapest Fesztivál szakmai workshopja fogadott be. A Kortárs Építészeti Központtal közösen szervezett esemény remek példája annak, ahogyan a mai Európa fiatal építészei találkoznak és egy-egy rövid program erejéig együtt gondolkodnak.
A wonderland európai hálózatáról Veres Orsival Ansgar Seng (mutató) beszélgetett. Orsi mellett a Lakatlan Fesztivál szakmai workshopját Daniela Patti, Oravecz Júlia és Polyák Levente vezették. A Project Space workshop prezentációja már elérhető a Lakatlan weboldalán!
The network behind: wonderland
An interview with Orsi Veres, board member of wonderland
Wonderland is a platform for young European architects aiming at knowledge exchange and awareness raising activities targeted at the general public. It started in 2002 as the collaboration of 11 young and emerging Austrian teams, with the wish to exhibit contemporary architecture. After the success soon a concept to extend the network and include further architects from neighbouring countries could be found. With the touring exhibition the network of young and emerging architects grew within short term to 99 teams and various collaborators from 9 European countries. Nowadays, 11 years later, it is active in more than 17 European countries.
Wonderland's aims are met through various programmes, one of them being the "Project Spaces": The Vacancy Budapest workshop which took place from May 27th till May 31st is a part of that series. It is organized in cooperation with KÉK (Hungarian Contemporary Architecture Centre) and other partners and is one example of an encounter of young European architects. Ansgar Seng talked with Orsi Veres about the European network. She represents wonderland at this week's workshop together with her colleagues Daniela Patti, Júlia Oravecz and Levente Polyák.
If you could describe wonderland in a few sentences, what would it be?
Orsi: A network of young start-up offices, though the founders have been around for 10 years now already so they are well started by now. It is for people who are interested in social aspects of architecture and are looking for self-initiated projects. It started by knowledge sharing, as lots of people were facing the same challenges when starting their own office after coming out of architecture school. The Vienna-based board of the organisation realizes different projects for the promotion of exchange.
What do you think is unique about wonderland?
Orsi: We are filling a need by exchanging knowledge other than pure architectural skills knowledge which you also need for running an office. Also it is a kind of social network for architects, who can get in touch with local partners more directly and in a shorter period of time. We also work with city developers as a top-down approach and chambers of architects, which represent the architects' interests.
What is your role in wonderland?
Orsi: Well, different ones. The focus of my work is on "Project Spaces" which I organize with Daniela, who has been working on this longer and has because of that a better overview. My work thus involves a lot of emailing, for instance collecting entries for idea competitions. As my mother tongue is Hungarian and Danielle wasn't available, I took over most of the communication and organisation for this Budapest workshop.
When did you join wonderland?
Orsi: More or less a year ago. I just went to a meeting but then started to join for real. But I am more active since January, when we newly divided tasks between us. Now I have a larger overview and am constantly doing a few things: One would be organising the project spaces, staying in touch with our members and serving as an editor for one of our upcoming publications.
From what you have seen in the past year, what was your favorite project of wonderland?
Orsi: Oh, it's hard to say, because they are all different and all the same at the same time. Longer and most complex are the "Project Spaces" as actual workshops, but our "Blind Date" evenings are also very exciting, because you see different approaches. And then film screenings, were you get the most public and get in touch not only with architects but also with the general public. It's a nice feedback and you don't get stuck in the professional circles. A big outcome of our year-long work is the publishing of our "Manual for Emerging Architects" which is on sale now.
As the Budapest Vacancy workshop is organized in collaboration of wonderland and KÉK, how was the cooperation with KÉK established?
Orsi: We are both working on the same topic, therefore a cooperation just makes sense. In this workshop KÉK is our local partner who responded to a call we published for a Project Series workshop. We then shared responsibilities on organising the workshops. Of course KÉK takes care of data and maps and all the local organisational issues like finding hostels for the participants, but also to a certain extent of funding. Wonderland takes care of the European dimensions, issued a call for participants, organises a jury and also takes care about funding.
Up until now, on the evening of the third day, how well did the Budapest workshop meet your expectations?
Orsi: So our goal was to gather a strategy, but maybe that is not that realistic as you cannot expect foreigners without so much local knowledge to develop a profitable and feasible strategy in such a short period of time. But it goes in that direction as much as possible, so maybe we can come up with a scenario which KÉK can then use for a detailed development. Right now we are a bit behind schedule as we were hoping to have something more concrete already. But we're going in a good direction so I am satisfied!
Besides her work for wonderland Orsi is a student of architecture working on her master thesis at the Vienna University of Technology. She is born and raised in Romania but has been living in Vienna for about five years.
More about wonderland and their "Manual for Emerging Architects" can be found at www.wonderland.cx.
