BME Academics Contribute to the Concept of the Hungarian Pavilion of the Venice Architecture Biennale

The decision has been made regarding the Hungarian pavilion for the 2027 Venice Architecture Biennale: ethnographer and museologist Zsófia Frazon’s project, entitled Maskara. The Carnival of Things, was selected as the winner. Several members of the creative team are staff at BME’s Faculty of Architecture, including Associate Professor Márton Nagy, Head of the Department of Residential Building Design; Assistant Professors Dávid Török and Balázs Falvai; Assistant Lecturer Lukács Szederkényi; PhD students Vencel Kustra and Mátyás Weisz – as revealed in an article published by Hungarian architecture news site Építészfórum.

A record number of 17 entries were submitted for the Ludwig Museum competition, 15 of which were valid. Through a collection based on an everyday Hungarian example – the floodplain huts along the Tisza – the winning project reveals the unique world of “architecture without architects”, not only presenting the phenomenon itself but also conveying the message that architects, too, can learn from these examples.

This fits well with the concept of next year’s Venice Biennale: the co-chief curators, Wang Shu and Lu Wenyu, sought to draw attention to the fact that 

“architecture is not merely a subject of discourse, but direct action 

under the slogan ‘do architecture’. The philosophy of architecture is the philosophy of ‘how to do it’: a practice that engages with reality through actual sites and actual building”.

At the awards ceremony, National Commissioner Julia Fabényi noted that a number of entries had come from the academic sector, which demonstrates that architecture education in Hungary serves as a creative foundation for thinking about architecture within a broader context. The winning entry is also the result of a multi-year course and fieldwork carried out by the Department of Residential Building Design at BME with its architecture students. A key element of the design is that the installation will be created manually by the students.

For the fifth year running, the project has involved observing, mapping and interpreting the spontaneous architectural landscape of houses built in the Tisza floodplain without planning permission and, for the most part, without the involvement of architects. The exhibition highlights the beauty of this kaleidoscope of ad hoc architecture, built from readily available, inexpensive materials, and celebrates the joy of creation and creative freedom. It showcases the ingenuity and the sense of discovery inherent in anonymous architecture, as well as the most fundamental creative forms of building, according to the news site.

"The message of the exhibition is that, in order to address the professional and social issues facing us and to renew our own architecture, we need to turn towards the natural systems that surround us and study their realities and their capacity to sustain life. [...]

Using the carnival as an interpretative framework, we elevate the spontaneous structures featured in our collection to celebratory forms of architecture, whilst at the same time transforming the Hungarian pavilion into a carnival venue, placing canonised buildings and the unintentional constructions presented in the archive on an equal footing,"

write the creators in the summary of their winning proposal.

The 20th Venice International Architecture Biennale will take place between 8 May and 21 November 2027. The main sponsor of the Hungarian exhibition is the Ministry of Social Relations and Culture.

Rector’s Office, Communications Directorate