Hello Wood v Argentíne

Award-winning architectural education method developed by Hungary-based Hello Wood was recently applied in partnership with Argentinean architects, resulting in Hello Wood Argentina, the first summer camp and festival in the South American continent. Hello Wood encourages architects around the world to join the educational movement of developing socially engaged concepts, turning architectural theory into practice, designing and building in a week-long collaborative process, getting close to and learning from celebrated international architects and becoming a better architect through an intense week of construction. Hello Wood Argentina, the first to apply the know-how, has proven that this method complementing traditional university curriculum has a strong foothold with young architects around the world.

Hello Wood Argentina created their first summer camp under the theme of Con-Tacto (Contact). A community of 150 students, architects, and designers from all over the country gathered in Ceibas (Entre Ríos) for a week, to realize their ideas in the first local Hello Wood edition. Hello Wood Argentina and the International team together with guest curator, Jaime Grinberg were in charge of curating the projects. The criteria for selection was to search for applicants with a strong concept that generates spaces that encourage connection, either in a traditional, functional, utopian or idealized way. Plans submitted had to be simple, natural, and feasible to produce in a week by a team of students.

Hello Wood International summer school and festival for design and architecture spent the last seven years hosting hundreds of participants from thirty countries and twenty universities, gaining usable experience in building international networks, spreading good practice and sharing knowledge, both theoretical and practical. The know-how is now spread via intellectual franchise where teams of students from various fields, nationalities, and institutions are led by experienced, successful and practicing professionals and academics while their concepts are developed and realized in an intense team effort. The essence of the education platform is to seek replicable models for achieving social benefits and improving the quality of life through architecture and design. It is a possibility for learning by doing and a great opportunity to break down the barriers between different generations and to connect in ways that are beyond the walls of universities. During the past years, top designers of the architectural world like Miralles Tagliabue Studio, Katsuya Fukushima, Kosmos and the Urban Think Tank visited Hello Wood’s summer camp in Hungary and participated in the creative process. Every year, the growing number of applicants prove that students, academics, and architects are happy to grab the opportunity to leave the designer desk behind and try themselves in real-time master planning in the company of prestigious guests. During the one-week camp that complements traditional university education, architecture students and academics from TU Delft, AA School of Architecture, the University of London, Columbia, ETH Zürich, Tokyo University, University of Liverpool and the University of Glasgow widen Hello Wood participants’ perspectives.