Butterfly House in the park, the signature of the city at its Hero Square, and attractive Cubes around the streets of Budapest - one of Hungary’s most creative groups, Hello Wood created new landmarks for the city’s famous Budapest Spring Festival. The architects also recently published an open call for workshop leaders as well as for architecture and design students to join Hello Wood’s summer camp, which is one of the leading architecture workshops in Central Europe.
What would you do, if you found a giant butterfly in the middle of your hometown? It happened to the people of Budapest, who found a gigantic one in a central point of the city. The installation - which is actually a huge stage - was created by the architects of Hello Wood for Budapest Spring Festival. The Butterfly House is a new way of defining the concept of stage. The purpose of the group was to create a venue, which can be used by the widest range of performers: from classical orchestras to acrobatic shows. While being a unique structure architecturally - it occupies more than 300 square metres, and is made of 20 tons of wood and 9 tons of concrete - the Butterfly House is also a unique design project. Because of the height of the installation, one of the main quests for Hello Wood was to make the stage safe from the strong winds. It’s wings are decorated after the Poplar Admiral (Limenitis populi), which is one of Central Europe’s most exotic and special butterflies. The Butterfly House is also the symbol of Spring and the rebirth of Nature - this was the main inspiration for the designers and architects.
Probably the most emblematic place of Budapest is it’s Hero’s Square: its silhouette is the symbol of the city all around the world. In collaboration with architect Gabor Zoboki, Hello Wood built a 16 metres long installation made of carved logs and boards, which form the word “Budapest”. This way the city got a new symbol, a place to hang out and make photos of, likeable to the locals and tourists as well. Also, part of the concept was interactivity, so that people can sit on the installation and be completely safe thanks to the anti-slippery cover of the wood. Caused by the lights coming from the the feet of the letters, the installation created a beautiful visual harmony with the square’s silhouette.
And to make sure everyone remembers that Spring is around, huge red Cubes served as orienting objects inspired by the logo of the Budapest Spring Festival. There were six cubes, all of them 2,7 metres tall around the city. The architects goal was to create spots in the city, which are attractive, and stable enough if the curious locals or tourists climb upon them.
Hello Wood’s summer workshop is one of leading architecture workshops of Central Europe. Any students of architecture and design are welcome to join their team for the week of the workshop, if they send their application until the 16th of May, as well as the workshop leaders, who can still apply until the 30rd of April.
