Biobriquettes_Bioriquettesbuilding___Monor Designbuilt

Biobriquettebuilding

Monor Designbuild

The Maltase Charity Service’s The Presence programme has achieved outstanding results through the persistent work of its partakers over the past years, so it is not without reason that the work in Monor is being referred to as a model programme. In 2012 a group from the Faculty of Architecture at the Budapest University of Technology and Economics joined the work, in order to provide assistance in solving the problems of the community. As a result of the cooperation it is to be hoped that the future plans will be realized according to a well thought concept. One of the main goals of the long-term and slow cooperative process is to construct a larger building for community use on the site of the ‚Hangar’, a recycled airplane hangar currently functioning as a social office and multifunctional community center.

A Magyar Máltai Szeretetszolgálat Jelenlét Programja az elmúlt évek kitartó munkájával komoly eredményeket ért el, nem véletlen, hogy mintaprogramként kezdenek tekinteni rá. A Budapesti Műszaki Egyetem Építészmérnöki Karának egy munkacsoportja 2012-ben kapcsolódott be Monoron a munkába, hogy építészeti segítséget nyújtson a telepi problémák kezeléséhez. Az együttműködés eredményeképpen remélhető, hogy átgondolt koncepció mentén valósulhatnak meg a jővőbeni tervek. A hosszú és lassú folyamat egyik fő célja a Hangár telkén egy nagyobb közösségi funkciójú épület megépítése.

Contents

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Introduction

Ferenc Cságoly DLA architect MsC, holder of the Kossuth Prize, university professor, member of the MTA (Hungarian Academy of Sciences)

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The history of Dávid Kiss Monor-Tabán The Hungarian Maltese Charity Service Viewpoints: Children

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International outlook

Stefánia Nagy student of architecture

Katalin Fazekas doctoral candidate at BME, Fulbright Alumni

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Student workshops

Balázs Kemes Teaching Assistant, BME Department of Public Building Design

Viewpoints: Construction camp 24

Architectural cooperation

Monor cronology 30

Building strategy

Stefánia Nagy student of architecture

Péter Fejérdy DLA Assistant Professor, BME Department of Public Building Design

2012–2014 Katalin Fazekas doctoral candidate at BME, Fulbright Alumni

Viewpoints: Zsolt Oláh Budapest Hitchhicker’s The Hungarian Guide to the Monor Maltese Charity Service 34

Briquette Building

Miklós Oroszlány doctoral candidate at BME, Fulbright Alumni

Viewpoints: Márton Bátki Tabán dream The Hungarian Maltese Charity Service 40

Biobriquette manufacturing

48 Additional Informations

Balázs Kemes Teaching Assistant, BME Department of Public Building Design

Introduction

Ferenc Cságoly architect MsC, holder of the Kossuth Prize, university professor, member of the MTA (Hungarian Academy of Sciences)

Erich Fromm: To Have or To Be?

The world is changing. The constant change flashes the possible futures of architecture in quickly-changing pictures.

The mainstream architectural media is engaged in the attractive forms of ‘starchitecture’. These forms do not react to the current problems, do not care about the economic, ecological and social problems, but they rejoice in their own beauty. These forms are the visualization of the constant present tense of fashion, they have no past, no future. The behavior that acknowledges the economic problems means wider time perspective, its result is the functional and simple architecture that may mean longer financial sustainability. The attitude that considers ecological problems looks even further and uses every technical-material opportunity and traditional expertise in order to avoid further decline in the condition of the natural environment. Understanding social problems means the widest perspective in both time and space. The main point of the problem is the dramatically increasing number and proportion of poor people, which also means that today the work of the architect is not accessible financially or understandable cognitively for almost 90% of the world population. To comprehend and to adapt to this information requires a radical change in our current attitude, however, it might mean the long-term future of architecture.

Introduction

Ernst F. Schumacher: Small Is Beautiful: A Study of Economics As If People Mattered

“The need for profound human change emerges not only as an ethical or religious demand, not only as a psychological demand arising from the pathogenic nature of our present social character, but also as a condition for the sheer survival of the human race. Right living is no longer only the fulfillment of an ethical or religious demand. For the first time in history the physical survival of the human race depends on a radical change of the human heart.”

The world is changing. Twenty years ago there were no summer construction camps at the Budapest University of Technology and Economics. The majority of the students knew neither the building materials that they used in their plans, nor the work processes that created a house from these materials. About ten years ago the first construction workshops were supposed to decrease this enormous deficit. Their goal was to make the physical work appealing, to introduce the materials and to show the value of collective work.

After a while, the social content of these workshops became more and more emphasized, namely, the idea that if we build something,

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we should be helping someone instead of being self-centered. Helping people required getting to know those people and it pointed out the importance of communication with them and the empathy towards them. Getting to know them brought about a deeper understanding of and maybe the love towards these people in need. Understanding and love slowly change the architect’s relation to the host communities. The aristocratic, lonely and self-centered architect is replaced by the architect working in and for the community. Of course, this is true only in few cases so far, but in the beginning, at birth, everything is small – the baby, the bud, the sprout. Such a small thing is the biobriquette manufacturing building in the Taban settlement in Monor.

“Man is small, and, therefore, small is beautiful.”

The world is changing. Ten years ago it would have been difficult to imagine a team of Budapest University of Technology architect students and professors venture out of their ivory tower to do physical work in order to help the members of a downtrodden, defenseless community. And then guess what happened a few years ago! A few enthusiastic architecture professors joined by some students travelled to the Roma inhabitants living in deep poverty in the Taban settlement in Monor to help them with their real-life problems through the semester long planning tasks of the university students.

In order to do this they needed to get to know the people there and their conditions of living, which was neither simple, nor problemfree. Nevertheless, others joined them after recognizing the value of the work done there. A bit more than a year ago ten young people who had been grantees at different renowned American universities applied for the 2013 Alumni Engagement Innovation Fund to provide financial background for the construction of a bio-briquette manufacturing and dryer building in the Taban settlement. There were 681 applicants from 118 countries, and this project was among the winners. This way the opportunity was given to build the bio-briquette manufacturing building during the summer of 2014, in several turns through the cooperation of teachers, architecture students, doctoral students, former grantees and locals.

Ten years ago the term solidarity in architecture was more or less unknown. And today that building is standing right there in the Taban settlement.

Erich Fromm: The Art of Loving

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Biobriquettebuilding

“Not he who has much is rich, but he who gives much.”

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Introduction

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The history of Monor-Tabán

Let’s go back to 2004, our location is Monor.

A message arrives to the Hungarian Charity Service of the Order of Malta from the gipsy settlement located in the suburban area.

A woman is cold. She asks for firewood.

Dávid Kiss The Hungarian Maltese Charity Service

A family carer sends the message to the charity service as it was the last hope for help. He did not see any other solution. If only somebody else could help some other way. The Hungarian Charity Service of the Order of Malta is soon at the site, accompanied by the director and the colleagues of the family carer service. The programme commences. The locals have been struggling to help this special district for a long time, but their tools seem to be insufficient, however, their thorough local knowledge is crucial at the start of the programme.

A prompt scenario is drawn up: there is no bathing facility at the site and a central place is also needed. The simplest solution is a mobile container unit. A bathroom and an office. The Presence Programme is on its way. Our undertaking: it cannot be worse than these conditions.

The area of the settlement is quite small. The location consists of the site bordered by the Bercsényi and Cinka Panna streets, as well as the surrounding streets. The mean age of the 108 adult inhabitants of the settlement is 32. There are 143 children in the Tabán, of the mean age of 7. The mean age of the total population is 20. The data indicate that the Tabán is a slum inhabited by young adults and many children. The average total floor area of a flat is 20 m2, usually shared by 5 residents. Only 11 homes of the households in the settlement have running water, the others use the only public well located in the corner of the site. 32 houses have electricity, piped gas is available in only 4 homes, and 3 buildings are attached to the public sewer.

are the ones who become the most important confidants of the social workers. The success achieved with the children multiplies exponentially later on, as they show detectable and measurable achievements quite early due to the rapid generational change. It is clearly recognisable that those parents are attending now the Safe Beginning Children’s House opened in the Monor settlement 7 years ago, who themselves were playing as children in our day care a few years ago. They understand and feel the importance of the need to keep their children in a safe place. Sometimes they even join the games. The professional programme of the Children’s House is rather bounded, but it is adapted to the long-standing experiences of the day cares of the Presence programmes, and a thorough coordination is needed in the special settlement-like environment. In the current announcement of the latest programmes the organizers took all this into consideration, so it seems we are on the right track.

In 2014 there is currently a working group of 14 people. We run the social office, the study hall, the day care, and we also have a sport club. Our computer room provides the possibility for approx. 20 students to acquire knowledge according to the requirements of the 21st century. The public bath and laundry has been open since 2004, its success is still unbroken. One of our institutions, the Addict Community Center provides safety for 40 patients. We are participating in the Safe Beginning Programme, and the Children’s House functions with a maximum use. Several students from different institutions of higher education come to us in order to gain fieldwork experience for their studies.

The social workers participating in the programme show up almost everywhere. Their presence can be experienced in the whole life of the settlement. They replace light bulbs or arrange aid if it is needed, but the tutoring in the study hall is also one of their basic tasks. Years pass, until the programmes begin to broaden with the support of tenders and other sources, and we also draw in the work of other assistants to the special fields. Nothing is more authentic than a social worker socialized in the settlement. Building the circle of trust for the co-workers of the Tabán is often much more important than the financial resource of a tender thrown at the settlement all at once, which can generate some problems during spending that cannot be reversed later.

Compared to the Monor settlement’s overall condition of 2004 the current situation is unrecognizable. Asphalt road, vanished caravans, developing community… it did not seem pointless to continue our work in the labyrinth of employment. The first step of this initiative is the briquette dryer created through the cooperation of a group of university students and the inhabitants of the settlement.

The basis of our programmes lies in the activities for children and the youth work. The introduction of the programmes for children in the settlement was the main task in the first year, as later they

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The history of Monor-Tabán

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The history of Monor-Tabรกn

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Viewpoints

Children

Stefánia Nagy student of architecture

Children are running around barefoot next to the Hangar, smiling, dirty from head to toe. They are searching for iron in the pile of clink. They surround me as soon as they see me. One of the little girls embraces my waist even though she can hardly reach up to me. What is your name? – she screams. She tries to pronouce it but the letter S is too difficult for her. She realizes that I am a girl but she does not understand why I have short hair. She laughs at me since I am the ugliest she has ever seen.

She comes every afternoon. She makes snowballs out of sand and pointlessly throws them to the curvy wall of Hangar. Why don’t you build a sand castle? But she only knows snowballs. I quickly make a pile on the ground and drill a tunnel. The castle is ready, the snowball turns into a princess and she plays nicely.

She introduces herself by a different name every day. She always lives in a different town, one day she has parents then only a grandma or nobody. How long will you be here? She finds out that we are leaving on the weekend. She is happy. Now she can play by the new building, I will not send her away because it is dangerous to be there. I will not tell her not to throw things or to put on a pullover because she will get cold, nor will I recommend to put on shoes because of the chips of glass. We are packing, I am cleaning the mason spoon when suddenly the little girl hands me a piece of treasure. She found it yesterday in the trash, but she washed it thoroughly, so I should take care of it and keep it clean. I am touched. Do you know why you get it? Well, you know, it means we are friends – she whispers while we are squatting next to the waterbucket colored grey by mortar. She will search for more pieces for the others by the time they come back next year, but now, this is all she had.

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Viewpoints

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International outlook

Katalin Fazekas doctoral candidate at BME, Fulbright Alumni

Generally speaking, since the 1990’s, in the period of alienation and the dominance of globalization and overpopulation, there is a constantly growing effort from the architects and a constantly growing demand from the population for good-quality architectural interventions. These architectural and urban design plans aim to improve living conditions, to enhance the community, to provide access to basic services and to give assistance in everyday life. Several architectural models representing social responsibility can be found all over the world, which clearly reveal the characteristic traits of social architecture.

Two forms of sustainability is highlighted among the other aspects: social and environmental sustainability. Let’s call the latter one environment-awareness. The majority of the interventions aim at community-building, their catalytic power appears in different areas, but they play an important role in every programme. They do so through the building of either the individual or the community, or even both.

The technical solutions of the buildings are based on experience and knowledge of thousands of years. They are carried out with local materials, mainly with local technologies, mostly in low-tech form with the most reasonable use of structures. The design, the installation, the functional and structural realization of the houses are the results of a reasonable architectural thinking. Often the building material, the tools and the lack of infrastructure determine the design and constructional method.

These initiatives are extremely diverse but still share some distinct common design principles. One of their traits is that the proposal given by the architect contains a holistic overview wich reacts to the local social context. It does not only think in functions and buildings, but mostly in social processes. In the course of both the design process and the construction of the building,there is a special emphasis on close cooperation between the architect and the participants.

The level of cooperation in the different cases varies according to the situation.

The usage forms the building spectacularly, recycled materials and objects often become part of the house. This diversity adds a unique aesthetic to these buildings.

Safe Haven Bathhouse, Thailand, TYIN tegnestue Architect Photo: Pasi Aalto Previous page: Restrooms, Perry Lakes, AL Rural Studio

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International outlook

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Cassia Coop Training Centre, India, TYIN tegnestue Architect Photo: Pasi Aalto Previus page: Cardboard Pod, Newbern, AL Rural Studio

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International outlook

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Student workshops Balázs Kemes Teaching Assistant, BME Department of Public Building Design

Similarly to other universities, the Budapest University of Technology and Economics provides an excellent theoretical training. However, practical experience has to supplement the studies and the different summer building and construction camps play a major role in this task. We have been organizing these camps since 2008 to provide a possibility for students to actively take part in the reality of construction. Parallel to the university’s fictional tasks we design and build small-scale buildings that try to help groups living on the peripheries.

third-year university students, but often other faculties, other universities and different organizations join the work on the premises.

In the camp students meet structures they have learned about during their studies and experience what it means to build up their own design. The building and construction camps generally consist of shorter phases that rely on each other – this was the case at the building of the bio-briquette manufacturing-building in Monor.

The tricks of the different trades are taught by invited craftsmen, who are chosen from the local community if possible. Naturally, we work together with plenty of local helpers during the camps, where everybody does their share according to their own capacity. Men help with the construction, women do the cooking and children take part in the evening cleaning-up in order to help the students’ team.

The collective work brought the participants together and built up a new community. Besides the completed building, this may be the most important benefit of the work.

Our camps are organized after a longer search and preparation. Year after year the research team of professors and doctoral students is joined by senior university students who are admitted after an application process. We design the place-specific buildings and structural solutions together trying to involve the local people in the process of brainstorming and planning. Later, during spring we recruit volunteers for the construction. They are usually first-, second- or

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Student workshops

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Viewpoints

Construction camp

Stefánia Nagy student of architecture

If I wanted to hang a picture on the wall in my room, I usually asked my father to help. Later, I tried to manage it on my own. I angrily pinched nails to the wall until one of them finally stayed there, crooked, but at least it held the object I wanted to hang. This ’operation’ was my most serious experience with construction. So in the first construction camp where I took part, I usually just held pieces of wood still while a more experienced camper plugged in the screws. Then I mostly just watched who did what and why. In the subsequent camps, I became more and more skillful: I managed to do the screwing, I could saw wood and I started to understand the structural questions.

I will never be strong enough to lift up a chevron or a bucket of concrete with one hand. Obviously, the goal of the construction camp is not the development of my physical strength. I will never work on a construction site but as a qualified architect, my decisions will once have an effect on constructions.

All those little experiences became parts of my mentality. The possibility of the materialization of a plan is a new aspect. Beyond the inspiration it evokes responsibility in the designer of a plan.

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Viewpoints

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Architectural cooperation

Péter Fejérdy DLA Assistant Professor, BME Department of Public Building Design

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Architectural cooperation

As architects, we were wondering how we could create higher quality while accepting the local conditions and financial constraints. Our mission was to show that the construction can be both a physical and a spiritual development, and that it is worth to be ambitious, attentive, thorough and diligent even under these circumstances.

We got acquainted with the Taban settlement in 2012 because of our friendship with Bátki Márton, the director of the Presence Programme. Marci had asked us, architects to help him with a few topical problems and long-term plans. As we became familiar with the settlement, we soon realized that the task was not just running an ordinary architectural programme. The rules of the environment, which were unknown to us, made us cautious and patient. Since social architecture became a research area of the Department of Public Building Design in the last decade, a new working group was created by professors and doctorate students.

After a slow, 6-month-phase of ’getting to know each other’, the group defined a construction strategy which builds on the already existing results, and moves towards a self-motivated improvement of one’s quality of life. While the tumble-down metal barrel vault of the ’Hangar’, the symbol of the past years was perfect for the first years of the Presence Programme, it has already fulfilled its mission which was the expression of identification and solidarity.

In the past years, we dedicated a course at the university to social architecture and designated the settlement for semester-long assignments. Analyzing the experiences of past semesters, the students create more and more meaningful plans. The slowness, the lack of money helps to clear the desires and cast off the unnecessary.

It perfectly fits this process, that after two years of preparation, the first element which materialized was the smallest object we had planned: the building to dry and store the bio-briquette. The construction of this building gave us such field experience that will help us find the right direction for future, larger plans.

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Biobriquettebuilding

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Monor cronology

February 13, 2012 Preliminary consultation with Márton Bátki, coordinator of the ’Presence’ Programme

March 7, 2012 First visit at the project site

March 28, 2012 Second site visit

July 10, 2012 Fourth site visit

August, 2012 Summary of strategic considerations for the three potential areas of intervention

September, 2012 First architecture design course of the BME targeting underserved communities in the ’Tabán’ settlement of Monor – Students: Elena Kalmár, Fanni Kárpáti, Flóra Major, Tímea Motesiczk, Julia Pánczél, Ádám Titkos, Tímea Varga – Project Tutors: Péter Fejérdy, György Major

September, 2012 Site survey, presentations by the The Hungarian Maltese Charity Service

October 20, 2012 Adobe building workshop in Tápióbicske lead by János Gáspár

April, 2013 Presentation of the conceptual plans in the ’Hangar’ building to young potential participants

May, 2013 Presentation of the conceptual plans at the Chief Architect’s office (the Chief Architect

June, 2013 Official reaction from the Municipality: demolition order for the ’Hangar’ building.

commits to support the project)

(erected illegally in 2004)

August 11, 2014 Second site visit by US Cultural Attaché Dmitri Tarakhovsky

January, 2013 Exhibition of the students’ designs at the Budapest center of MMSZ.

Spring, 2013 Exhibition of the students’ designs in Monor, in the ’Hangar’ building

March, 2013 conceptual design in development for a new study hall with the participation of Péter Batizi-Pócsi

July, 2013 The AEIF project proposal

by Katalin Fazekas and Miklós Oroszlány (Fulbright Alumni) wins and helps the initiation of a small scale bio-briquette manufactory.

September, 2013 MMSZ uses funds (HUF 7 million) set aside for a planned new community building to buy the house neighboring the children’s center.

The study hall is moved from the ’Hangar’ to the newly purchased property. Thus, all community activity in the ’Hangar’ (regarded by the Municipality as unacceptable environment) is ceased.

September, 2013 Second architecture design course of the BME targeting underserved communities in the ’Tabán’ settlement of Monor – Students: János

August 04–13, 2014 2nd Workshop Session: Start of bricklaying works

January 6, 2014 Presentation of the students’ designs at the university. Márton Bátki is present – discussion about the best potential use of the properties of the children’s center and the study hall – potential use of the site of the ’Hangar’ for the bio-briquette manufactory project

February 31, 2014 Site visit by US Cultural Attaché Dmitri Tarakhovsky

from March 6, 2014 Workshop preparation with the students of the design course

June 23–29, 2014 1st Workshop Session: Construction of the foundation

August 15–24, 2014 3rd Workshop Session: End of bricklaying works

August 25–31, 2014 Bonus Workshop: Construction of the roof

September 19–21, 2014 Final touches, inauguration

2014. december 2. kiállítás nyílik a MÉSZ székházában (megnyitja Cságoly Ferenc)

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Detre, Veronika Egyed, Dóra Fódi, Lőrinc Furmann, Bálint Iszak, Gábor Nagy, Orsolya Nagy, Tamás Polarecki, Petra Sass – Project Tutors: Vera Holczer, Balázs Kemes, Miklós Oroszlány

Monor cronology

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Building strategy

Katalin Fazekas doctoral candidate at BME, Fulbright Alumni

exchange programmes, representing various fields of expertise, we decided to work out a pilot project that helps the life of the community. It was important for us to take the members of the community as part of the planning, and to try to cooperate with them. Our concept therefore called for the construction of a small building on the site of the future study hall, with the active participation of the local people. Even at this pilot project, the aim was to engage as many members of the community as possible, thus, the function of the small building was selected to perceptibly affect the everyday life of the majority. We aimed to join in and align to the plans of the The Hungarian Maltese Charity Service, who had a great local knowledge. Along these considerations, the idea of the bio-briquette manufactory was born.

Since 2012, our efforts to acquire a better understanding of the colony and the particularities of the life of the community has also provided an opportunity to learn about a number of smaller initiatives which commit themselves to improve the life of the local people, in small steps, by getting down to the roots of their problems. In connection to these programmes, we have defined a series of architectural concepts, small-scale building projects. One of the most successful initiatives is the afternoon study programme, which until recently, in lack of other options, was run inside a windowless metal hangar building. Since then, it has been moved into a more suitable residential house, where the available space is significantly smaller. Seeing the highly limited spatial flexibility for evolvement, we started to design a new study hall on the empty plot next to the hangar.

Members of the Alumni group, civil engineers, architects, psychologists, agricultural engineers and economists organized meetings on a regular basis during the last six months, where we tried to inspire collective thinking and share the collected information with each other. We also invited several experts of the field to these workshops, including N贸ra Feldm谩r, who helped the bio-briquette making with her practical knowledge. The continuous fresh impulses of the Alumni group sustained the momentum of the ongoing briquette manufacturing.

During the surveys and the planning process the concept of a building was formed that would allow a phased construction development and also the involvement of the locals. In parallel with the planning, a project competition of an American fund program provided an exceptional opportunity to create something from the plans that hitherto existed only on blueprints. In our proposal, which was created with the contribution of a group of alumni of US grant and

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Building strategy

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Viewpoints

Budapest Hitchhicker’s Guide to the Monor

Zsolt Oláh The Hungarian Maltese Charity Service

The locals of the colony stared at the arriving team in disbelief. A handful of students, boys and girls, determined to erect a briquette manufactory on top of an old garbage heap - an ambitious, or rather, bold undertaking.

Not only were we considered fledglings, the fact that we brought women to a construction site added a considerable amount to their disbelief. Look at them, university students, spending all day at school, with absolutely no idea about manual labor, let alone what puts calluses on palms... well, we started with quite a bit of a drawback…

As the various precision laser instruments were getting unpacked, the local wise men immediately surrounded them with great interest. The opportunity to work with such tools must have helped recruiting the first group of local volunteers.

The first ten days of hard work resulted in a mere 30 centimeters tall concrete foundation, replacing the former garbage heap. It was a bit disappointing to see all that hard work leaving almost no trace, but Balázs reassured everyone that the most spectacular phase of the building process is yet to come, and that a good structure needs to rest on a sound base. As the brick walls started to rise, so did the enthusiasm and the interest, at an exponential rate.

A handful of public workers even switched to nightshift in order to manage both the construction work and the briquette making.

Everyone started to look at the building as their own: grown-ups, teens and the children. The youngest bunch maybe even more than one would have wanted… Something new and mysterious was growing out of nothing, and they wanted to be a part of it... For a distant observer the whole turmoil might have

seemed like a large-scale illegal child labor operation. That is just how many small children were swarming around the site. Finally something was happening, with a lot of new people around, the chance to get close to and try things never seen or allowed to touch before, to leave a palm print in the fresh concrete, and to receive recognition and appreciation...

Very soon the children attracted more children and the herd grew very difficult to control. It required a lot of energy to bow them out of the construction site every ten minutes. At that point, one or the other of the architect girls started to play with them a little further away, which meant less helping hands on the scaffoldings but at the same time 10–20 children less on the site. Playground and children’s center directly next to the construction site – a local specialty quickly recognized by the team.

The men from the settlement praised the accomplishment of the guys and were amazed by the hard and diligent work of the girls, ’who would make very good and tough housewives’ – as it was pointed out…

A good lesson for the end: it is better to think ahead two more hours before, than to work for two days longer only to realize it was not worth it.

During the construction smaller groups formed and reformed. Back in the day, it was natural in the settlement to help each other in a working bee, but as the old died and living conditions worsened, new families moved into the neighborhood. These young and unacquainted new members fractured the previously well-functioning community – thugs, whose survival kit only included violence and rivalry.

The result is a factious settlement based on power interest and cliques.

It was a great pleasure to see that a summer of working together has not gone without a mark on the community. To this day, six families continue to cherish the new relationship and enjoy its benefits.

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Briquette manufacturing

Miklós Oroszlány doctoral candidate at BME, Fulbright Alumni

The poisonous smoke exiting the knocked up chimneys is forming in life-threatening stoves, as a product of uncontrollable fuel. As an architect it is shocking to see, that such housing conditions can exist only 40 km far from Budapest. Miklós Vecsei, vice-president of Hungarian Charity Service of the Order of Malta considers the loss of infrastructure as one of the main causes of falling into deep poverty.

‘Without electricity and gas it is impossible to rehabilitate, thus it is a crucial issue for us. Where gas and electricity is cut off, running water is turned off, the slump begins.’

The architecture’s quintessential link to social problems is manifesting through the infrastructure of housing. This is the crossroad, where the architect has the chance to take effect on the environment, and to generate the fastest change in the social environment as well.

The manufacturing of the bio-briquette was worked out for the developing countries by the Legacy Foundation.

A technology was proposed for the people living in poverty, through which they themselves are able to prepare the fuel for cooking and heating. Recently it became clear that this method can also be used in Europe. The western world is slowly facing the fact that poverty problems do not only exist in the third world, but also in their surrounding environment. The bio-briquette technology was first used

by Nóra Feldmár and the Igazgyöngy Foundation in Hungary, in a settlement struggling against poverty, Told. They highlighted that even the simplest solutions can provide great help for the people living in extreme poverty.

In winter the acrid smell of burnt waste indicates that we are approaching the slum in Monor. This penetrating odour is a signal, that the families are struggling with the winter season. If the cold comes, they burn everything they can get their hands on to avoid freezing.

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Briquette manufacturing

The inhabitants of the Tabán settlement living in poverty in Monor use for heating whatever they get. As they cannot obtain larger quantities of good quality dried fuel, they burn wet wood, twigs, cloths, tire or garbage. Bio-briquette could be an alternative to replace all these.

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The briquette is a compressed fuel, which can be produced out of agricultural or wood industrial waste. The bio-briquette is made of similar materials, but recycled paper functions as binder, and the manufacturing is actually happening manually. The splinter, the agricultural waste, and the wood chips are mixed with the shredded, soaked paper waste. This mass is squeezed by hand pressure, and the hence prepared briquette is dried and then stored. The dried briquette is suitable for adding to the yet burning fire. Not only the quantity of the needed fuel can be reduced this way, but the briquette also burns for a long time, hence the heat is transmitted longer in the outdated fitted metal stoves.

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Briquette manufacturing

The community building power of the bio-briquette may be even more important than its tangible profit. During the manufacturing brigades are formed of 3–4 people, which are self organising from then on. They meet regularly, start thinking about the future and learn cooperation. Since the launch of the programme in spring they themselves mended and developed the presses in Monor. After the first prototype, they built a more efficient manual press, and week after week the machines were improved by a range of new upgrades.

They searched on Youtube to find out the perfect proportions for mixing, and showed proudly the different prototypes. They built a common project, which they all consider as their own.

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Viewpoints

Tabán dream

Márton Bátki The Hungarian Maltese Charity Service

Under the winter snow’s blanket, the Roma settlement can be quite beautiful.

The snow covers the ramshackle little roofs and the wasteland of the backyards. The only telltale sign is the penetrating smell of smoke. At this time of the year, everything is put into the old iron stoves: plastic and rags. The smell penetrates everything in the house; it penetrates the drying clothes, school bags, schoolbooks. Others can smell it in the school. And they tell you they do.

When the temperature in the house drops close to zero, something has to be done. Cold hurts, and it hurts badly. You must get some firewood. Otherwise, your family freezes. You don’t ask yourself where from. It doesn’t matter that the police are watching, even more closely this time, and fines for stealing wood accumulate quickly into a confinement. It doesn’t matter that you’ll get questioned why you didn’t think ahead when you burned the only wardrobe of the family.

from the city, with whom they could support each other, and Jani was the top student once again. He had lots of plans, we started talking about college. Then winter came, and it was unexpectedly harsh. Jani started going for firewood somewhere with his family, they carried it for long kilometres on their bicycles.

Some days, he was absent from school because of the wood-carrying, but he had an understanding head teacher, who didn’t mark him absent for these days. Then, after a great snow, a great thaw came, and the lands were covered by ten-twenty centimetres of freezing water. But firewood had to be collected. Even if it meant walking in the water. Jani was diagnosed with pneumonia, and among the harsh conditions of the settlement, healing was difficult and slow. By the end of the semester, he had so many absences that he could only continue school as a private student.2 Being a private student rarely works in case of Gipsy pupils. Meanwhile, they had to move again. Jani started year 10, then in the autumn, his father died, burying also all little remaining hope for his son with him…

The fight for everyday fuel is only a marginal part of Jani’s story, yet in the end, it took a major part in influencing the subsequent events. Jani is the sixth of seven children who were raised by their father. Jani was a very small child when her mother died. He was a top student in primary school, and it was easy for him to get admitted into the best vocational secondary school of the city, which is almost unique among his peers from the settlement. He also could have got admittance into a secondary school 1 however it seemed to be a better idea that besides getting the baccalaureate, he would also learn a trade, so he chose electro mechanics. We thought he’s going to do fine, just like he always did so far. At the beginning, this was so: he learned easily. A couple of months later, it turned out he rarely goes to school, and had accumulated a huge amount of absences. I immediately talked with him. It took quite some time for him to open up and tell that despite in terms of studies, he’s the best in the class, he’s also the only Gipsy, worse, a Gipsy from the settlement, excluded and bullied by his classmates. His tracksuits, not yet remarkable in primary school, stood out in this class, as all the other guys wore jeans. There was not much time to think, there were only a few days left until his absences would amount to the limit when you have to repeat the year. We took a train, and went shopping to Budapest. Things became a bit better, however, repeating the year became inevitable. Then Jani got a girlfriend in the summer. He also got all the related problems, which occur in the small houses of such families: moving from here to there, until the point where the couple became homeless. Another crisis management team was set up among us social workers, and finally, a tool shed of a family member was turned into a room, where they could live. We gave support with the condition that they can provide for themselves, and Jani would continue his studies. School started, and everything looked fine. In this new class, there was another Gipsy guy

The destiny of a person depends on plenty of things; however, if there had been bio-briquette back then, it could have meant a difference.

1 In Hungary, there are three types of secondary schools: the „normal” secondary school, vocational secondary school and vocational school. This order reflects their quality and prestige. Vocational secondary schools allow you to take the baccalaureate examinations at the end of year 12, while also preparing students for a trade.

2 As a private student, you learn at home, and only go to school to take exams. It usually works for students who are into sport competitions, or cannot visit school regularly for a valid reason, and usually doesn’t work for Roma pupils, for whom this is a further step towards dropping out completely of the school system.

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Viewpoints

In slums, the lack of community is a persistent problem. People who live there can not choose who their neighbours are. They suffer from their exclusion and their conditions. Tensions are high, and they explode within the settlement. The bio-briquette manufactory is a great opportunity to build a community from people who live there, to make them capable of working together and to stand up together for their interests. The self-esteem and mental wellbeing of the people involved grow, which can also be useful on the job market.

It was great to see local youth joining the work, establishing connections with the Alumni volunteers and university students. Such events are also opportunities to create links with the outside world.

A Facebook message or a like addressed to the Gipsies of the settlement can mean a lot, who can thus become part of a world which so far had been completely closed to them.

Another important feature is that the bio-briquette factory gets paper mainly from local small shops.

These shops are locations where people meet, so the positive news, that something good is going on in the Tabán, spreads quickly. The problem of the fuel affects everyone, and because of the stealing of wood, the topic is always on the agenda. Thus, the message is much greater than the everyday struggle of heating: it is a step in bringing closer the closed world of the settlement, and the world outside.

Biobriquettebuilding

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Biobriquette Building

Balรกzs Kemes Teaching Assistant, BME Department of Public Building Design

Operation and usage The bio-briquette manufacturing-building including its outdoor spaces is almost 60 square meters. It was built as the outbuilding of the future study hall on the rear end of the plot, in a way that it meets all the relevant building regulations. The manufacturing building is made up of two annexes and a covered outdoor space between them. The smaller wing provides space to store the tools. In the larger one the briquettes are dried and stored, while the outdoor space functions as the place for work.

0 1 2

site plan

storage

drying room

floor plan

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Biobriquette Building

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The freshly pressed briquettes can be pre-dried on the facade of the building, on boards laid on brick brackets, where most of the moisture evaporates. After this the briquettes are moved to the shelves of the drying hall, where they dry entirely.

During its operation the building uses solar energy in a passive way.

The taller, southern facade and the roof absorb the sunlight, which heats the air in the drying hall. The warm air can absorb more humidity and it also drifts upwards because of the temperature diff erence, generating a natural flow of air. The constant ventilation is helped by the brick holes in the footing of the northern wall and by the open tail-bays at the ridge. The water needed for the manufacturing of the briquettes is provided by the rainwater collected from the building’s roof.

planned SW (top) and NE (bottom) facade

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sustainable diagram (top)

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Structure We were looking for structural solutions and building techniques through which not only economic maintenance but also the most sparing construction process could be realized. All along, we aimed to produce as little waste as possible.

For example, for the reinforced concrete footing we used a traditional wooden siding, because we later used the wooden material to make drying shelves, and the stilt boards were also reused as pallet for storing the briquettes.

Based on the results of the soil mechanics examinations it revealed that under the surface there is a thick replenishment, which used to be the dump. The load bearing soil layer can be found deep beneath the surface, so the strip foundation would have made the construction signifi cantly more expensive. To avoid that, we made a reinforced concrete sheet, which provides the sufficient foundation for the building using less material.

sections

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The walls are made of 25 centimeter thick, solid burnt bricks. The parts exposed to heavy duty use – the footing zone and the brick brackets – were built up of the same-size, but stronger building blocks. We did not build a reinforced concrete cornice as the size of the building did not require one. Instead, we joined the walls and bound the roof structure by tension rods.

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Biobriquette Building

The traditional wooden roof covered with corrugated sheets was built with the smallest pitch possible. The 10 degree roof was needed to meet the height requirements for the building and, on the other hand, the ideal angle of incidence enables us to benefit from the most solar energy possible. Sustainability was a dominant aspect throughout the planning both for financial and ecological reasons.

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Additional Informations

Katalin Fazekas doctoral candidate at BME Doctoral School of Architectural Design, Fulbright Alumni second on the left

Péter Fejérdy DLA Assistant Professor, BME Department of Public Building Design first on the left

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Additional Informations

Creators

Two years after graduating as an architect, in 2009 I have begun attending the Doctoral School of Architectural Design at the Budapest University of Technology and Economics with the research topic ‘Social empathy in architecture’. During the past few years I attempted to collect and analyze a broad range of architectural interventions from the national as well as the international scene, of which the primer aim is to help the society.

Since September 2012 I have been the visitor student researcher of the Portland State University in the framework of the Fulbright American grant. Working with professor Sergio Palleroni I had the opportunity to learn about those American architectural programmes, which help the life of disadvantaged communities.

Currently I am working on my doctoral thesis and I am concerned about the creation of an organization dealing with social architecture in Hungary.

Balázs Kemes Teaching Assistant, BME Department of Public Building Design

I graduated as an architect in 1990 at the Budapest University of Technology. My master was Ferenc Török, who influenced significantly my architectural orientation. Besides the formal and semantic knowledge he taught me to use architecture as a tool to create and serve the community. We have been following this path since then with our architect’s office, Fejérdy and Bartók Architects, and we also intend to share this knowledge as teachers in the Faculty of Architecture of the BME. We have been working on several clerical commissions in the same spirit. In the financial scarcity we found unfortunate facts, but new opportunities too. We believe that the quality is principally a matter of attitude, through a due professional capability everything can be turned into architecture, a quality that raises the individual and the community. In 2011 I received the most prestigious Hungarian acknowledgement of the profession, the Miklós Ybl Prize.

Miklós Oroszlány doctoral candidate at BME Doctoral School of Architectural Design, Fulbright Alumni

second on the right

first on the right

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I graduated in 2007 at the Faculty of Architecture of the Budapest University of Technology. I continued working further in the office of my master, Tamás Karácsony, and I have been accepted to the postgraduate (DLA) training of the university, which I finished with a pre-degree certificate in 2011. In the meantime, I became an associate of the Department of Public Building Design, where the organisation and implementation of summer construction camps was first a segment, but now it became the most significant part of my educational tasks. In these camps the design and realization of simple, low budget buildings is carried out through our own contribution. Thinking and working together with the particular community is always a significant factor. The most important result of the thus realized creations might be an inspiration for the creative energies of the local community to arrange its own life. In 2012 I received the Príma Junior Award as an acknowledgement of my work so far. Since then I have pursued this path, and I imagine my further works the same way.

After the graduation in 2009 I started working as a designer architect.

In 2011 I had the opportunity to continue my research that I started as an undergraduate, in the framework of the Fulbright grant at the Auburn University in the United States of America. I analyzed the use of the different materials in architecture. I was primarily interested in the topic of building from waste, and the way how the design using trash alters our attitude towards disposed materials. In Auburn, I learned about the challenges, background and deeper issues of social architecture through the houses built by students, many times out of waste. After returning home I have been accepted to the Doctoral School of Architectural Design at the Budapest University of Technology and Economics, where I am focusing more and more on the community creator role of the architect. Besides university life, I work in my own architect’s office. My aim is to create a design studio where the research can meet the design process and the two can support each other.

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További információk Organizers

Katalin Fazekas Péter Fejérdy DLA Veronika Holczer Balázs Kemes Miklós Oroszlány

Consultants

Márton Bátki

Diána Nagy Zsanett Novák Miklós Oroszlány Tamás Polarecki Vilmos Schmotzer Anett Kata Szigeti Zoltán András Tóth Laura Veres Árpád Vilics István Virág Sára Zalavári Márton Z. Szabó

(social worker)

Nóra Feldmár (industry ecologist)

Péter Görög (soil mechanics)

The Hungarian Charity Service of the Order of Malta

Dezső Hegyi

Márton Bátki Ilona Gál Katalin Juhász Dávid Kiss Szilárd Lantos Zsolt Oláh Gábor Szarka

(mechanics)

Ádám-Tibor Krizsanics (construction manager)

Zoltán Páricsy (expert of building constructions)

Katalin Fazekas

Bence Takács

(project coordinator)

(surveyor)

Helpers from Monor

Miklós Oroszlány (project coordinator)

Linda Dezső Barbara Botos PhD Daniel German Roger Garrett Jr. Anna Losonczi Zsófia Márton Máté Olti Szabolcs Portschy Júlia Richter László Szendrődi Dóra Tarnai Krisztina Túry Architectural Design

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További információk

Katalin Fazekas Péter Fejérdy DLA Balázs Kemes Miklós Oroszlány Árpád Vilics Veronika Egyed Dóra Fódi Bálint Iszak Orsolya Nagy Tamás Polarecki

Betonpartner Magyarország Kft. Gyümölcstárhely Kossuth Lajos Elementary School Monor Théta Hungária Kft. BME Doctoral School of Architectural Design BME Department of Public Building Design BME Department of Geodesy and Surveying The Hungarian Maltese Charity Service Tutor Foundation

Csaba Szikra (building services engineering)

Alumni

Sponsors, Alumni Engagement Innovation Fund supporters Embasy of the United States Hungarian Academy of Arts

Participants of the camp

Balázs Kemes (camp leader) László Soltész (assistant leader)

Nikolász Sztavropulosz (assistant leader) Stefánia Nagy (photo)

Melinda Bognár Csaba Buella Viktória Csapó Zsófia Dombrovszky Katalin Fazekas Péter Fejérdy DLA Csilla Fekete Sarolt Grátz Bálint Iszak Zsófia Miklós Anna Farkas Lili Kovács Tamás László Áron Lévay Márton Lőw Fruzsina Madura Gabriella Megyesi Balázs Nagy

Film Photo

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Béla Gulyás (Bélu) Lacika Gulyás (Kingkong) Ferenc Gyenes (Feribá) Norbert Horváth (Norbi) Krisztián Kállai (Apu) József Kolompár (Luszió) Gábor Oláh (Perverz) József Oláh (Szaki) Józsefné Oláh (Jolika) Krisztián Oláh (Krisztián) Mihály Oláh Mihály Oláh (Kis Misike), Mihály Oláh (Nagy Misike) Gábor Seres (Bubó) Gábor Seres (Kis Bubó) Csaba Szőnyi (Csabi) László Vidák (Cukorbeteg) Képkocka Péter Batizi-Pócsi András Csiha Péter Fejérdy DLA Albert Máté Zsófia Boczán Stefánia Nagy Miklós Oroszlány The Hungarian Maltese Charity Service

Biobriquettebuilding

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Biobriquettebuilding

Publisher: Katalin Fazekas Miklós Oroszlány Edited by: Katalin Fazekas Balázs Kemes Miklós Oroszlány Translation: Dóra Tarnai Szabolcs Portschy Krisztina Túry Zsófia Szántay Viola Bozsik Proofreading: Fanni Patay Zsófia Szántay Design by: Veronika Juhász Print: GMN-Color Digital Bound by: Emese Hegyháti ISBN 978-963-12-1167-2 Cover design: a picture of a scanned bio-briquette All rights reserved. ©2014 Monor Építőtábor

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