International Architectural Model Festival
It can be stated without exaggeration that in 2008, the most significant architectural exhibition of the year was assembled in the heart of Budapest as part of the KÉK action. The event titled 100 Rooms – 100 Models focused on exceptional thematic content related to project competitions, with models from 20 countries awaiting industry professionals and the general public at the KÉK's then-central location at Szervita Square.
Besides the exhibition, we organized a festival expanded with numerous events for the second time in 2010 at Műcsarnok, titled Modeling Museums. This time, the theme was the relationship between cultural institutions and design practice, showcased through the architecture of European museums and exhibition spaces from the past two decades. The result went far beyond an architectural showcase: along with nearly 70 models selected from 15 countries, symposiums and educational programs analyzed the transformation of cultural institutions and the evolving tools of design practice, while workshops and public events offered insights into the practices of design and modeling.
The event, held for the third time in 2013, explored the relationship between modeling and the city. A model is not only suitable for presenting architectural concepts but also various types of information and processes, thus becoming a unique tool for gaining an overview of city operations. The festival made this tangible and testable for the audience. What could Budapest have been like, and what can it become? The decades-old, rarely-seen 1:500 scale wooden model of the capital provided a good basis for joint thinking, serving as a starting point for programs, workshops, and lectures. In addition, a walking route guided participants through various model-worthy locations of city development and showcased both well-known and hidden models, while professional events analyzed the role and possibilities of modeling in urban development and cooperation among involved partners.
The fourth architectural model festival in 2018 focused on the relationship between models and digital data. The introductory installation was the first Hungarian application of CityScope, developed by the MIT Media Lab, in the form of an interactive model that showcased the effects of urban planning decisions in real time. The model, constructed by the Contemporary Architecture Centre, focused on the Csepel Works, one of Budapest's most important brownfield zones. The 200-hectare area was built using 10,000 Lego bricks, and the results of a two-year research project conducted by KÉK on the Works area were projected onto it. We explored the development possibilities of the area using the collected data and the expandable model in the framework of further programs. The exhibition was realized as part of the Shared Cities - Creative Momentum collaboration, connected to the project focusing on the Csepel Works.
The 2019 V. Architectural Model Festival continued the thematic thread of previous ones, focusing on the various functions of models, their role in design, and the process of open design through models of buildings constructed or currently under construction in Budapest in the past two years. The exhibition at the KÉK's Bartók Béla Road center showcased models, among others, like the MOME Campus Development Phase III (3h Architecture Office), the refurbishment of the Párisi Udvar (Archikon), the MOL tower building (Foster + Partners), and the Magyar Telekom and T-Systems headquarters (Tiba Építész Stúdió). Both representative and interim objects, made with 3D printing and manual carpentry, were featured in the exhibition, which also offered a comprehensive view of models visible in Budapest’s public spaces. The V. Architectural Model Festival program was realized under the KÉK’s 2019 mentoring program. The mentees worked in five groups, planning and making proposals regarding the content and implementation of the exhibition. Each group was responsible for selecting, agreeing on, and delivering the models; designing the exhibition's image and installations; and developing the festival’s communication. A separate group dealt with the discovery and integration of outdoor models into the festival, resulting in a map containing 23 objects.
In 2022, the spring programs focused on architectural memory at individual, community, and institutional levels. The KÉK series of events explored the built heritage of different eras and their functional or urban landscape transformation. The venue for the 6th International Model Festival was the Northern Vehicle Repair Diesel Hall, the future site of the New Transport Museum, with the central theme Techniques of Memory, exploring the relationship between models and memory. The venue itself is also significant for the theme, as the exhibition space of the Transport Museum, the Northern Vehicle Repair, is a valuable industrial and transport heritage. Its reconstruction will refresh one of Budapest’s urban brownfield areas in the upcoming period, considering the protection of built heritage. A temporary exhibition also opened in the Liberty Bridge Customs House, The Unfolding Pavilion titled Rituals of Solitude, part of the 17th Venice Architecture Biennale exhibition. Our partner in developing the curatorial concept was Urbanum, who have been interpreting the city on theoretical, practical, and artistic levels with the individual and communities living in it since its founding, which constantly affects each other and the future.
In 2024, in collaboration with the Hungarian Museum of Architecture and the Monument Protection Documentation Centre, the event took place at the future new home of the institution, the Workshop Space behind the Rózsi Walter Villa. The festival's motto was 'learning by doing,' which in pedagogical terms refers to the fact that knowledge is best acquired through personal practice. Clinging to this interpretation, the 7th International Architectural Model Festival explored how the model assists in grasping, expressing, and conveying architectural thoughts, in other words, why do we model? The exhibition, featuring more than 180 models, was an intentionally subjective selection from a subjective genre – with interesting, spectacular, and instructive objects from Austria, Czech Republic, Croatia, Germany, Portugal, Switzerland, Slovakia, Slovenia, and of course Hungary.
