SCALE TRANSFORMATIONS

SCIENCE / ART

The annual Scientific Student Conference (TDK) is an independent science or art project competition, where the projects are prepared by students with consultants and presented to the jury at the TDK conference series. Besides being a field of scientific competition it is also an important step towards doctoral education so it is recommended for students being oriented towards such higher education. The scientific papers analyse a research question, following a consistently built, logical methodology. The length of the papers are about 25-30 pages with references together. The forms of the artworks are free, but they must be developed together with the consultants. This year the project submission is in October, and the conference will be held in November 2019.

This year the Scientific Student Conference call at the Department of Urban Planning and Design builds on the concept of “SCALE TRANSFORMATION“: the narrower and broader horizons of ARCHITECTURE and URBANISM, THEORY and PRACTICE, RESEARCH and DESIGN can be reflected in the topics. It is up to us to combine the different scopes of responsibility and action!

PART and WHOLE: What does scale mean for architects? What happens when we change scales in design? Really just the little beauty can exist? Aesthetics can only shape the building or can it be applied in wider structures of design? If so, where are the boundaries of planning in everyday life? So how long does the (city) architect’s scope last…

Now, FROM BELOW or FROM ABOVE? Are the different orientations of positions and visions compatible within community organizations? Can we combine the different scale levels, or the undisposed multilayered sets of details are necessary results of multiplayer city board games?

And then ART or RESEARCH? Or can the two be combined? Without scope and genre constraints, the problem of scale is reflected in both artistic and scientific thinking. The questions can be answered by research analysis, data visualization, mapping, archive exploration, or by film, animation, photo, relief, graphic, design, or even by the experimental way of research by design. Everybody can have a different scale, that’s why the theme and genre can be customized: strictly adhering to the formal requirements of scientific papers / art student works. With this, broader issues can appear in a scaled-down format in research and creative work like the drop in the ocean…

You can choose from the following topics:

S
Domonkos Wettstein / Small architecture of big numbers // Positions and visions in urban societies

M
Annamária Babos / Collective experiment or experimental collective? // Bauhaus in the city /// Photographer art
Annamária Babos / Collective recycling // Bauhaus in the city /// Design-art
Annamária Babos / Collective housing // Bauhaus in the city /// Researchers
Bálint Kádár / How people use waterfronts? Social Media research of Danube’s settlements

L
Árpád Szabó / Adaptability of urban forms
Bálint Kádár / Tourism related problems and possibilities of towns and/or historical research of tourism development in Budapest
Domonkos Wettstein / Post-Socialist Transitions in Central-Eastern Europe

XL
Domonkos Wettstein / Landscape-region-architecture // Transformation of recreational landscapes /// New leisurescapes

SMLXL

Árpád Szabó / From small elements to urban scale // new structuralism
Bálint Kádár / The role of bottom-up initiatives in urban development (Hungarian or international examples)
Wettstein Domonkos / Think globally, act locally! // Glocal tendencies /// Scale relationships and contemporary architecture strategies

CUSTOMIZATION / INDIVIDUAL TOPIC
If you have an individual topic idea, look for a supervisor fitting to you and contact him!

APPLICATION AND PRE-EVALUATION:

• title, subtitle
• abstract (500 words)
• table of contents (1 page)
• first phase text: 4-5000 words + pictures + bibliography, references (the total essay should be min. 14.000-17.000 words + bibliography, references)

FORMAL EXAMPLES
Scientific Student Conference papers from the previous years:
http://tdk.bme.hu/EPK/DownloadPaper/Kockasors
http://tdk.bme.hu/EPK/DownloadPaper/Kollektiv
http://tdk.bme.hu/EPK/DownloadPaper/Residencity-A-21-szazadi-kozossegi-elet

Department organiser of Scientific Student Conference
Domonkos Wettstein PhD
wettstein@urb.bme.hu