Builder Summit 2023

 

Hello Wood’s international summer school and festival returned in 2023 July after a 3 year long hiatus. As a grand comeback, we raised the bar for our educational initiative this year: Hello Wood Builder Summit lasted 10 days, invited more people, welcomed international designer superstars like Karim Rashid or Arthur Mamou-Mani, created even more spectacular installations than before including our own permanent community space/festival stage (peek Monument of Builders) and last but not least it was closed with a 2-day music festival with more than 1000 visitors in the mesmerizing landscape of a post-apocalyptic basalt quarry.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Hello Wood Festival

The Hello Wood Festival has always been a unique community experience that goes beyond traditional summer camps, inviting participants to learn the philosophy of "learning by doing" and to create and learn together. It aims to promote the construction process as a platform for discussion, innovation and exchanging knowledge. Hello Wood Festival is a democratic opportunity to connect different generations, designers and artists with various cultural, academic and professional backgrounds.

 

 
 
 
 

Build versus Destroy

In 2023 we examined the connections between construction and demolition, intervention and naturalness, and absence and replenishment, in order to reflect on the ecological circumstances of the Balaton Uplands region and call attention to the relationship between human-environment-future. The concept deals with the festival site - an abandoned basalt mine on Haláp. The wounded landscape points out an exciting contradiction: the production of building materials inevitably involves demolition. Since our daily lives are fundamentally reinterpreted by pandemics, wars, economic crises and global warming, the issue of demolition and reconstruction is not only relevant from an architectural point of view but from a social one as well. The Builder Summit was organised with the support of the Veszprém-Balaton 2023 European Capital of Culture.

 

 
 
 
 

Monument of Builders by Hello Wood

For the first time in the history of the festival, Hello Wood created its own central installation. The ‘Monument of Builders’ is all in one - it’s the sanctuary of construction, the centre point of the festival, a community space, a party temple and the spiritual middle of the crater.
The installation resembles a campfire representing the heart of the revived mountain - a symbol of community, of gathering, a place nourished by the presence of visitors. As the post-apocalyptic mine of Zalahaláp comes to life again, the flaming pyramids of Hello Wood transform the desolate landscape into a cult pilgrimage site where weary hikers can stop and rest.

Monument of Builders
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Builder Summit 2023 Projects

Beacon
Dancing Caterpillars
Half of a House
Rock Cinema
Lava Cloud
Spaceship
Torii
'TRA
Treeroots
X Space
W-UDI (WOODY)
 

Builder Summit Family

 
Hello Wood Board  András Huszár, Dávid Ráday, Krisztián Tóth
Project Leader  Kristóf Tóth
Project Coordinator  Rebeka Németh
Project Architect  Fanni Fucskó
Architects of 'Monument of Builders'  Balázs Szelecsényi, Mária Ilona Komesz-Kasza
Lead Carpenters  Márton Csia, Ábel Gergely
Workshop team  Adelina Kocsis, András Marton, Áron Fekete, Levente Kruppa, Lóránt Jakab, Maja Balogh, Nikolett Papp, Panni Kormos, Renáta Tribel
Procurement manager  Richárd Mayer
Content & press  Dalma Köller 
Photos  Noémi Szécsi, György Palkó, Gergely Harsányi
Pop-up event managers  Gergely Lukács Szőke, Dániel Oszetzky
Katttarzis crew  Marci P. Balázs,  Dani Rupaszov, Benji Törő
 

Kráter festival

We've closed Builder Summit with the summer's coolest 2-day party in the freshly awakened mine of Zalahaláp - inviting 2000 visitors for the two day event.

Kráter Festival
 

Photos