Complexity needs time to arise. And complexity is what we really need. The all encompassing blanket of modernity not only made tabula rasa of the pre-existing situation, but also gloriously failed to supply the necessary liveliness from its magnificent and almost religiuos one-man-knows-it-all bird-eye views. Life is complex, and, if left alone, always tends to happen in complex environments. We have therefore chosen not to operate with some god-like scheme and always applicable rules. For the very same reason “the single gesture” or “the object” were also a big no-no. We decided to operate through a series of iterations where, minor and very punctual adjustments were made on a 3D model of the site. These adjustments worked on views, materials, spatial configurations and other issues that are relevant when dealing closely with the human scale.
In this “sketchup-tennis” as we called it, a large number of small adjustments by different people in different sub-teams, contributed to the emergence of what the anatomy of the final proposal would become. There is almost no need to say, that this could not be done without prior agreement on the basic strategies to follow. At every step the modifications were checked against our “guidelines” and discarded if non compliant. A basic vocabulary was given as well, bringing us back to the “when” issue. Our choice was to make use of elements of the very same traditional and local architecture that might have predated the modernist interventions on Ajka and surroundings. Sloping roofs, local materials, fences, traditional street and plot layouts were adapted to contemporary building typologies, in what might appear as an abstract archeology of the future. Working our way through the project, it became clear that this approach would allow to at least partially compress the time needed for complexity to arise. It would also prevent some processes to spin out of control, by keeping them on track with one single sensitivity while freely allowing for deviations. The resulting spaces would not only be more interesting and easier to relate to, thanks to the human scale, but would also have a timeless quality to them.
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