The scientific knowledge, which is to take effect upon the occurrence of an uncertain contingency, or: The knowledge and the chance to apply (1., 2., 3.)
The decision joining scientific research has been encouraged by the conviction that the experience gained during the years of professional practice (in urban planning) can contribute to the academic quest on cities with new aspects, allowing the facilitation of the attainment of the objective of creating a unified urban theory. What we expect such co-operation can provide for the profession dealing with urban development is the creation of protocols urgently needed for system management in order to ensure the acceptable quality standards of operation and maximum life expectancy.
Architecture
The topic of architecture - with the exception of certain monuments - is the synthesizing work on the border of arts and sciences, in the course of which the engineer plans operating systems with application functions and controls the implementation of such plans. During the practical work we can now see the following phenomena: exponential growth of the size, complexity and interdependence of systems; the interests of the controlling or influencing participants of the system most often do not coincide with those of the complete system (life expectancy, longevity, quality), although the controlling or influencing participants themselves are members also interested in the system; the necessary and accepted, standardised conditions of the operation and enforcement of the available knowledge applicable in practice do not exist.
The importance of meeting in a mutual platform
The aim is to arrive to the unified theory of urbanism through collaborative research in science-practice relationship for the very need of implementative applications. The more modest ambition therefore would be the mutually inspiring co-operation of the two kinds of knowledge, which, under favourable conditions, could provide hope and momentum for the performance of high-volume, unifying and summarizing work. A contribution to the efforts of engineering reason for the abandoned or self-destructive body of (mindless) complex urban systems. Hence, first the city-science, then city-beautiful.
Science or silence
As we have to invent, detect and solve problems faster and faster so we have less and less time left to establish the protocol of the collaborative research between theory and practice. The super-cooperation of knowledge and experience would be a win-win(-win) game – gains in the fields of academics, gains in the fields of practitioners, and predictably the best clock-resetting technique for the sake of the quality and lifespan of the system we all live in.
CV Peter Janesch
He was born in 1953 in Budapest - 1972-73 He was a student of joinery in the Faipari Szakmunkásképző Intézet (Woodworking Vocational Trade School) - 1973-79 He studied and graduated from the Department of Architecture at the Magyar Iparművészeti Főiskola (Hungarian University of Applied Arts), Diploma in Architecture and Design (13.) - 1982 He was a student for one year in the Római Katolikus Hittudományi Akadémia (Academy of Roman Catholic Theology) - 1984-86 Cycle VIII. of the Magyar Építőművészek Szövetsége Mesteriskolája (Masters' School of the Association of Hungarian Architects) (14.) - 1986-88 He participated in the Cycle as a teaching assistant in the education programme of the Masters' School - 1993- 2000 He participated as a master in the education programme of the Masters' School - 1986-89 As a guest lecturer between he taught and held lectures at the Budapesti Műszaki Egyetem Építészmérnöki Kar (Budapest Technical University; Department of Architecture) and at the Hungarian University of Applied Arts - 1987 He obtained the É-1 principal architect licence (15.) - 1989 He established JBA Inc, dealing with architectural design, general contractor construction and therapeutic care, which he still heads - 1991-92 He spent one year on architect-researcher scholarship at the Tokai University, Japan - 2004 He was the curator of the Hungarian pavilion at the Venice Biennale of Architecture biennale 04 - 2005 He obtained the DLA degree at the Budapest University of Technology and Economist, Faculty of Architecture - 2007 With the team members behind the winner application at the tender for the Government Quarter, he established TEAM 0708 Ltd. - 2008 He established BP-Robin Nonprofit Association - 2009 He established TEAM 0910 Ltd. Architect Studio team 0910 janesch peter
Awards
- 2004 He received the Ybl Miklos Prize (a.) - 2008 He won the Holcim Award Europe Gold for Sustainable Construction holcim foundation - 2009 He received the Pro-Budapest Award - 2011 He received the Molnár Farkas Award
Field trips
Greece – Turkey 1972, 1987 / Transylvania 1974, 1985 / Italy 1982, 1985, 1994, 1995, 2004, 2005, 2006, 20010, 2011 / Germany 1983, 1984, 1989, 1999, 2000, 2003, 2007, 2009 / Austria 1985, 1987, 2001, 2009 / Mongolia – China 1986 / Japan 1991-92, 2006, 2011 / Thailand – Hong Kong 1992 / Holland 1995, 2001 / Slovenia 2000 / Switzerland 2000 / Denmark – Sweden 2002 / Spain 2004, 2008, 2009 / France 2005, 2006, 2009, 2010 / USA 2006 / Portugal 2007 / Russia 2008 / Morocco 2009 / Mexico 2010 / Croatia 2011
The mentioned field trips have been planned in connection with different types of research projects, e.g. Japan on the sustained tradition of the oldest ritual shikinen sengu, also on Christopher Alexander’s Eishin Higashino Highschool project –as the timeless way of building in practice; China for the Queening the Pawn project; Morocco (Casablanca) –France (Toulouse) – Germany (Berlin) on the Candilis-Josic-Woods architecture practice’s ATBAT-Afrique project and on the socio-cultural awareness of the office, a rare example in the post-war period, and also on how one fails with the best intentions; Mexico, on the self-managed housing regions with participatory urban planning and the suburbanization process, definition of a squatter settlement photos
Publications
Földi megfigyelőállomás In: Építészeti tendenciák Magyarországon 1968-1981, szerk.: Szegő György, 1982 Műterem-ház, Piliscsaba In: Magyar Építőművészet, 1985 Messepalast In: Wettbewerbe, 1987 Messepalast In: Magyar Építőművészet, 1988 Mesteriskola VIII. In: Magyar Építőművészet 1989/1-2 Nemzeti Színház ’97 In: Építés Felújítás, 1997-5. Janesch-Karácsony In: Új Magyar Építőművészet, 1998-2 Kertvégi ház In: Alaprajz, 1998-4, / Pajkos u. Fővárosi Levéltár, In: Alaprajz, 1998-5 Baustelle: Ungarn Akademie der Künste, Berlin, 1999 A levetkőztetett ház In: Lakáskultúra, 1999-9 Házszerű házak Perbálon In: Népszabadság, 1999-10-27, Bojár Iván András Elengedett kézzel In: Octogon, 1999-10, Németh Gábor A felöltöztetett ház In: Alaprajz, 2000-2, Csanády Pál Családi otthon a Széher úton archiweb plussz, 2000-2, Wesselényi-Garay Andor Ein Ort zum Weiterleben In: Bauwelt, 2000-2, Rehabilitation centre for disabled young people at Perbál In: Domus, 2000-823, Ferkai, András (b.) Nemzeti Színház 2000, In: Építészműhely 2000-2, Perbál In: Architektur in Ungarn, Vargha Mihály, 2000 Új Nemzeti, új pályázat Színház, 2000. július, > Perbál In: Modern Construction Handbook Andrew Watts, Springer Verlag, 2000 Rendhagyó építési napló Perbálról In: Építő Mester, 2001, Csontos Györgyi epitomester.pdf A császár új ruhája, sőt… In: Arc, 2001-6, Klobusovszki P. Kísérletek és tévelygések In: Beszélő, 2001-6 Időképek Néprajzi Múzeum, 2001 / IdőTér Többarcú ház In: Lakáskultúra, 2001-9 Öt ház Terc kiadó, Szerk.: Lévai-Kanyó Judit, 2003 Idegen megszállás, Michael Kubo In: Élet és Irodalom No. XLVIII. 42. 2004 (c.) Budapest Urban Design Project In: GA Japan, 88 Perbál In: Phaidon Atlas of 21st Century World Architecture Phaidon Press, 2008 Családi házak / Family Houses Terc Kiadó, Szerk.: Lévai-Kanyó Judit, 2009 K-4 History in 405 Titles 405 Titles (d.,e.) More than the sum of its parts, Contextual government quarter development Budapest, Hungary In: Second Holcim Awards – 2009 (f.,g.,h.)
Exhibitions
Építészeti tendenciák Magyarországon 1968-1981 Óbuda Galéria, 1982 Fiatal Építészek ‘84 Nemzeti Galéria, 1984 Fotó-Építészet Vármúzeum, Esztergom, 1985 Collegium Hungaricum, Bécs, Ausztria, 1986 UIA Kongresszus, Szófia, 1989 Kaiserforum? Kulturinsel? Touristen-Paradies? Tölgyfa Galéria, 1988 / Messepalast Munkák Tölgyfa Galéria, 1989 Az Új Nemzeti Színház Tervpályázat díjazott tervei, Várszínház, Budapest, 1997 A Fővárosi Levéltár tervpályázat tervei, Városháza, 1998 Baustelle: Ungarn Neuere Ungarische Architektur, Akademie der Künste, Berlin, 1999 Szentendrei köztemető, PMMK, Szentendre 1999 Piranesi Days of Architecture, Piran, 1999 Perbál vagy perzsavásár N&n Galéria, Budapest, 2001 Magház – Elvetették N&n Galéria, Budapest, 2003 Egy-ház Trafó galéria, Budapest, 2003 3 kiállítás 4 kurátor N&n Galéria, Velencei Biennále 2004 55 posztamens N&n Galéria, Budapest, 2005 HA !! – meg nem épült Magyarország Körzőgyár, 2007 100 szoba – 100 makett Kormányzati Negyed KÉK 2008 Deadline Today 99+ stories on making architectural competitions, ArchitekturzentrumWien - Alte Halle, 2009 Contextual New Urban Quarter aka Government Quarter, Holcim Awards, Budapest, 2009
References
(a.) Ybl Miklós prize motive, 2004 (highest award of professional appreciation by the state) epitesz forum
“Péter Janesch is a key personality of the middle generation; his designs span the complete range of the profession from the level of objects / furniture through interior design to that of significant public buildings. In all genres his performance is characterized by a constant demand for incredibly high standards. His output might seem simple; however, these products show a sensitive reaction to the needs of the location and the users, and also create rich spatial structures. All his designs are characterized by focus on the essential, an original way of thinking and the radiating joy of creation. The life philosophy expressed in his writings on theory is best exemplified by the complex of the centre for children in Perbál.”
(b.) Home and rehabilitation centre for disabled children and youth in Perbál, Hungary (Architects: Péter Janesch and Tamás Karácsony) András Ferkai in Domus No. 823. February 2000
“Nothing is wrong with reduction, if it is not an end in itself. In this case, the architects chose simple and cheap solutions because they had to consider the low budget. But this is not the only reason for doing so. It is indicative of their seriousness and commitment to an architectural language reduced to essential effects that Péter Janesch writes in a 1988 essay: „The truly serious attitude considers art to be a ’means’ to something beyond it, that may be reached by giving up art itself. (…) Rilke believes it is possible to overcome the alienation of consciousness without leaving language completely behind. It is sufficient to restrict the territory and use of language relentlessly. The misleadingly simple act of denomination needs immense intellectual preparations (the contrary of alienation), no less than the purification and concentrated sharpening of senses.” The unaffected modesty of the Perbál rehabilitation centre is the outcome of a similar concentration. Only a succinct architectural language of this kind can provide disabled children with a quiet and cozy home and their parents and relatives with the setting of dignity and solace. The former apparently feel quite well, the latter are highly pleased with seeing that and thus appreciate the work of the architects as well as that of the master masons who came from Transylvania. However ’cool’ this architecture may seem, it is warm and humane though not in the banal sense of the word.”
(c.) Alien Invasion: The Hungarian Pavilion at the Venice Biennale (Curator: Peters Janesch) By: Michael Kubo In Élet és Irodalom No. XLVIII. 42. October, 2004. es michael kubo
“In this quality of being ‘other’ – messengers from the real world – the projects collected in the Hungarian pavilion function very much like Duchamp’s ‘ready-mades’: quotidian objects repositioned in the domain of the rarefied and precious, which acquire destructive force purely through their representation of their own, hermetic forms of beauty. In this sense, the presence of these exhibitions in the Biennale is ultimately as radical a proposition – and, one hopes, as revolutionary in its effects – as Duchamp’s presentation of an urinal at the Independents show, now almost 90 years ago. The deeply alien quality of the Hungarian Pavilion at the Venice Biennale reminds me of the stories that circulated around the Hungarian scientists working to develop the atomic bomb during the Manhattan Project, who were so numerous and so talented that they were (only half-jokingly) rumored to have been aliens, the products of a Martian invasion in Budapest at the turn of the century. (Leo Szilárd, among the most brilliant of the Hungarians, offered the following revision: ‘The Martian spaceship landed in Budapest indeed around 1900, then departed, and due to overweight had to leave the less talented Martians behind.’) Isaac Asimov would later say that ‘a saying circulated among us that two intelligent species live on Earth: Humans and Hungarians’; some observers, more suspicious in the climate of the Cold War, apparently seriously entertained the notion that Budapest hadbeen settled by Martians in order to take over the planet. Such is the equally strange position of the Hungarian Pavilion in Venice, half a century later: a brilliant, unexpected contribution whose presence can only be understood as alien.”
(d.) Government Quarter, Budapest; Appreciation of the Winner Application Extract from the appreciation by Ádám Sylvester, expressed at the announcement of the result, 2. August, 2007. epitesz forum k4
"The design intentionally avoids all motifs that might intend to express power, strength or monumentality. The plan radiates a spiritual force which is totally open to future structural changes. This was the only plan which faced the challenges of today and the future related not only to architecture but to all of us. We are ahead of a new future in which our relationship to the environment must be rewritten on the personal as well as on the community level. This building is revolutionary in this respect. It is not only a well operating but also a completely green structure. We can discover environment awareness and sustainability in all its details. This also applies to its appearance and use of materials. Fossil energy is not even mentioned among the energy sources to be used for the maintenance of the building, which is outstanding compared to the other plans. It uses all means; it aims to achieve smart and economical solutions throughout, from the preparation of the site structure to machinery. We must also add that, avoiding the monumentality of power, the building shows a transparent structure which is the symbolization of modern democracy using the tools of architecture.”
(e.) A depressing tale of what might have been (Architects: Péter Janesch and Kengo Kuma) By: Edwin Heathcote In Financial Times September, 2008. financial times
“While the original conception, a new, dense government quarter, could legitimately have been construed as urban regeneration and a massive air-rights proposal that could have influenced cities around the world, what the city is left with is exactly the sort of development it does not need.(…) It is a dismaying snapshot of lost opportunity. This scheme touched on the enduring themes of the contemporary city – from transport and density to government, PPP and ecology. It is the perfect example of the difficulty of creating a truly sustainable architecture, and sketches clearly the lack of a municipal vision for the urban realm. London, a city continually rebuilding itself yet which seems, similarly, to lack a real strategy, vision or any genuine public debate about what it wants to become, might want to draw a lesson.”
(f.) Gold Award to a government quarter development in Budapest (Architects: Péter Janesch and TEAM 0708) holcim awards gold europe
“A project to house eleven ministries of the Hungarian government received the top prize of USD 100,000 and the Holcim Awards Gold 2008 trophy, for its comprehensive approach to urban renewal. The project led by Hungarian architect Peter Janesch provides energy-efficient space for government administration while at the same time revitalizing residential areas and parks and restoring an historic railway station. Head of Jury and professor of architecture at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL), Harry Gugger, commented that the project provided a win-win solution since it enables both new development and improved conditions for the existing residents in an area neglected for many years. ‘The project demonstrates in a convincing manner how urban renewal should be tackled in order to deliver real improvements to degraded urban areas on a sustainable basis,’ he said.”
“The outstanding highlight of this project is its comprehensive approach to urban renewal. The initial driver of the project was the need for additional space to accommodate government administrative departments in the heart of Budapest. Instead of just fulfilling this prime purpose by another large office complex, the project incorporates the revitalization of the adjacent historic Teréz quarter consisting mainly of housing and small businesses as well as the creation of additional public functions and parks including the upgrading of a beautiful old railway station that had been neglected for many years. In addition, a sustainable energy concept will be applied to the new administration buildings. Due to this integral development of a previously rather disregarded urban area a win-win situation will be created: on the one hand the new office spaces will be built according to the specific expectations of the government and the users, and on the other hand most of the inhabitants of this quarter will stay in their former but upgraded living environment and will benefit from access to additional recreational facilities. Overall, the project demonstrates in a convincing manner how urban renewal should be tackled in order to realize substantial contributions to the sustainable development of degraded urban areas.”
(h.) More than the sum of its parts - Contextual government quarter development Budapest, Hungary holcim awards essays
Notes
As for introductory quotes:
(1.) A society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they shall never sit in. Greek proverb
(2.) If all the insects on earth disappeared, within 50 years all life on earth would disappear. If all humans disappeared, within 50 years all species would flourish as never before. Jonas Salk
(3.) There is more to life than increasing its speed. Mahatma Ghandi
(4.) Such a result would fit into the cultural evolutionary process, in the course of which the relationship of man and the tool at work is increasingly shifted to the dominance of the tool.
(5.) Line of communication as circulatory system; impeded circulation as cardiovascular trouble; jamming as atresia; stagnant as atonic; subsided as sphacelate.
(6.) Goodbye, icons; hello, infrastructure: Obama inaugurates a new era of architecture chicago tribune
(..) The age of the architectural icon—that extravagant, exuberant, “wow”-inducing building on a pedestal—is dead, or more precisely, in its death throes. And what will replace it? President Barack Obama, who once dreamed of being an architect, had something to say about that Tuesday in his inaugural address: the age of infrastructure.(..)
(7.) “The systems surrounding us have never before been so complicated and interdependent, our causes have never been so common and we have never needed agreements so much. At the same time, we can hardly trust spontaneous organization and self-regulation; the traditional and local methods of control have failed; the things are drifted about by the interest enforcing maneuvers of market players; the aim is profit maximization instead of creating ideas; the hurried attempts at operation, let us build something big so they come to see it, are the caricatures of the real solutions.” Goodbye, ego; hello system - Peter Janesch In Octogon Architecture&Design, October, 2009. octogon
(8.) Egység, az egész-ség (The Whole as the Wholesomeness) Janesch Péter 12. September, 2007. index
(9.) “(We) advocate the development of a Science of Environmental Design to supplement high purpose, creative ability, and technical skill before too late; ‘Beauty will look after herself,’ to quote Eric Gill.” Serge Chermayeff, 1964 — from the preface of a co-written book Community and Privacy with Cambridge-educated mathematician-architect Christopher Alexander.
(10.) “Is there the code, the language in action, the scription of knowledge and the tool?” In Peter Janesch Contribution to the Efforts of Engineering Reason for the Abandoned or Self-destructive Body of Mindless Complex Systems 2011.
(11.) “We can look forward to a unifying philosophy of form, displaying wherein we are one with all nature and wherein we are uniquely human. This philosophy may not lie very far ahead, and its formulation may be eased by anticipation. For one can already recognize some rules which seem to be widely, though perhaps not universally, applicable. Since at this stage they are can only be expressed vaguely, without specifying the exact conditions under which they are valid, they are certainly not yet scientific. But they may be on the way to it…” Lancelot Law Whyte Invisible structure Accent on Form: An Anticipation of the Science of Tomorrow 1954.
(12.) “Only the free-wheeling artist-explorer, non-academic scientist philosopher, mechanic, economist poet who has never waited for patron-startering and accrediting of his coordinate capabilities holds the prime initiative today. If man is to continue as a successful pattern-complex function in universal evolution, it will be because the next decades will have witnessed the artist-scientist’s spontaneous seizure of the prime design responsibility and his successful conversion of the total capability of tool-augmented man from killingry to livingry.” R. Buckminster Fuller, Prime Design 1962.
(13.) In the frame of the Bologna process, the tertiary education in Hungary started to change from undivided education to the three-tier system. University education for 4 to 6 years (which is still an electable alternative in certain fields such as medicine, law and architecture) is equivalent to BA + MA degrees.
(14.) The Masters' School of Architects has been a post-graduate education type in Hungary since 1953. About 20 -25 architects with degrees and work experience are admitted to the cycles started every two years.
(15.) É1 principal architect qualification means unlimited planning license in the field of architecture and technical design with a membership in the Chamber of Hungarian Architects.