Folk Architecture and the Future

International Conference in Veszprém, Hungary

Our director Hugh Conway Morris was invited to speak at the international conference on Folk Architecture and the Future, held in the beautiful city of Veszprém in western Hungary in the summer of 2023.  The conference was organised by the Symmetry Foundation and the Hungarian Academy of Arts.  Delegates from five continents attended over several days in this European Capital of Culture 2023, with talks and discussions on all aspects of vernacular architecture.

Hugh’s paper, entitled “What Hope for Contemporary Architecture? How we might learn from the power of the vernacular” was well-received, comparing both vernacular language and architecture, and examining the organic growth and form of both words and buildings, and how the one may inform the other.  Particularly concentrating on the access to this organic world by those who truly engage with it, Hugh’s talk ended with an examination of two examples of British Arts and Crafts buildings, where the act of building itself became an integral and visceral experience of their architects – being Lethaby’s Brockhampton Church and Gimson’s Library at Bedales School.

Hugh’s talk can be viewed in full on YouTube.

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