BALKON ARANYA COMPETITION FOR URBAN GARDENERS
“SHOW ME YOUR BALCONY AND I’LL TELL YOU WHO YOU ARE!”
In Budapest most of the balconies are unused, the building facades and window sills are blank and bare. Turning them into green and flowering surfaces is up to no one else but ourselves! We can be inhabitants of a more pleasant and more lively city and improve the city’s microclimate too.
The aim of the Balkon Aranya Competition is a more lively and pretty living environment.
The Közösségi Kertek program of Kortárs Építészeti Központ has taken on this lovely initiative. The idea was born at Szent István University’s Landscape Architecture Faculty, in Béla Rerrich College of Advanced Studies in Landscape Architecture. They were the ones who started off with the idea and now we are taking it on, using the opportunity to carry on ‘going green’.
As a program the Közösségi Kertek does not only turn the empty urban allotments green, but by inspiring the residents, makes the houses go green too, bringing nature closer and improving the city’s microclimate.
The social/community category is available this year too.
Let us turn our balconies and window sills green, and let us decorate our corridors with flowers!
With this competition and by posting interesting tips and ideas daily on Balkon Aranya Facebook site our aim is to bring the joy of gardening and the beautifying of the city more easily available for everyone.
1.You can participate in the competition
if you are an inhabitant of a Hungarian city, and you have the opportunity to plant plants in your living environment . Green looks good everywhere: on the balcony, terrace, corridor, or even on a window sill, maybe in an interior courtyard or on a rooftop terrace.
2. You can participate in the following categories individually or together with flat neighbours
I.Individual category
Balcony, terrace – planting plants on balconies and terraces
Window sill – planting plants on window sills
Corridors– planting plants on the outer corridors
II. Social category
Window sill – planting plants on window sills, at least two neighbouring participants, or the whole corridor
Rooftop terrace, interior courtyard -social gardening on the top of flat roofed houses, on rooftop terraces, in interior courtyards, or on the covered surfaces of the flats’ ground floor
Corridors – planting plants on the house corridors, at least two neighbouring participants, or the whole floor (e.g.: residents of the first floor)
The participants take previous photos of the area to be planted in their original state. Then they create their dream green space and after the planting period one can send the course work at any time, while the competition is still on. This can be during spring time, summer or even the beginning of autumn, when the competitors find that their work is at their best.
The course works can be uploaded via the Application form on www.balkonaranya.hu website.
Due date of application submission:
12 am (noon) Monday 17 th of September, 2018
Date of the results announcement: Friday 28th of September 2018
Date of Awards ceremony: Friday 5th of October 2018
Venue of event: Kortárs Építészeti Központ (Bp. 1111 Bartók Béla street 10-12.)
4. The evaluation process
The rank of the course works will be set up by the scores given by the professional jury, regarding the following evaluation aspects:
- the esthetics and the beauty of the planting
- ecological aspect, environment conscious performance
- the usage of space, practicalities, unique solutions, creativity
- the expansion of function (in case of social space)
- the extent of recycling
- the extent of planting,of change – how greener it got
- appropriate photos: good quality, good content shown