Kirakat

Multidimensional experience: another eco-cinema built with the support of DS Smith

Published

2024. 09. 27. 14:07

Magyar Építők

Photos: DS Smith Packaging Hungary Kft.

For the third time in four years, an ecotank has been delivered by DS Smith, one of the world's leading suppliers of sustainable packaging solutions, in collaboration with the Department of Residential Building Design at BME.

The multifunctional, flexible, inspiring structure designed by architecture students aims to facilitate multidimensional knowledge transfer and more effective environmental education. The modular structure was built in Füzesabony with the help of more than 100 volunteers, according to a statement sent to our newspaper by DS Smith Packaging Hungary Kft..

A positive vision with positive impacts

As a leading supplier of sustainable paper-based packaging solutions, DS Smith is committed to supporting our environment and communities. The company launched its eco-tanker initiative in 2020. This year, it has helped a third institution, the Teleki Blanka Teleki Elementary School and AMI in Füzesabony, by creating an alternative space.

As in the case of the two eco-canteens built earlier, the DS Smith Charitable Trust provided the funding for the project, this year almost £10,000. The project was also supported by the local council. More than 100 volunteers were involved in the construction work.

Working with architects

The professional partner of DS Smith in the programme is the Department of Residential Building Design of the Budapest University of Technology, with whose students and lecturers they have been working from the very beginning, including now in the case of the school in Füzesabony. The architecture students have been involved with the students, teachers and parents, listening to their needs and creating their designs. The main challenge was to create a multi-functional, variable space that would capture children's imagination. This year's entries were the concept of TérTisz.

The designers of the winning structure, Eszter Nagyhegyesi, Beata Papp Zoé and Vera Virág, wanted children to treat the structure not as a conventional classroom, but to be able to use it to the maximum of their imagination even if they are not using it for learning purposes.

The use of natural materials was a key consideration

To this end, a multi-dimensional modular structure has been designed that performs a number of functions, as its name suggests, building from the elements, a well-known Tetris game. In the centre, students can sit in a circle on the lower decks, and if they want to work in groups, they can climb up to the top, where they have table-like sections. The architectural candidates have placed boardwalks and parapets on the higher parts, on which they can eventually grow plants, and some blocks already have raised beds.

The structure is based on timber, as the main concern was to use natural materials and minimise construction waste. An ingenious and stylish way of achieving the latter is to use the excess to create another design space in the schoolyard, the Wheelchair/Sitting area, which can be interpreted as outdoor furniture. The smaller elements, which allow for free shaping of the space, are the work of Kata Forgács, Csilla Herman and Kamilla Nagy.

"The project is unique in several ways: it is small in scale, but it gives a lot of freedom and also allows students to develop in an experimental genre. They also get to experience what it feels like to work directly and closely with a client, to feel the joy and the love. These experiences and impressions cannot be conveyed through textbooks or lessons. TérTisz has a very good structure, which triggers the children's imagination and, which was an important aspect, it is easy to implement with volunteers. It is an open system that can be freely extended according to the children's needs and can be supplemented with day sails. But it also helps to involve the children in the selection and care of the plants to be planted in the raised beds," said Zsófia Dankó DLA, Péter Sugár DLA and Zsolt Péteri, lecturers at the Department of Residential Building Design, BME.

The Faculty of Architecture and the Department of Architecture offer a number of courses on more environmentally friendly technology, prefabrication, including modular architecture. To reduce our ecological footprint and protect our environment, more and more attention is being paid to prefabrication and modularity.

New methodology, sensitisation

This year, the university's lecturers have announced the design of the eco-terrace as a two-semester course in the 2023/2024 academic year, which has been given a new meaning through community participatory work: the students' and teachers' ideas and desires were assessed through workshops, and the entries were also evaluated with the involvement of future users.

The interest of future professionals is increasingly turning towards academic tasks and current and significant architectural problems that test their design skills in real-life situations. By participating in such a project, students can gain new knowledge, experience and skills that they would not have had the opportunity to acquire in a traditional university education.

The university sensitises them through small-scale environmental design architectural tasks, competitions and DIY projects, raising awareness of the importance of volunteering, so that they can experience the feeling of helping others through community and social responsibility. There is a lot to learn through the complex process of design and implementation, and teamwork is a life-long experience for students.

Focus on communities

"Our Füzesabony plant plays a key role in the company's business. We wanted to show how important Füzesabony, the people who live here and the work done here are to us in the life of DS Smith. The project is an opportunity to share our philosophy and thinking more widely, to help spread and deepen our approach to the circular economy and to support our communities.

But beyond that, we also want to get them active and moving, which is why we have consciously built the project around volunteering, so that participants feel the power of a shared will to do something together, which is the key to a greener, healthier future"

- added Levente Szabó, Managing Director of DS Smith Packaging Hungary Kft..

DS Smith is a global leader in the production of sustainable paper-based packaging solutions, including recycling and paper manufacturing processes. It plays a key role in the value chain of various sectors; e-commerce, FMCG and industrial. Through its mission - "Rethinking Packaging for a Changing World" and fulfilling the objectives of the sustainability strategy "For the Future in the Present" - DS Smith is committed to supporting the transition to a circular economy: offering circular solutions to its partners and to society at large - replacing problematic plastics, removing carbon emissions from supply chains and providing innovative recycling solutions. At the heart of this is its bespoke 14-day box-to-box model, design capabilities and innovation strategy. Headquartered in London, DS Smith is a FTSE 100 company operating in 34 countries, including Hungary, employing around 30,000 people globally, and is a strategic partner of the Ellen MacArthur Foundation. In Hungary, the company has 8 sites: 4 service centres, 1 offset, 2 corrugated factories and 1 head office. Its history dates back to the 1940s, to the box-making businesses started by the Smith family.

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