The REGIO EARTH - Central and South-Eastern European Festival of Earth Architecture © is an annually event about earth-based architecture, construction, design and art. It focuses on the Central and Eastern region of Europe to create a strong cross-border network for the local professionals (architects, engineers, craftsmen, professors, researchers, etc.).
The main basis is the common earth heritage of the named region and the main goal is to find contemporary ways to integrate it in the dynamics of the present. The event wants to reach out the mass of general public to popularize the natural material-based constructions.
The idea of the Festival came from Ádám BIHARI, Alina NEGRU and Alessandro SERRA - three friends from the Grenoble-based French earth architecture center: CRAterre and amàco.
Currently the brand is owned by three teams: the Hungary-based KÉSZ, the Romania-based TERRApia and the Serbia-based Earth and Craft; and it takes place one of these three countries in each year.
The first edition (2017) took place in Oszkó village, in Vas county, Hungary, the second edition (2018) took place in Buzad village, in the region of Banat, Romania, the third edition (2019) was in Mosorin village, in Serbia.
The aim of the upcoming festival (2020) is to make the Festival well-known in a wider scope, to make earth building even more popular and to strengthen the experts’ network.
Introduction
It’s high time to bring back earth to the architectural practice! In Hungary, as well as in Europe, a rising number of people are interested in earth building, who are motivated by various reasons.
One of them is environmental sustainability, which is a topic that cannot be neglected from a moral and economical point of view. In this context, earth as a building material is a modern technical solution, without compromise. Another reason is the growing demand for a healthy life, which is a significant issue of our times. Within this topic the desire for a healthy home has appeared, which natural materials, like earth, can provide solution to.
However, this good, old building material is underrepresented in our modern society for the reason of the numerous fake facts connected to earth - it is stinky, it gets moldy, it loses stability - and because the market of building materials does not support the production of natural building materials.
As a response to these problems, we created REGIO EARTH Central and South-Eastern European Earth Festival. Our decision to give a festival character to our event was on purpose: in this way we aim to offer a diverse experience and reach a large number of social groups. At the same time, we can take the opportunity to disprove the fake facts about earth in front of a wide public, raise the attention of producers and strengthen the regional network of experts.
The idea is based on the French Grains D’Isère Festival dealing with the same topic.
Defining the aims
Our aim is not less, than the presentation of the modern regional earth building with the help of its most significant representatives. Our priority is to approach earth as a building material, which must have a place in the modern building industry. We would like earth to be seen not as a building material of old times, but as the best solution of our modem needs. For this aim, it is important to reach a high number of people through the event: constructors, designers, customers, producers and investors as well.