The Big Architecture Festival is an international architectural event managed by Big See. The festival was first held in 2008. In 2018, with the ambitious transformation of the organiser into a creative hub serving the broader Southeast Europe region, the festival took on a new role. It is now integrated into the extensive Month of Design event, highlighting architecture's relationship not only to design but to the economy and culture of the region and beyond.
The festival now hosts a broad range of events of a predominantly educational nature aimed at promoting, researching, and evaluating architecture in the Southeast Europe region. Billed as something of a hybrid trade fair/festival, it also features activities and presentations that put architects and interior designers in direct contact with engineering companies, construction manufacturers and other stakeholders from the private sector.
Programme
In its current form, Big Architecture festival features a wide variety of activities aimed at establishing a multi-disciplinary flow of best practices to architects and adjacent creators from throughout the region. The central event of the festival is the trade fair. The leading event of its kind in Southeast Europe, it gives forward-thinking architects, building professionals, and other decision makers an opportunity to experience and learn about new materials, innovative technologies and advanced techniques.
The festival also features a number of lectures and other learning events with a regional focus. For example, the 2019 edition of the festival hosted a lecture by Montenegrin curator Dijana Vučinić on the public/private divide in architecture with a focus on the specific historical situation surrounding tenders and competitions in Southeast Europe.
In the broader framework of the Month of Design, attendees can also visit virtual pavilions representing each of the 19 countries of the region. The pavilions present a curated synthesis of creativity from each country that encompasses not only architecture and interior design, but also visual design, product design, wood design, and tourist design.
Awards
Beginning in 2009, the Big Architecture Festival culminated in the presentation of the Hiša Award. Presented in conjunction with award's namesake, Hiše Magazine, each year the award recognised several outstanding examples of home architecture from throughout the world (hiša means house). Winning works were given an exhibition at the festival and a dedicated issue of Hiše Magazine.
With the overhaul that saw event organiser Zavod Big become Big SEE and assume a leading role in the creative scene of the Southeast Europe region, the Hiše Awards were discontinued. In their place, the Big SEE awards, a range of awards presented to creators from the 19 countries of the Southeast Europe region for outstanding achievements in a number architecture and design fields, were introduced. Since 2018, Big SEE awards for architecture and interior design have been presented in the framework of Big Architecture Festival.
In 2018 Big SEE also introduced the Big SEE Architectural Visionary Award, a lifetime achievement award presented to the most impactful architects and architectural thinkers in the region. Recipients to date include architect and Deputy Mayor of Ljubljana Janez Kozelj and renowned Croatian architect and theorist Andrija Rusan.
See also
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