June was all about mobility at WOODCircle!

The Hungarian Furniture and Wood Association - Fabunio organised the WOODCircle Erasmus+ Project Mobility Programme from 10-14 June 2024, during which 20 young students and woodworkers from 5 countries (France, Ireland, Italy, Hungary and Spain) and their teachers visited companies related to the wood and furniture sector in Hungary to experience first-hand how companies of different sizes and from different sectors face the challenges of the circular economy.

The programme started in Budapest, where the first day was spent getting to know each other and sharing ideas about the circular economy in a playful way. On the second day, the participants visited KOMOK, a furniture design and manufacturing micro-enterprise that has integrated sustainability as a fundamental principle into its operations from the very beginning, where the two owners, while presenting their studio, products and workshop, revealed with enlightening honesty the challenges of maintaining a micro-enterprise that strives for circularity, while of course also showing its values. After the KOMOK tour, the group went to one of the most famous architectural studio that has designed many public buildings, Bánát+Hartvig Architectural Studio, which has converted a disused restaurant built during the socialist era into its office in the spirit of circularity. In addition to circularity, the architects also talked about the process of architect-architect collaboration.

After Budapest, mobility continued in the West of Hungary, where most wood and furniture companies are located. The mobility team first visited the oldest furniture company in the country, the 127-year-old Balaton Bútor in Veszprém, where they could see how digitalisation, high-quality craftsmanship and sustainability meet within a company.Afterwards, they visited Meshlin Compozites Zrt. in Győr, where they were given an insight into the world of biocomposites production and diversity.

FALCO Zrt. in Szombathely, part of the Kronospan Group, was the last company visited by the mobility participants. The plant is the largest wood waste processor in the region, transporting wood waste from Switzerland to Croatia to be used to produce high quality furniture board.

Back in Budapest, on the last day of the mobility, the participants had a workshop to produce concepts for an ideal circular business.