ICARCH

A House For Che Guevara: But what about Revolution AS Architecture ? Could the architect be some kind of Che Guevara today ? We will pay homage to him this year, on the occasion of half a century since he was shot to death, by firing squad. He himself, it seems, was no stranger to some form of cruelty, we were told… but in his case, if this was indeed true, cruelty was balanced by compassion. And it was compassion that brought him to the fore.

A House For Maryam Mirzakhani: A great mathematician died, that is, a poet of mathematics, or better said, in this case, a poetess... Maybe everything should be done on the floor… math included… just as Maryam Mirzakhani did, the only woman, until now, to be awarded the Fields Prize, the equivalent of the Nobel Prize in mathematics.

L’autre “ich” – tattooing vienna: Imagine yourself in a God-like position, high up in the sky… overseeing human affairs… and imagine Yourself reviewing and mapping the great city of Vienna, Austria. What would You see…?!? Truly, a very important Western city… great streets, great buildings, great palaces, great… Yet, you would also see stern, dry, unbearably bare blocks where no trees, no visual events, no nothing animate the regular, predictable, lifeless facades of buildings, with a stern monotony that would make one scream.

THE HOUSE OF CHAOS - A House for Luigi Pirandello: We ask you to celebrate the 150th birthday of Luigi Pirandello by imagining, not far from The Valley of the Temples, THE HOUSE OF CHAOS, since he was born in Chaos, a suburb of Agrigento. In a certain way, thus, we will have a dialogue between the Ancient times, with their heroic creativity and their belief in the gods, and the Modern times, faithless, disoriented, chaotic. Yes, let's be creative by being truthful to our times, by imagining some kind of "anti-temple"...

A New “Schröder” House: The famous Schroeder House by Gerrit Rietveld was not built in 1917, that is, 100 years ago, thus it is not its centennial. But being that arguably it is the most “De Stijl” house that was built, we feel that it would be appropriate to commemorate it on the occasion of De Stijl’s centennial. The house was built in 1924. And it represents the quintessence of the De Stijl principles, in architecture. Designated a World Heritage Site, this famous house also became inscribed on two Durch euro coins.

A House for Charles Baudelaire: On August 31st, this year, there will be 150 years since his death. It will be the last day of our one month presence in Vienna, where we will have a one month long ICARCH Architecture Festival. We want to dedicate this last day to Baudelaire, to this most “modern” poet. Please be kind and send us your proposals for A HOUSE FOR CHARLES BAUDELAIRE by July 27th.

A house for Chuck Berry: In the summer of 2017 we will have a one month long exhibition in Vienna… When we want to celebrate art and life, life and art, architecture included… Please listen to “In the Summertime” by Mungo Jerry… would they have been possible without Chuck Berry…? So, dear architect, ROLL OVER CHUCK BERRY, with your rolling building! ROLL OVER a life that only seems to end… ROLL OVER in the name of the life that never ends. Let’s celebrate, once again, MUSIC and ARCHITECTURE.

A House for Maya Deren: This is what we invite you to do: on this year of her centennial (on April 29th, 2017, there will be one hundred years since her birth), we ask you to imagine a commemorative HOUSE FOR MAYA DEREN that would explore, as creatively as possible, the themes and methods of her films. Could we have an architecture that would achieve some kind of “stream of consciousness,” architecturally…?

A(nother) RED & BLUE CHAIR: And since we like to celebrate, creatively, as much as possible, and to connect with important moments in our cultural history, we invite you now to design A(nother) RED AND BLUE CHAIR, one that would be, somehow, inspired by the great Dutch art movement that also inspired Rietveld. The idea is to celebrate the creation of this chair with another chair, respecting just one requirement: that it would also be a RED & BLUE chair, even if the design would hopefully be very different.

A New “Larkin” Building: This year, we are celebrating 150 years since F. L. Wright’s birthday, on June 8th. We could celebrate him in many ways, of course, but perhaps an interesting way would be to launch an international competition to build a new “Larkin” office building, on the very site that once housed this iconic building. Maybe we could envision something else, a place where between Work and Play there would be some kind of peace and where the purpose would not be Money, Money, Money, but giving some meaning.

A(nother) HOUSE FOR CITIZEN KANE: Rosebud… Rosebud… Who knows what Rosebud meant / means…!? NOT FOR THAT IDIOTIC HALF THE POPULATION OF THE GLOBE, “LIVING” UNDER THE POVERTY LINE. LET’S BUILD OUR SEPARATING WALLS HIGHER AND HIGHER, TO PROTECT OURSELVES, SO NOT EVEN THANATOS MIGHT CLIMB OVER THEM. LET’S PROCLAIM THE HUMAN POWER OF ALL THE CITIZEN KANE OF THIS WORLD, HIGHER AND HIGHER THE WALLS, THICKER AND THICKER. Design A HOUSE FOR CITIZEN KANE.A(nother) HOUSE FOR CITIZEN KANE. A truer one. One that does not neglect ROSEBUD…

The House of Truth: We cannot forget, and we shouldn’t forget, that the new president of the United States (and yes, the United States still matters on the world “scene”) “earned a living”, at least for a portion of his life, by promoting, building and managing CASINOS. What is a Casino…? Like a brothel, it is a deceptive place, mistaking illusion for reality. We ask you to express this truth, architecturally. In whatever form you feel appropriate.

The house of patriotic devotion: Perhaps we shouldn’t launch such a competition. The answer might be very simple: The Ultimate House of Patriotic Devotion is a Casino. The kind the new President of the United States proved himself quite capable of building and managing. Indeed, wouldn’t it sound appropriate? THE CASINO, as the ultimate House of Patriotic Devotion. DESIGN THE HOUSE OF ULTIMATE PATRIOTIC DEVOTION.

A House For Auguste Rodin: This year there will be 100 years since the great French sculptor Auguste Rodin died. On this occasion ICARCH Gallery (www.icarch.us) is please to launch the commemorative international architectural competition "A House for Auguste Rodin." We feel we can pay homage to the great sculptor by trying to express, through a building, the richness, the intensity of his work.