Posted on: 2nd December 2016
Dear Architect,
Not long ago the government of Austria decided to demolish the house where Hitler was born. Yet, very recently, it changed its stance on the issue. It wants now to preserve the building, but transformed, to express its symbolic content in the most relevant way.
We don’t know if we had any role in this, although this was our position from the very beginning. But we did write a few months ago to both the mayor of Braunau am Inn and the Interior Minister, asking them to cooperate with us to organize a competition worthy of its subject. They didn’t reply directly, but indirectly we feel they did “reply,” by changing their position on the subject.
We didn’t launch this competition for our own interest or for lucrative reasons. We do believe, strongly, in our hearts, that we must do everything we can, so no other tragedy like the Second World War will ever happen again. This was and is our main goal. In fact, the only one.
So if we can contribute to peace, in any way possible, we feel we did / do what we had / have to do.
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-37690981
As we stated, we plan to send a portfolio with all the works received to the Interior Minister of Austria and to the mayor of Braunau am Inn. Nobody asked us to do it, but we feel it is our duty, as architects and citizen of the world, to do it.
It is the least we can do, to try to avoid another war. Thus, it is a basic responsibility we assume.
If you feel in your heart that you could “say” something perhaps important, on this subject, that is, if you feel you have an idea worthy of the theme of this “cooperative competition,” we urge you to express it. We would gladly receive it and forward it to Austria, together with the others.
Yes, it is a grass roots initiative and in some ways, guerrilla. But sometimes an insurgent action could have success. And we believe it already had, to an extent, since the government of Austria, as you read through the link above, is willing now to assume the more difficult attitude… and it seems it even considers now to invite architects to express themselves about this.
We already did this… from the fringe, it is true, but we did it.
And we want to bring to fruition this action by bringing together as many projects as possible, that all say the same thing: NO MORE WAR!
We have no other wish.
If you would like to join us, we could only be grateful.
We accept ANY work, ANY size, ANY format that addresses this theme. Please visit our website for more details and please register as soon as possible in order to receive CAD drawings and other related visual materials. The registration is free. The new deadline to submit your work and to register is January 31st, 2017. In order to register and to send your work digitally, please use this address: [email protected]. If you have any questions related to this competition, please be kind and contact us.
Thank you,
ICARCH Gallery
www.icarch.us
