THE HOUSE OF DEATH AND LIFE 

 

This year, on December 29th there will be 50 years since Sigurd Lewerentz, the important Swedish architect, died.

And a book was published, on his work, titled: Sigurd Lewerentz Architect of Death and Life.

We find this title very inspired and appropriate.

Usually, of course, when we do mention death, we do it rather reluctantly, after using the word Life, first... but the authors of the book mentioned above correctly noticed that in the case of Sigurd Lewerentz, Death might have to be considered first.

Although he had a long life and only some of his buildings deal with the afterlife... but the mourning lamps of the Sankt Petri church in Klipan, Sweden, do tell us that he was deeply aware of the finality of life.

And what true poet isn't?

In fact, we could almost say that only a deep involvement with the meanings associated with death could help us cross that threshold between it and life, and indeed make art a transgression of death.

Not by ignoring death, in other words, but by actively engaging it, a priori or a posteriori.

In the cosmic hourglass of existence, Life and Death nourish each other unendingly.

So we ask you to design THE HOUSE OF DEATH AND LIFE. A HOUSE FOR SIGURD LEWERENTZ.

Of course we use the word "house" in the most generic and metaphorical way, although factually too.

It could be anything... even an anti-house, or a post-house, or a pre-house.

Design for Death and Life, dear architect.

You won't have too many occasions to do so, since usually, in the present times, death is very, very often forgotten. We think that life, by itself, can do. But it can't. We need both "cups" of the cosmic hourglass mentioned above.

This would be a unique challenge: to design The House of Death and Life.

Let's make this house our heartfelt homage to this very important architect, who taught us, in his discreet yet piercing ways, that architecture, just like art in general, has two halves, as correctly Charles Baudelaire told us: one half that addresses the ephemeral, the transitory, the circumstantial, and the other half that speaks about permanence, about the eternal and the immutable.

The poet is needed. Be a poet, dear architect!

Please send us ANY WORK, ANY SIZE, ANY FORMAT, digitally, to info@icarch.us by December 29th, this year, when there will be, again, 50 years since Lewerentz died. If you have any questions, please contact us. We will organize an exhibition ,and we will also display all the works received on our website.

 

Thank you,

 

I C A R C H

www.icarch.us

 

 

 

 

 

Although Diderot said that "poetry requires something enormous, barbaric and wild", this is not always the case... Giorgio Morandi, for example, in painting, achieved a very profound visual poetry without anything enormous, barbaric and wild... and in architecture there is Sigurd Lewerentz, of course.

And on December 29th, this year, there will be 50 years since he died. And we feel we have to try to pay homage to this remarkable architect, who taught us that the "unknown" can be found in the most common, almost banal ways.

Of course the extravagant gestures are still seductive, of course scandals are still irresistible, at all levels, in our attention / publicity grabbing society.

But how to differentiate between the banal and the poetic?

Poetry does not have to scream.

Often, it does not.

And the architecture of Sigurd Lewerentz does not scream. It whispers.

We ask you to design THE HOUSE OF WHISPERS.

A RETICENT HOUSE.

THE HOUSE OF RETICENCE.

A HOUSE FOR SIGURD LEWERENTZ.

We do not ask for a "minimalist" house, because the architecture of Sigurd Lewerentz was not a minimalist one.

But one could confound the scarce means with minimalism.

The intensity of feeling can manifest itself in many ways.

Whisper, dear architect.

Whisper a truth that is not only yours, but ours.

Res Privata has to become Res Publica, somehow, and when private contemplation is intense and altruistic, it becomes Vita Activa.

Art activates life.

Vita Contemplativa, when genuine, fuels Vita Activa.

Let's pay homage to this unique architect who taught us the lesson of discretion, but his discretion was not a placid one. From its depth the Lewerentz discretion pushes us forward, hungry of new horizons, hungry of the unknown.

Please send us your work, digitally, to info@icarch.us by December 29th, 2025, when there will be 50 years since he died.

Please send us ANY WORK, ANY SIZE, ANY FORMAT that responds to the theme, in the freest and the most imaginative way. Make Lewerentz happy, from far away, both in time and space. If you have any questions please contact us.

 

Thank you,

 

I C A R C H

www.icarch.us