A HOUSE FOR GIUSEPPE ARCIMBOLDO

 

 

There is artifice, yes, in his work.

 

And maybe this alone will exclude him from the proud list with the greatest artists ever.

 

Yet, Arcimboldo is unique.

 

In some strange way he was able to diffuse the human personality in the particularities of its profession.

 

Thus, a gardener was supposed to be different than a librarian, visually as well, for all to see.

 

We are what we do.

 

Thus, a librarian is different than a gardener.

 

And so do the paintings of Arcimboldo show them to us.

 

Interestingly, his self-portrait (shown above) does not show artifice at all. It shows a serious and sensitive man, an artist, drawn with skill and reticence.

 

So how would a House for Giuseppe Arcimboldo look like…?

 

Obviously, it would be a specific house for a specific Arcimboldo.

 

ANY house that, through its particularities, expresses and “betrays” the specificities of its inhabitant is A HOUSE FOR ARCIMBOLDO.

 

In a certain way the very opposite of almost any house today.

 

The houses of the present tell us nothing about their inhabitants, except, perhaps, the taste of the owner in the field of architecture… thus, a house by Koolhaas for a certain client will most surely say nothing about the client and inhabitant, but about the “author.” So did The Falling Water and Villa Savoy.

 

But we challenge you to work differently. We ask you to express in this house for “Arcimboldo” ANY specific traits of anyone who is going to be the inhabitant (not the architect) of the house.

 

So if the House is for a gardener, LET IT BE SO: FOR A GARDENER.

 

And if it is a House for a Librarian, LET IT BE SO: FOR A LIBRARIAN.

 

In this way we hope to be able again to re-personalize architecture and life alike, to bring in an identity that now is missing.

 

Express a biography, dear architect, through your house. And a cultural, professional, religious portrait of its inhabitant.

 

Design A HOUSE FOR ARCIMBOLDO.

 

A HOUSE that will be a summum, in constructive terms, of the life of its inhabitant.

 

The deadline is March 1st, 2011.

 

Thank you,

 

ICARCH Gallery