A HOUSE FOR ANTONI GAUDI

This year there will be 100 years since Antoni Gaudi died.

Although, of course, he didn't die.

He never will.

This is the power of art, to transgress death.

And we plan to pay homage to him, to commemorate him, through A HOUSE FOR ANTONI GAUDI... And we propose, as a site plan, in the vicinity of Torre del Mas de Don Felipe, in Riudoms, Spain, where Antoni Gaudi was born.

We specifically would ask you to engage the tower, in some form, with your proposal, to create a dialectical relationship between your work and this historic monument... in essence we ask you to reflect on Life & Death, to express their intertwining, the presence of memory, the transcendence through art, the revenge through art.

Inspired by the great work of Gaudi, we ask you to reflect on what Paul Klee said, when he stated that his work belongs to those who died and to those not yet born... Eros and Thanatos, Life and Death... and Life is Love, Love is Life.

Conquer death, dear architect, through your love for architecture.

Create a house that continues what Gaudi started, make it belong to the 21st century, but with a subtle, or not so subtle clin-d'oeil towards the past, towards the year 1926, when tragically Gaudi died...

Yes, revenge yourselves.

Do not let death have the last word.

Redemption through art.

Once art and religion were one... and this soon to be sanctified architect does deserve a house, the idea of a house that belongs to the here and now, but also to the beyond...

What is, actually, this "beyond" ?

We can find many names, none capable though, by itself, to tell the whole truth.

DESIGN A HOUSE FOR ANTONI GAUDI IN RIUDOMS, SPAIN, not far from the Tower of Don Felip...

Make it worthy of the great name of this great architect who continues to inspire us.

What would architecture be without him ? Wouldn't it be much poorer ?

Please send your work digitally, on two sheets format A1, oriented vertically, to info@icarch.us, by June 10th, 2026. Please register before June 1st, 2026. We will publish all the works received on our website and we will also plan a traveling exhibition to Barcelona. If you have any questions, please contact us.

Thank you,

I C A R C H

 

    

   

THE HOUSE OF OIL

Indeed, certain things cannot be paid for, not even with oil... as we are told in the great film "Wild Strawberries" by Ingmar Bergman.

Subtle and prophetic irony…

Truly, it seems oil became more important for human life than oxygen, water and bread.

Its Majesty, OIL.

And these days, when a tragic war happens in Iran and in the Gulf, there is more talk, it seems, about OIL, OIL, OIL than about lost lives.

OIL, OIL, OIL, OIL, OIL.

Humanity, though, lived without oil for thousands of years.

But now it seems living without OIL is no living at all.

Forget about spirit (God), art, knowledge, morality, etc… they do not matter, or they matter far, far less than OIL.

The sky is black now, because of burned oil, burned by bombs.

The air is unbreathable.

The rain is black as well.

So it is only normal, we feel, to address the true king of human affairs, now, properly.

OIL – the ruler of life on this earth, now.

So shouldn’t we dedicate a special structure to this true King ?

If in the past we built temples for the gods, we should build now temples for OIL – the supreme god of the present. OIL.

So how would THE HOUSE OF OIL look like ?

Would it be black just like the sky, now, in that doomed region attracting so much interest from both armies and businesses ?

Capitalism itself without oil is inconceivable. Drill, baby, drill! – shouted the president of the United States.

Drill for the supreme God!

Forget Zeus, the god on mount Olympus now is undoubtedly OIL.

So it is only normal to envision adoring temples dedicated to this undisputable force, this phenomenon, this true alpha and omega of human existence: OIL.

We invite you to envision The First Temple dedicated to this quintessential, all-powerful god: OIL.

And we hope that following our example the whole world will do the same: cover the whole earth with countless HOUSES OF OIL. THE TEMPLES OF OIL. THE TOTEMIC LODGINGS OF THE TRUE WORLD RULER NOW AND FOREVER: OIL!

Please send us your work on two sheets format A1, digitally, to info@icarch.us, by July 1st, 2026. Please orient your sheets vertically. And please register by June 15th. If you have any questions please contact us. We will publish all the works received on our website and we will organize a travelling exhibition.

Thank you,

I C A R C H

www.icarch.us

 

 

This poster was created by the British architect Charles Pigott +AI, as his response to the theme below.

   

   

THE RAW FESTIVAL

  

 

Hello.

Our world is still obsessed by riches and polished comfort.

Maybe all wars, ultimately, originate in this illusory quest for riches and luxury.

But life is tough, continues to be tough, for rich and poor alike, although their difficulties differ.

Read from right to left, the word "war" becomes "raw."

We invite you to submit architectural works (or strategies) that would qualify under the short title: RAW.

Even Zaha Hadid, the architect of so many highly polished buildings (despite the formal agitation), aspired towards a raw, even earthy architecture, as she once declared.

So let's imagine THE RAW FESTIVAL.

Let's bring together as many "raw" architectures as possible, let's create a digital archive with these works, accessible by anyone in this world.

We could thus create a constellation of architectural events, wherever such an event is desired (exhibition, presentation, etc)...

Maybe RAW would indeed be the opposite of WAR.

Or are we delusional ?

Thank you,

I C A R C H

www.icarch.us

Please send us ANY work, ANY size and ANY format that responds to the theme by June 1st, 2026. Please send your work digitally to: info@icarch.us and please register by May 15th through our website. If you have any questions, please contact us. We will publish all the works received on our website and we will also send a portfolio with the best works to Wang Shu and Lu Wenyu in China, to consider them for inclusion in the Venice Biennale next year.

 

 

   

THE HOUSE OF INDEPENDENCE

 

What is independence ?

Not being dependent ?

But is this possible ? Or even desirable ?

What about interdependence ?

Would interdependence be the opposite of independence ?

The dream of the alchemist was to unite the opposites.

But those longing for “independence” long for the uniqueness (they think) of their being…

Of course, the ideal is Multiplicity in Unity.

Independent, yet together.

But if the initial definition of art was Art = Bridge = God, then art doesn’t seem to advocate “independence”… yet, what about Le Salon des Independants ? They wanted to have no connection with the Beaux Arts system, “official” as it was.

Of course, the ideal, as always, is to be FREE.

But once this “freedom” was arrived at, what next ?

Wouldn’t we die of loneliness ?

Wouldn’t maybe be better, instead, to aspire towards being both Solitary and Solidary ? That is, Independent and simultaneously CONNECTED ?

“Only connect” said E. M. Forster.

But then connection could happen as a sum of independencies, no ?

But is that a true connection ?

What about love ?

Could one both be “independent” and in love ?

We are all interconnected, we want it, or not.

We invite you to reflect on INDEPENDENCE AND INTERCONNECTEDNESS.

We invite you to also think critically, that is not dogmatically and thus demagogically.

The present United States fought, 250 years ago, for “independence” from England… yet these very days The United States demands Great Britain to allow it to use its land as a base from where to launch its bombs towards Iran.

So, again, what is “independence” ?

Please choose a site within the territory of the United States where to place your House of Independence, on the occasion of its 250th anniversary. Please address the issue of “independence” in all its complexity and even contradictions and ambiguities.

BE TRUE TO THE THEME.

Celebrate (or not) INDEPENDENCE.

Connect, or not.

Please send your work digitally, to Info@icarch.us by July 4th, 2026, on two sheets format A1, oriented vertically. If you have any questions, please contact us. Please register through our website by June 15th, 2026. We will publish all the works received on our website and we will also organize a travelling exhibition.

Thank you.

I C A R C H

www.icarch.us

 

 

   

A HOUSE FOR ZAHA HADID

 

Maybe she didn’t need a house… inasmuch as the shoemaker does not seem to need shoes…

And maybe this is why it might be useful for us to imagine one.

But how to do it…? Would it be glamorous, like its “beneficiary…?”

Would it be high-fashion…?

Would it be flamboyant…?

Would it be opulent and polished and sleek and graphic…?

How would it be…?!

Or, quite the opposite, would it be modest, almost invisible, or visceral, tormented even, earthy and raw as at one point she wanted her own architecture to be…?!

No doubt though, it would the house of the most famous woman architect in the world.

By all standards she pushed the feminine presence at the frontline of architecture and it would be hard to replace her in the foreseeable future.

That very future she so much admired…

So, would A HOUSE FOR ZAHA HADID be “the house of the future…?”

What is “the future”…? And what if Faulkner was right that there is no “future…?!” That the past never dies, that it actually doesn’t even pass…?!?

And could “the future” exist in the absence of the continually ignored, PRESENT…?

What is the relationship between what a word like “the eternal” still conveys and what a word like “the ephemeral” mean…?

Was ZahaHadid an optimist…? Was she a pessimist…?

Her good friend Sir Norman Foster said that only an optimist could be an architect… that, in other words, from a position of pessimism it is almost impossible to build.

He was probably right, to an extent, although there is, for example, that admirer of Fernando Pessoa (not exactly the most optimist poet) – we are referring to Alvaro Siza – who built and builds… and there are the cynics, who, under the mask of cynicism hide maybe a deeply rooted pessimism… and then there was Louis Sullivan, who wrote both about Optimism and Pessimism…

Anyway… we do not know if ZahaHadid was an optimist, or a pessimist.

But we could still envision a house for her, that very house she didn’t envision herself… maybe a house increasingly approaching that level of florality (is there such a word…?) her architecture seemed to tend towards lately…? There were insinuations even of symmetry, somehow, in her later work… hidden, but discernible…

We leave you with question marks… maybe many… and with an open space on which to imagine A HOUSE FOR ZAHA HADID. Please send us your work by March 31st, when there will be, this year, ten years since she died. But did she die ?...

Please send it digitally to info@icarch.us on two sheets format A1. Please register by March 25th. If you have any questions please contact us. We will publish all the works received on our website and we will also organize a traveling exhibition.

Thank you,

I C A R C H

www.icarch.us

   

  

   

      

A HOUSE FOR WANG SHU AND LU WENYU - 01

 

A man and a woman... two architects.

Two architects who named their practice, at a time obsessed by "professionalism". AMATEUR ARCHITECTURE.

Remarkable.

Nothing less.

Let's recall the etymology of the word "amateur"... it springs from the Latin verb "amare", which means TO LOVE.

LOVE... LOVE... let's remember now what Mozart said about genius:

"Neither a lofty degree of intelligence nor imagination nor both together go to the making of genius. Love, love, love, that is the soul of genius."

Again, LOVE... LOVE...

How much love do the "professionals" often have ? Not much... they are efficient mercenaries, paid for services.

But "Amateur Architecture" seems to promote something else... the practice of architecture with joy and modesty... the very opposite of starchitecture.

So we invite you to imagine A HOUSE FOR WANG SHU AND LU WENYU a house that would embody their ideals, appropriately described on the site of the Biennale with these words :

"They maintain a sustained focus on existing materials, the traces of ordinary people's daily lives, the vitality of the unnamed, common structures, and the process and craftsmanship of artisans on the construction site. They advocate for a radical experimentation that is rooted in the local context and vernacular tradition. Their studio merges memory with innovation by combining recycled old building materials with modern engineering techniques, offering a powerful response to the social reality of urban development that involves large-scale demolition and construction. They have consistently upheld a broad global perspective, expressing through their works an innovative vision that transcends the cultural conflict between city and countryside, and the dichotomy of the artificial and the natural."

https://universes.art/en/venice-biennale/2027-architecture

We love the words: "the vitality of the unnamed." Maybe a house for them should be exactly about this: THE VITALITY OF THE UNNAMED.

What else can we say ?

Unnamed stars ? Those very stars Oscar Wilde said some of us look up to, while we are all in the gutter ?! The non-human stars ?

Do not forget the gutter, dear architect, the one that humbles us but also the one that acts, paradoxically, as a launching pad towards in our longing for the stars

A STAR IN THE GUTTER ? 

Design A HOUSE FOR WANG SHU & LU WENYU.

Design a house that unites the gutter with the star.

Please send your work on two sheets format A1 to info@icarch.us by May 1st, 2026. We will send a portfolio with all the works received to Wang Shu and Ly Wenyu, asking them to review the works and, if agreed by them, to incorporate them in the Venice Biennale next year. Please register by April 15th. If you have any question please contact us.

Thank you,

I C A R C H
www.icarch.us

 

   

      

A HOUSE FOR WANG SHU AND LU WENYU - 02

 

There is a totally unexpected statement by Le Corbusier, in his book Journey to the East:

"... there is nothing more lamentable than this mania of today to disown tradition for the sole purpose of creating the coveted "new"."

It is hard to believe, no ? Coming from Le Corbusier...

But if he placed the word "new" between quotation marks, maybe we could also place the word "old" between quotation marks...

Indeed, a certain "past" doesn't pass...

We ask you to create a house situated on the spiral of time... where "past", "present" and "future" are all simultaneously present...  THE HOUSE OF A TEMPORAL CONTINUUM.

A HOUSE THAT CONNECTS.

If E. M. Forster was right with his "Only connect!", quotation used by Vincent Scully in his article on Louis Kahn, then maybe A HOUSE FOR WANG SHU & LU WENYU would be a house that connects... connects on various levels.

But let us remember the oldest "definition" of Art, from Sanskrit:

ART = BRIDGE = GOD

BRIDGE

Design the House of Bridges.

The House that connects.

In a certain sense, THE HOUSE OF CIRCULARITY.

A HOUSE where nothing is lost... where things from the "past", either physical or metaphysical, exist in the "present" and will continue to do so in the "future."

But Baudelaire himself in his definition of art pointed in the same direction, when he said that art has two halves: one half that is eternal, immutable, permanent and another half that is transitory, circumstantial, ephemeral. 

We ask you to design A HOUSE that has BOTH halves.

THE HOUSE OF CONGRUENCE.

THE HOUSE OF CONTINUITY.

But not a placid continuity, since a break is also present. Tradition, yes, but also irritation. Irritate tradition! Don't just say "Yes." Have the courage to say "No" as well.

THE HOUSE THAT TURNS ITS BACK ON NOTHING.

THE HOUSE THAT UNITES THE CONTRARIES.

THE HOUSE THAT CORRELATES.

A HOUSE FOR WANG SHU & LU WENYU.

MULTIPLICITY IN UNITY.

RRR + I = Reduce, Reuse, Recycle + Innovation

We invite you to do nothing else: find a real site in a specific context, find a site on this earth that needs resuscitation. Become a resuscitator. Rescue what you find there, losing nothing, or very little. TRANSFORM. Metamorphosize. Build now, erase nothing. Don't erase. Don't bring in the bulldozer. Instead, be a shaman, cure with great care and inventiveness!

The world needs you.

Please send your work on two sheets format A1 to info@icarch.us by May 1st, 2026. We will send a portfolio with all the works received to Wang Shu and Ly Wenyu, asking them to review the works and, if agreed by them, to incorporate them in the Venice Biennale next year. Please register by April 15th. If you have any question please contact us.

Thank you,

I C A R C H
www.icarch.us

 

 

   

A HOUSE FOR RUDOLF STEINER

 

This year there are 100 years since Rudolf Steiner died.
His relevance, for us, didn’t diminish.
He was a brilliant non-architect who built better than many architects.
How to explain it ?
His elan vital and creative force manifested itself in various fields, but maybe “the Queen of the Arts” (as once architecture used to be called) had a special meaning and attraction for him.
He was searching for unity, for wholeness.
And his architecture expresses this quest poignantly.
It has been said that many of the great buildings of the past were erected on the foundation of a “shared symbolic order” the kind religion provided.
But where is this “shared symbolic order” now ?
Very weakened, if at all…
So we invite you to imagine A HOUSE FOR RUDOLF STEINER.
A house that would transcend prosaic functions.
Would it be an anthroposophic house ?
But how close is Sophia to Anthropos, these days ?
Anthropos ravished and continues to ravish the Earth.
Maybe Anthropos should be sabotaged, or created a new understanding of what “Anthropos” should mean.
Respiritualizing architecture ?
Perhaps.
Thus, Anthropos would become Eupalinos.
Singing stones ?
Yes, singing stones.
How else could we talk of architecture ?
So we invite you to make the stones sing.
Design A HOUSE FOR RUDOLF STEINER that would have made him happy.
Study his writings and then build.
Build not only for Vita Activa, but also for Vita Contemplativa.
Aware that we are all in the gutter, but willing to look upwards, to the stars.
Elevate us, dear architect, through an inspired and inspiring HOUSE FOR RUDOLF STEINER.
Now that there are 100 years since he died.

Please send us your work on two boards format A1, oriented vertically or horizontally, to info@icarch.us by December 1st, 2025. We will publish all of them on our website. If you have any question please contact us.

Thank you,

I C A R C H

www.icarch.us