The House of Oxymorons

Perhaps this is the task of life: to unite the opposites...! And, just like Goethe who was looking through the Black Forest for the Ur-Plant, which was to have a built-in duality, we could envision a house that incorporates and pacifies a duality (or several) in the name of reaching a complexity otherwise impossible!

Category Idea Competition / Open to Students
Type International, Idea, Open, Single-Stage
Genre Housing
Country United States
RegDeadline 20 March 2010 GoogleCal iCal
20 March 2010 (via Online)
Eligibility All

Description
Perhaps this is the task of life: to unite the opposites...! And, just like Goethe who was looking through the Black Forest for the Ur-Plant, which was to have a built-in duality, we could envision a house that incorporates and pacifies a duality (or several) in the name of reaching a complexity otherwise impossible!

Just contemplate the list of dichotomies that Ms. Kazuyo Sejima mentions in her text written on the occasion of her being the first woman to be chosen to direct the Architecture Section of the Venice Biennale this year...!

If you could honor this list with the design of a house that is able to achieve what she seems to search for, then ICARCH Gallery will send your proposal, together with all the others received, to Ms. Sejima, as an "unexpected" contribution to her theme... and who knows, maybe your design will be shown in the Biennale...!

Would it be The House of Split (if we can say so, inspired by the "signature" chair designed by Ms. Sejima herself), would it be The House of Un-Wedding (possible title inspired by a headline about her New Museum in New York, called the "Un-Wedding Cake Design"), would it be The House of Separatio, if we are to consider the list of dichotomical entities designated by her) or The House of Sleek, if we are to consider the contemporary "sleekness" of her designs...?

Whatever the name, this house would have to connect with, and express, the main idea, that is, the simultaneous presence of contradictory elements, an attempt that is alchemical in its essence: conjunctio oppositorum. The House of Inclusion. The House of Contamination. The House of Bridging: but one that does not reject conflict. The Oxymoronic House!

Jury
To be announced

Prize
Publication and Exhibition

Entry Fee
USD 30

Entries
Any form, any size, any format

Organizer
ICARCH Gallery

Official Website
http://www.icarch.net/