International Competitions in Architecture
A HOUSE FOR A ROBOT AND A MAN
The first architecture and design Biennial in Vienna, Austria, explores the increasing roles robots play in our lives. Of course, the fascination with the robots is not new, even since Karel Capek’s brother coined the word “robot.”
Applied to a human being, the word “robot” is far to express enviable qualities… instead, it expresses contemptable conformity to the deadly rigors of repetition, standardization, uniformity.
To be robot-like means, really, to be in-human.
So the title of the biennial, ROBOTS. OUR WORK. OUR FUTURE, could have been ROBOTS. THEIR WORK. THEIR FUTURE.
What will the human beings do if progressively the robots will replace us ? There is fear associated with this prospect and the film director Cameron talks directly about it.
Since in August, this year, we will have a chance to create a one month architecture festival at Hinterland Gallery in Vienna, and since will happen synchronous with the above mentioned Biennale, we ask you to explore the theme: A HOUSE FOR A ROBOT AND A MAN.
Of course we use the name “man” generically, meaning both man and woman, that is: the human being.
In what way the partnership, or enmity, between man and machine will find expression in architecture…?
What remains distinctly ours, after all, beyond the increasing presence of these machines, which might make work cheaper and faster, but would that be enough ? Would the economic considerations prevail again and again ?
What is OUR raison d’etre on this earth ?
If the builders of the Gothic Cathedrals found joy and satisfaction to carve, each one in his own way, the stones of the rising building, could we say the same about the robots ? Would their work have the same moving “imperfection” that myriad of human hands had ?
The theme is complex, and it is not new. But we ask you to explore as many facets of the strange partnership, between Man and Machine, through architecture.
Design A HOUSE FOR A ROBOT AND A MAN.
Just make sure the man doesn’t become so depersonalized, that he becomes even more a robot than the robot itself. You noticed that we didn’t assign a gender to the robot… a robot is a “it”, while a human being is a “he,” or a “she”… or… but not an “it”.
The machine was present in the human garden for a long time, by now… but the more sophisticated it becomes, the more it will assume higher and higher levels of presence… until… let’s read what Cameron has to say:
https://www.yahoo.com/finance/news/james-cameron-machines-valid-threat-now-made-terminator-110544553.html
Please send us your work by July 27th, 2017. Please register by the same deadline to receive a registration number with which to anonymously identify your work. There is a flat registration fee of 20 euro that will help us print the works received. Please send them in a digital form to works@icarch.us, format A0, maximum two posters. We prefer them to be vertically oriented. If you have any question, please contact us.
Thank you,
ICARCH Gallery
Copyright 2016 ICARCH Gallery.
All rights reserved.