A HOUSE FOR GUSTAVE MOREAU

 

This year there are 200 years since the birth of Gustave Moreau.
Jean Cassou called him “the symbolist painter par excellence.”

Who would be “The symbolist architect par excellence ?” 

We banished symbol from architecture. Are there architects today who think of symbols, metaphors, allegories ?

But if Johann Huizinga was right that culture is culture only when it has a metaphysical goal and if Alvar Aalto was right when he said that "architecture belongs to culture, not to civilization,” then, as a necessary corollary architecture becomes architecture only when it has a metaphysical goal.

Metaphysical ?

How many architects, today, think of the metaphysical ?

But Moreau found inspiration in myth.

Myth ?

How many architects, today, think of myth ?

We invite you to imagine A HOUSE FOR GUSTAVE MOREAU, a “symbolist house par excellence.”

Could we conceive something like this ?

Perhaps it would be worth trying, especially at a time like ours, almost completely blind to values that are not pragmatic, not measurable, not “scientific,” not positivist, not "objectivist," etc…

Are we thinking of Oedipus, or the Sphinx, when we build ? We doubt it. Such arcane matters contemporary architects usually avoid.

But wouldn’t architecture perhaps benefit from them ?

It was said that there is melancholia in Moreau’s paintings… what about a Melancholic Architecture ? How would it be ?

A melancholic House for Gustave Moreau ?

Why not ?
When he became a professor at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris, we read that his class “attracted the most progressive and adventurous students.” Beautiful…

We invite the most progressive and adventurous of you to imagine A HOUSE FOR GUSTAVE MOREAU that would bring back to architecture metaphysics, myth, allegory and symbol. As incisively and genuinely as possible. Maybe in this way we will rescue architecture from the banality of mercantilism and “civilization,” and bring it closer to what we call “culture.” And perhaps we shouldn’t forget melancholia as well, that is the deep intuition that "the here and now" is not enough. On the spiral of Time...

Please send us your work, digitally, on two sheets format A1, by April 6th 2026 (Moreau’s 200th birthday) to info@icarch.us. If you have any question please contact us. Please register by March 15th. We will display all the works received on our website and we also plan 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