Idea Competition: Center for Contemporary Art Ládví

I think that architects must reflect on the issue not of architecture, but of the city, against all the official constraints that oppress them. Those housing estates, we all know how they are built, are inhumane, and they are inhumane not because the individual buildings are so dry, but because they do not create a spiritual environment. There is no sacred place anywhere. But what sacred place can modern city have? It seems to me that the only solution is to create a place for art. Museums of modern art are currently being built in the West, and in great numbers. They are no longer just storage spaces for hung and placed artworks. A special, very lively, and very impressive, initiative environment is created there. It seems to me that such museums of modern art – the word museum is already uncomfortable, but we have no better – should be created in the middle of those housing estates as spiritual centers, where people would come for a piece of a different life than their profane life. It would be a replacement for the lost sacred place and at the same time it would be the final place where it would make sense to exhibit art. People could come there for a piece of better air than what their everyday life provides them.
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The Ládví Group announces an idea competition:

Center for Contemporary Art Ládví

The subject of the competition is the conceptual design of the Center for Contemporary Art in the Ládví area of the Ďáblice housing estate.
Proposals can be presented in any form (drawing on a map, overlaying on a photograph, visualization, etc.).
The area of interest is defined by the streets Střelničná, Ďáblická, Žernosecká, and Horňátecká, see supporting documents.
Everyone can participate in the competition.

Supporting documents:
    - map defining the area of interest,
    - orthophoto map,
    - excerpt from the zoning plan (more information about the zoning plan on the website of the Magistrate of the Capital City of Prague),
    - photographs.
Supporting documents can be downloaded here: podklady.zip, for additional information and inquiries, you can use the email: [email protected].

A jury composed of architects and theorists will select the best proposal.

Submitted proposals will be exhibited in June 2008 at the NOD gallery in Prague, where the ceremonial announcement of the competition results will also take place.

The competition takes place from January 1, 2008, to April 30, 2008.

Please send electronic proposals by mail or email to:
Gallery NoD
Experimental Space Roxy/NoD
Dlouhá 33
110 00 Prague 1
[email protected]