Submission: December 15, 2016
Registration: December 08, 2016
Language: English
Location: Concept
Prizes: N/A
Type: Open
Or should we say: A house for Mommy and Daddy…? Or even better, for Daddy and Mommy…? Or should we say: A HOUSE FOR THE RUIN OF THE AMERICAN DREAM…? Or should we say: THE HOUSE OF ILLUSIONS…? Or should we say: THE HOUSE OF A BALANCE NEVER ACHIEVED…?
Edward Albee died, at 88, on September 16th, this year. He lived a long life, to write about it, through a long list of plays not necessarily long. Albee was needed to tell the truth about the banality, and falseness of “The American Dream,” that very dream that became almost the universal dream, thanks to the powers of persuasion of the ubiquitous “media.”
Through Hollywood and other channels, the falsity of “the American Dream” spread everywhere. It is high time to continue the fight against it, even after Mr. Albee’s death. Because nothing really changed… the stupidity of a life built on conventions and ridiculously pink expectations cannot remain without a reaction, even from architects, notoriously serving uncritically a complacent society and “beneficiaries.”
So how would A HOUSE FOR EDWARD ALBEE look like…? If we would consider his work, perhaps without the luxuries he himself enjoyed, following his appreciable success, as a writer. That house might not have a Henri Moore sculpture on its lawn, nor the many luxuries he himself enjoyed in Greenwich Village. Nonetheless, what is important is something else: CAN WE DESIGN AN “ABSURDIST” HOUSE THAT CRITICIZES THE SWEETNESS OF A LIFE INSPIRED BY “THE AMERICAN DREAM?!…”
What, after all, is The American Dream…? A Daddy, a Mommy and a few kids, a prosperous house, perhaps with the walls painted in pink, plenty of food and orange juice in the refrigerator, a car, or two, or even better, three, a well-manicured lawn and of course, a giant TV, or several, for the daily dose of lies.
So would A HOUSE FOR EDWARD ALBEE be the very opposite…? Maybe… the question remains open. But while architecture continues to be distant vis-à-vis the major artistic currents of the world, maybe in this case, in a commemorative way, we can explore the ANTI “AMERICAN DREAM” HOUSE par excellence.
By the way of commemorating Edward Albee. How would such a house be…? THE ANTI -AMERICAN DREAM HOUSE. This is our question and the challenge of this competition.
