Herbert Eichholzer Förderungspreis 2019

Description

This award, named after the Graz architect Herbert Eichholzer (1903 – 1943), is awarded to talented architecture students every two years. The award is announced by the Faculty of Architecture. The Department of Cultural Affairs of the City of Graz then proposes the prize in recognition of the importance of Herbert Eicholzer, and the final awarding decision is made by the city senate.

The award is intended both to symbolize the connection between the city of Graz and Graz University of Technology with Herbert Eichholzer and to support the continuation of conscientious interaction with the trends of the time, as exemplified by the architect. The award also stands as a permanent reminder of Eichholzer’s architectural work.

TREIBHAUS
Herbert Eicholzer repeatedly tried to “change the coordination of the possible” by way of political resistance and architectural visions.1 His restless spirit did not stop even with his own projects: shortly after its completion in 1933, Herbert Eicholzer redesigned the Opera Garage - designed by himself and Rudolf Nowotny - with an architectural project that was, by Graz standards, utopian. This project was not realized. The Opera Garage can still be found almost unaltered today in the courtyard of a Wilhelminian block in the Schögelgasse, between Kaiser-Josef-Platz and Dietrichsteinplatz. This building thus offered the starting point for the task of this year’s Herbert Eicholzer Architecture Award.

The topic of the student competition was the design of a “Treibhaus”, or greenhouse: a community building for the residents of the city of Graz that, in reference to the nearby Kaiser-Josef-Markt, is dedicated to the theme of “food.” The existing hall should have been transformed into a glass greenhouse and the residential building on the street replaced by a new building for public community use.

1 Slavoj Žižek on utopias from Die politische Suspension des Ethischen, Frankfurt am Main 2005.

Period	15 May 2019 → 29 Nov 2019
Event type	Other