Think Space - Moral Borders

Zagreb Society of Architects - ZSA
Think Space Programme
17 September 2011

Moral Borders just opened

Imperfect Duty: Affordable utopias

The fourth international architectural competition within Think Space programme
Brief devised by Mr. Hrvoje Njiric


The Zagreb Society of Architects is launching the fourth and the last competition for this year's Think Space cycle - Moral Borders. For this year’s annual cycle, the main theme connecting all four competitions is Borders

Devised by Hrvoje Njirić, founder of Zagreb based njiric+ arhitekti, the architectural studio of international fame and visiting professor at architectural schools worldwide, Moral borders competition challenges contestants to radically examine the present day conditions by going beyond the stereotypes, patterns and typologies that have proven their inoperability, while exercising their own imperfect duties of civic agents in search of morally diverse frameworks of affordable utopias.

The higher the buildings, the lower the morals.
Noel Coward, English playwright (1899-1973)

The escalation of the market economy in the recent decades has resulted with a complete exclusion of architects as credible civic agents. „The Faustian bargain“, as Koolhaas puts it, accepted widely by the architects themselves, has promoted them into the members of the star-system and their work has gained the media presence indeed, but it's creators became more and more eliminated from the decision-making and their public role significantly diminished.

If we want to think about architecture as the social project today, it requires some support, more than ever. If we tend to believe it is possible to reinstall it, there are some questions to be answered. How to recreate any form of idealism as a necessary prerequisite, even if it is provisional, simulated or temporary? What forces can we mobilize to improve the weak impact on the public sector? How to regain the trust of the society? How to treat vague moral borders of our discipline? And finally, how to articulate the first utopias of the 21st century and how plausible can they be?
Hrvoje Njiric

Submission deadline for Moral Borders is
28 October 2011 (Fri), 12:00, CET - Central European Time.

There is an early participation fee of 220 HRK / 30 EUR  until 4 October 2011.
From 5 to 28 October 2011 participation fee will be 330 HRK / 45 EUR.

Prizes
1. prize: 1000 EUR
2. prize:   700 EUR
3. prize:   350 EUR

All winners will be granted with ORIS pack:
Annual subscription to ORIS Magazine - for Culture and Architecture
Free Admission to Days of ORIS
International Architectural Symposium
Last weekend of October 2011 in Zagreb
Participant’s Kit  includes all the necessary information about this particular contest.

All the entries form the previous competition Ecological Borders have been published in our gallery. Please take a look at award winning works, and read the juror's comments!
We look forward to your submissions!


About Think Space:

- a cycle of concept degree architectural competitions

- a platform for spatial experimentation and exchange of conceptual ideas

- a network of progressive thinkers, beyond cultural, geographic or institutional borders




Ms Eva Franch i Gilabert
Guest Curator
Storefront for Art and Architecture


Mr. Hrvoje Njirić
Juror
Moral Borders
njiric+  arhitekti

An Exercise on Imperfect Duty:
Affordable utopias
About the Think Space programme

The Think Space program aims to bring together world renown and established figures with emerging voices (students and professionals) within the fields of architecture, landscape, design, the arts and the humanities.

The guest curator in the very first cycle - Ms Eva Franch i Gilabert, director of the Storefront for Art and Architecture, New York prepared the annual theme Borders. The main theme is observed through four different scenarios [geopolitical, ecological, urban and moral] in order to establish an overarching line of inquiry that highlights the concerns of contemporary society. Simultaneously allowing different degrees of exploration, this competition goes back to the conceptual space for the establishment of difference: the Border.

The four competitions developed under the theme of Borders, aim to produce a catalogue of contemporary conditions in social, political and cultural spheres in need of architectural alternatives. The international jurors define the competition briefs for participants:

Urban Borders: Shohei Shigematsu
Geopolitical Borders: Teddy Cruz
Ecological Borders: François Roche
Moral Borders: Hrvoje Njiric

All the entries form the previous competition Urban Borders, Geopolitical and Ecological Borders have been published in our gallery http://www.think-space.org .  Please take a look at award winning works, and read the juror's comments!