A Post-Anthropocene Tower
Chicago Tribune Competition Centennial
Nowhere-1 - Minoru Nomata
Is there such a thing possible ?
Isn’t the tower an explicit representation, architecturally, of Homo Erectus ?
But Post-Anthropocene means post-human.
So how would a post-human tower look like ?
This year there are 100 years since that famous competition for The Chicago Tribune Tower.
Important architects took part in that competition, and other important architects participated in the other “Chicago Tribune Tower” competition, that took place in 1987.
But today, 100 years later from the first competition and around 50 years later after the second competition, we have a different conception (or we should have) about verticality.
What does it mean to be vertical ?
And how vertical could we be, confronted with the climate change, with the pandemic and with the war in Ukraine ?
Is “verticality” still “sustainable ?”
In 1922 the humans believed in themselves and had no problem at all to cut down immense forests in Canada in order to bring to Chicago the wood necessary for printing The Chicago Tribune.
Of course, we continue to cut down trees, in order to publish all kinds of nonsense, but there are also opposing voices… and the climate change, with the rising levels of the sea, the melting of the icebergs, the high levels of pollution and so on should make us more reluctant to cut down trees.
On the other hand, the virtual world makes possible other means of sending out information… so newspapers are not any longer really necessary (as if they truly were, even in the past).
But democracies need to keep large populations entertained, so at that time the newspaper was wildly read and wildly sold.
Not any longer.
So how would we envision, now, verticality ? And not just now, but also in what was called The Age of Post-Anthropocene ?
So would the tower still be viable in the Post-Anthropocene world ?
What would it represent ? What purpose would it serve ? What would its symbolism be ?
This is what we ask you to envision and express.
100 years after the Chicago Tribune Competition we launch, now, the competition for A Post-Anthropocene Tower.
SUBMISSION AND PARTICIPATION
We accept ANY WORK, ANY SIZE, ANY FORMAT that responds to the theme.
Schedule
September 28, 2022
Register for Competition. Click Here.
October 1, 2022
Submission of Work. ICARCH posts Work Online.
October 14, 2022
Zoom Dialogue about the
Post-Anthropocene Tower
Benefits
Engagement with alternative creators and thinkers in architecture worldwide
Zoom presentation of your work and dialogue with others including ICARCH invited guests.
Work posted on ICARCH.org for many years.
Zoom dialogue posted on YouTube.
Inclusion of your name as a participant in international press releases from ICARCH.
Possible selection of your work for the 2023 ICARCH publication on 20 years of Competitions.
Prizes
At the moment, ICARCH does not provide cash prizes nor require entry fees.
Dan Coma will select "best of" entries for posting online and press releases.
If you have any questions, please contact us at info@icarch.org.
Thank you.
I C A R C H