Utzon Center has launched an international prize competition in architectural visualisation inviting young creative talents under the age of 40 to examine, interpret and creatively visualise Jørn Utzon’s unbuilt gems.
The annual competition begins in 2019 and runs for three years.
Each time, the competition will be based on a new Utzon project.
For the second year of the competition in 2020, the project chosen is Utzon's Jeita Grotto Theatre (1968) in Lebanon.
One of the first images that comes to our mind, when we think of fire, it is a flame on the hearth: it gives us a warm feeling of peace, and harmony. On the other hand, fire is a contrasting concept: though it gives us protection, it can quickly turn against us.
Focus – fireplace – is the place where these contrasts grow together and form balance through unity;
Focus – fireplace – is a glimpse to the heart of Jorn Utzon’s visions.
This project is a visual representation of the imaginary journey to the core of Utzon’s idea of architecture: it is a dream of an expedition down to the heart of the earth, to the inner parts of Jeita Grotto,Lebanon. The essay “The Innermost Being of Architecture” served asinspiration and became the common thread for the design, from its beginning to its end, leading the creation of the project’s storytelling : Focus is this essay made visual.
The purpose of this journey is to lead the visitors through the caves of Jeita Grotto, where Utzon visualized one of his utopias in 1968, by moving through contrasting and visionary images, the project let them experience an unknown atmosphere.
The focus is set on the contrast between water and fire, cold and warm atmosphere, shadows and lights, as the music turns louder and louder while guiding the people along the path. Along all the path, glimpses of drawingsmerge with the view of the ambient and of Utzon’s design, to remind every time that what you can visualize, it is not always real.
Team
Giulia Bertoldo
Federico Casagrande
Damiano Filippini
Barbora Kubickova
Anna Lanzinger
Francesco Marra
Federico Casagrande
Damiano Filippini
Barbora Kubickova
Anna Lanzinger
Francesco Marra
