Through his political resistance and architectural vision, Herbert Eichholzer repeatedly sought to “change the coordination of the possible.” Inspired by social and political injustices, and driven by the innovative spirit of modernist architecture, as well as his experience working with Le Corbusier, he explored radical design solutions to address the issues of his time. His work focused especially on housing in different contexts.

This year’s competition focuses directly on the work of Herbert Eichholzer, specifically the Mudri House, a small building constructed by Eichholzer and Viktor Badl in the Andritz district of Graz in 1934/35. The world and architecture have changed since then. However, some things remain. A house still needs to protect its occupants from the rain, not catch fire too easily, provide a comfortable living environment, remain stable, contain no harmful substances, and make the most efficient use of available materials and the client’s budget. These qualities are almost universal and have been desirable since we first started building houses. What has changed is how much importance and weight architecture has given to these qualities since the Mudri House was completed. Structural calculations are performed with higher safety margins. Fire protection ensures that everyone can evacuate the building well before the flames take over. Asbestos fibers and toxic adhesives have been removed from our homes. And finally, houses today are better at retaining heat while keeping out the cold and precipitation. If the Mudri House were to be rebuilt today according to Eichholzer’s and Badl’s plans, it would probably look different due to these increased demands. This competition asks how.

What must the Mudri House achieve today?
The competition invites participants to interpret and renovate the original plans of the house according to today’s standards. Many of the aforementioned universal qualities can be evaluated using a standardized testing procedure applied to all submissions. A professional jury will closely examine the new expression of the planned renovation and its relationship to the original. The measuring and evaluation process is based on a 1:10 scale model of the Mudri renovation. This allows us to assess the architectural expression, from proportions to intended materiality. The model will then undergo testing: how much load can it bear? How well does it retain heat, resist fire or water? The resulting performance in these individual tests produces a comprehensible performance index. The highest score wins.

To the competition documents

IRG | Institute of Spatial Design
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