The World Monuments Fund is inviting nominations for the 2024 World Monuments Fund/Knoll Modernism Prize — to be awarded to an architect, urban designer/planner, or other design professionals or firm in recognition of “an innovative intervention that preserved and saved a threatened modern building or complex.”
Deadline for submissions is September 22, 2023.
The prize honors “contemporary architects and preservationists whose work ensures sustainable futures for at-risk modern heritage.”
The WMF states:
Nominated projects must have been completed in the last ten years and must have faced challenges or threats that affected the site before the project implementation. Threats may include deterioration of original materials, obsolescence, abandonment, or inappropriate changes in use, ownership, economic or political conditions surrounding the site.
[…] significant modern structures around the world often fall victim to material deterioration, perceived obsolescence, and public apathy. These threats repeatedly result in inappropriate alterations or demolition. As many of these modern buildings are too young to qualify for landmark designation and protection, the need for preservation and increased public awareness of these unique resources is urgent.
One project along these lines that we have been following for years is the restoration of the important modernist New Synagogue (Nová Synagóga) in Žilina Slovakia, which reopened in May 2017 as a contemporary arts center after six years of painstaking work.
Designed by the German architect Peter Behrens and built in 1928-31, the synagogue was long used as a university lecture hall and a cinema and stood empty for years. It was returned to the ownership of the Jewish community, which rented it for a symbolic fee to the Truc Sphérique civic association, which has headed the conversion. (JHE followed this project and posted several updates about the work and innovative funding campaigns — search for Žilina in the search pane to see them.) The tiny Žilina Jewish community uses another synagogue in the town, the pre-war orthodox synagogue.
Another that might qualify is the modernist-functionalist Agudas Achim synagogue in Brno, Czech Republic, which reopened in January 2016 after a renovation.
Constructed in 1934-36 and designed by Otto Eisler, the synagogue was built by the Agudas Achim Community from donations of Galician Jews who had found refuge in Brno after World War I. Used as a warehouse during World War II, it was reconsecrated after the war and is the only surviving synagogue in Brno, the Czech Republic’s second largest city. It is also the only synagogue holding regular services in the eastern part of the country.
Another possibility might be the large Holocaust memorial in the vast Kozma utca Jewish cemetery in Budapest, which was restored in 2017-18.
Designed by the architect Alfred Hajos (who was also an Olympic swimming champion), it was constructed in 1949 and lists thousands of names of Holocaust victims.
Several tombs in the Kozma utca cemetery also might qualify — for example that of Hajos himself and his family, which is listed as a historic monument and was restored in 2019.
The recently restored tombstone of the prolific synagogue architect Lipot Baumhorn (d. 1932) also could qualify.
If you have any questions regarding the nomination process or a site’s eligibility, email [email protected].
Click here to see the full Call for Nominations — and submission forms in several languages