Was architecture ever an Olympic competition?
Was architecture ever an Olympic competition?
The Olympic Games should have been held in Tokyo last year. The covid-19 pandemic interrupted these plans, and it is only this summer that everything is ready for the inauguration. It will take place on July 23 and is an excellent moment to remember that not everything has been sporting competition in this every-four-year event. For several decades, in addition to discuss throwing and track competitions, the Olympic Games included among its competitions… architecture.
Yes, architecture was an Olympic competition. Contrary to what one might think, it was not a competition to see who could erect a building with the greatest speed and solidity. It turns out that the promoter of the modern Olympic Games, Baron Pierre de Coubertin, was not only a fan of classical culture, but also an enthusiast of the arts. And he decided that along with the sporting events, there had to be an artistic competition during the Olympic Games. And since the 1912 edition in Stockholm, Sweden, five categories were presented in competition: painting, sculpture, literature, music and, of course, architecture.
The artistic competition required that the artistic works had to have some link between sport and art. In the case of architecture, built works or project designs could be submitted. For that first edition in Stockholm, the winner of the gold medal in architecture was a couple of Swiss architects, Eugène-Edouard Monod and Alphonse Laverriére, for their project for the creation of a modern stadium.
During the 1920 and 1924 Games, the category was declared deserted. But for Amsterdam 1928, the winner was a local architect: Jan Wils. And he received the gold medal precisely for the stadium in which the competitions of those games were held.
The last games in which the art competition was held was in the 1948 edition in London. The Austrian architect Adolf Hoch won for the Kobenzl ski complex. After those games it was no longer held. Part of the reason had to do with the enormous number of professional architects who sent proposals to the competition, and this went against the idea of amateurism that the games exalted.
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