The factory from the famous movie Schindler’s list by Steven Spielberg will be resurrected. A global architectural student competition INSPIRELI AWARDS introduces the new topic for 2024 Inspireli Competition -The Schindler’s Ark - creating the Museum of Holocaust Survivors and Sustainable living area in the Schindler’s factory.

In the 9th edition of INSPIRELI Awards, students all around the world are called to design the transformation of Schindler’s Ark’s premises. The two main parts of the competition consist of an Urban Design Concept for a Sustainable living area and the design of a Museum of Survivors at the Löw-Beer Family’s historic textile factory site.

The vision is to create a memorial to survivors and preserve the legacy of Schindler’s Ark, as well as to create a modern museum dedicated to the holocaust survivors. At the same time, the South side of the premises will be reconstructed as a sustainable, community housing to meet the needs of the region.

Site map

The sustainability of the project is supported by combining a museum of survivors, a large workshop for jobs including textiles, and prototype modern, sustainable housing to fit the community needs.

The Schindler's Ark was a concentration camp in Czech Republic where 1,200 Jews from Schindler's List were saved during the WW2. In the post-war history it was the 2nd largest factory in Europe specializing in textile production. In 1938, the factory was stolen by the Nazis from the Löw-Beer family. 

In 2018, The Löw-Beer family established the Arks Foundation has been consolidating the collapsed factory. The Foundation is continuously working on the reconstruction of the historic and family heritage.

The competition is free to enter, which is the main point of the INSPIRELI AWARDS – to support student architects from all over the world regardless of their economic, social or ethnic conditions. Inspireli unites students and architects from 150 countries and receives over 1000 projects every year. Thanks to its unique voting system with the largest jury in the history of architecture (over 930 architects and designers from over 120 countries), INSPIRELI ensures a fair winner’s selection.

Schindler’s Arks Competition offers many prizes - The winning 2 young architects would work with the team in contributing to the design of the site and receive a stipend and travels to Czech Republic receiving:

- a personal tour of the Arks site and local architecture including the Tugendhat Villa

- the first textiles designed in the site and a signed book The Arks: the Low-Beer story behind Schindler’s List and the Tugendhat Villa. 

- their name will be included permanently in the museum.

The ten best design ideas will be part of the online design team to advise on the site.

The projects are automatically participating in the INSPIRELI Awards which makes architectural dreams of the winners come true (1st prize) and also supports all participants - by giving feedback from Jurors, feedback from firms and feedback to the 3D visualization.

The registration/submission opens on September 25, 2023 and closes on July 14, 2024 at 23:59 local time. Register at the website.

All images courtesy of INSPIRELI Awards.

> via INSPIRELI Awards