Iconic Houses at Risk

Design for the Iconic Houses at Risk part of the website and the Icon at Risk dossier on Casa Sperimentale.
Take a look at iconichouses.org/icons-at-risk.

About Icons at Risk

Icons at Risk is an international initiative to preserve the world’s most endangered modern houses of unique architectural importance, following in the footsteps of the Iconic Houses network for house museums. Many of the world’s most iconic modern homes are being lost due – largely – to being as yet unrecognized as ‘heritage’. Those from the second half of the 20th century are especially vulnerable, lacking any legislative protection. We need to act now, or risk losing them forever. What can be done to save them? Icons at Risk sets out to answer that question. In this fresh endeavor, efforts focus on the rapidly vanishing, at-risk sector of new heritage. Raising public awareness and supporting house owners to take action are the main ways in which Icons at Risk will aim to slow the loss of important 20th-century homes.

About Iconic Houses

Iconic Houses is the international non-profit network connecting architecturally significant houses and artists’ homes and studios from the 20th century that are open to the public as house museums. In addition to promoting the almost 200 modern house museums that make up the network to a wide audience, Iconic Houses is also a knowledge platform dedicated to exchanging expertise among museum professionals about preservation, house museum management, advocacy and stimulating cooperation. International conferences were held in London, Barcelona, Los Angeles, New Canaan (CT) and Czech Republic. An online conference edition was held in September 2021. The Iconic Houses Foundation is based at the Van Schijndel House in Utrecht, the Netherlands.

Iconic Houses Network

In 2012 a group of modern house museums started the Iconic Houses network. The aim of the network is to provide a platform for professional discussion: to share not only the best practices but also encourage each other to develop new activities. The Iconic Houses Network brings professionals and sites together from all corners of the world. The professional forum encourages sharing information and best practices, as well as creating new and fruitful partnerships between organizations large and small.
20th-century architect’s houses and modern house museums form a unique category of sites open to the public. Whereas the buildings are located all around the world, the professional issues that concern running the sites are more or less the same. Research initiatives and co-operation with universities and expert teams, restoration issues at large, audience development, caring of the collections and display strategies as well as temporary exhibitions programs represent some of the issues of mutual interest.

Project information

Client

Iconic Houses

Type

Concept & Design

Design team

Willie van Burgsteden

Technical realisation

Ronald Werring, Ypos