Saved! Former Kindergarten in Visaginas
By Dalia Matukonytė, Visaginas, Lithuania

Docomomo International was recently informed by the Visaginas Community that the decision not to place the former kindergarten located at Vilties str. 3, Visaginas, under the protection of the Department of Cultural heritage by Cultural heritage evaluation Council  was not accepted by the Vilnius Regional Administrative Court and so cancelled. Threatened by demolition in mid 2020,  the former first kindergarten in Visaginas, together with its twin building were designed by the Lithuanian architect Dalia Matukonytė. Docomomo International joined the appeal of  Visaginas Community to advocate the preservation of this former kindergarten which means acting against the implementation of the plans…

Sign the petition! Kagawa Prefectural Gymnasium
Kenzo Tange, Takamatsu, Japan, 1962-1964

Docomomo International became recently aware by the World Monument Fund that Kenzo Tange’s Kagawa Prefectural Gymnasium in Takamatsu, Japan, at risk of demolition despite its significance as a masterpiece of modern architecture. “A beloved landmark, the Kagawa Prefectural Gymnasium hosted local sports events for 50 years until a leak in the building’s roof led the facility to close in 2014. The gymnasium was designed by Pritzker Prize-winning architect Tange Kenzo (1913–2005), whose designs combining traditional Japanese and modernist forms had a profound influence on architecture in Japan and abroad. For the Kagawa Prefectural Gymnasium, Tange used modern materials to evoke…

Save it! Wentworth Memorial Church
By Donald Gazzard, Vaucluse, NSW, Australia, 1965

Docomomo International became aware by Docomomo Australia that the former Wentworth Memorial Church, designed by Donald Gazzard of Clarke Gazzard and Partners in 1965, and located in Vaucluse, NSW, Australia, is at risk due to recent plans that intend its conversion into a private luxury residence and hereby the lost of its State significance as one of the most significant ecclesiastical examples of the Sydney School style of architecture. As an opposition to these recent plans, the Friends of Wentworth Memorial Church have launched a public petition “Designed by the late Don Gazzard, the former Wentworth Memorial Church is an iconic, though…

Save it: La Cupola
Dante Bini, Costa Paradiso, Sardinia, Italy, 1970s

Docomomo International wishes to raise attention on the risk that Michelangelo Antonioni’s dome La Cupola, designed by Dant Bini in the 1970s, in Costa Paradiso, Sardinia, Italy, is facing due to its abandonment and neglection and consequent advanced state of damage, which will lead in a near future to its irreversible loss if not restored. Designed by Dante Bini for director Michelangelo Antonioni and actress Monica Vitti, this futuristic residence was built in Costa Paradiso during the 1970s. The building represents a place of great artistic and architectural value, it is a structure defined by Rem Koolhaas, curator of the…

The Destruction of Memory: Against the Privatisation of a Key Historical and Civic Monument
Letter from William J. R. Curtis to Docomomo

Docomomo International would like to share with you the support letter to save Capanema Palace from William J. R. Curtis to Docomomo. “THE DESTRUCTION OF MEMORY: AGAINST THE PRIVATISATION OF A KEY HISTORICAL AND CIVIC MONUMENT The Ministry of Education and Health (named the Gustavo Capanema Palace after the Minister of the time), designed in 1936 and completed in 1945 by Lucio Costa and a team including Oscar Niemeyer and several others (with Le Corbusier as consultant), must be counted as a masterpiece of the Brazilian modern movement in architectural terms: a seminal work expressing the aspirations towards a more…

Capanema Palace at risk
Letter from Kenneth Frampton to Docomomo

Docomomo International wishes to draw your attention for the ongoing fight to save the Capanema Palace, originally Ministry of Education and Health, later Ministry of Education and Culture, in Rio de Janeiro, Brasil, 1936-1945. The alarming situation of the Capanema Palace is already a worldwide discussion. Kenneth Frampton, Emeritus Ware Professor of Architecture, by the Graduate School of Planning, Preservation & Architecture, Columbia University, wrote the following letter addressed to Docomomo International and Docomomo Brazil: “Dear Ana Tostões, Docomomo lnternational Chair, and Renato Gama-Rosa Costa, Docomomo Brazil Chair, It is hard to conceive of any Neoliberal event more barbaric than…

Sign the petition: Save Palácio Capanema!
By Lucio Costa, Oscar Niemeyer, Affonso Eduardo Reidy, Jorge Moreira, Carlos Leão and Ernani Vasconcellos, Rio de Janeiro, Brasil, 1945

Docomomo International became aware by Docomomo Brazil, about the alarming situation of the Palácio Capanema, which can enter the list of properties that will be sold by the federal government on August 27th. The building is a landmark of modern Brazilian architecture and has the signature of the most important Brazilian architects of all times. The President of Docomomo Brazil, Renato da Gama-Rosa Costa, shared a petition to save the Palácio Capanema, which states: “Via the Ministry of Economy and the Ministry of Labor and Welfare, the Bolsonaro Government wants to privatize a group of properties belonging to the Union….

Frederick Bagley House threatened with demolition
By Frank Lloyd Wright, Hinsdale, IL, 1894

Docomomo International became aware by the Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy that the Frank Lloyd Wright-designed Frederick Bagley House in Hinsdale, IL, is threatened with demolition. “A unique and irreplaceable early work by Frank Lloyd Wright is at risk in Hinsdale, Illinois. The Frederick Bagley House, designed in 1894, is being marketed by @properties to a limited audience, with promotional materials focusing solely on the qualities of Hinsdale and the house’s site, making no reference to Wright and little to the house itself. The house has no legal protection, and it would appear the audience for this sale is primarily…

© Kindly provided by Docomomo Brasil
Save Hospital Octávio Mangabeira!
Former Santa Terezinha Hospital Sanatorium, Bahia, Brazil, 1937-1942.

Docomomo International became aware by Docomomo Brazil that Hospital Octávio Mangabeira (HEOM) is in high danger of being lost, due to the remodeling project proposed by the Secretaria de Saúde do Estado da Bahia  [Bahia State Secretary of Health, SESAB]), that leads to irreversibly damage of cultural value elements of this health heritage site developed in Bahia at the beginning of the 1940s: the former Santa Terezinha Hospital Sanatorium, an icon of the Bahian antituberculosis architecture, and one of the major projects responsible for the consolidation of Modern Architecture in the State. “The former Santa Terezinha Hospital, now HEOM, began construction…

Sign the petition! – Wrocław Sports Park
By Richard Konwiarz, Wrocław, Poland, 1920s

Docomomo International would like to draw your attention to the alarming situation of the Wrocław Sports Park, designed by Richard Konwiarz in 1924 and built from 1926 to 1928, when the city of Wrocław (then Breslau) was still part of Germany. This Olympic Complex was later extended in 1936-1939, and is now facing risk of demolition. This Olympic Complex is a world-class heritage site which was awarded with a brown medal on Olympic Competition of Arts and Literature in Los Angeles in 1932. The whole settlement is registered by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage as a historic monument….