Critically re-reading the architecture of Auschwitz-Birkenau is the theme of the conference that the IUAV University of Venice organizes in collaboration with the city coordination for the Day of Remembrance 2023 of the Municipality of Venice and under the aegis of the Italian branch of the Council of Europe. Auschwitz represents a unicum in the immense geography of sites of mass destruction established by the Nazi regime in Europe. The extermination camp of Auschwitz II – Birkenau, in particular, is the result of a complex project, which defined the architecture of its most tragically relevant buildings. Despite the hasty demolition of the extermination complexes at the hands of the Nazis in January 1945, the photographs of their original appearance together with the consistency of the ruins and the footprints they left deep in the ground testify to a component that makes the specific identity of these objects that cannot be reduced to purely technological and functional reasons. Today the ruins of Birkenau leave open, among others, questions that have an immediate disciplinary relevance: is the architectural form in itself innocent, or is it always the result of a political act? Were these buildings just atrocious ‘scenographies’ made to conceal what was happening inside them, or did they reflect the destructive ideology that produced them? The conference will be held by Guido Morpurgo, IUAV professor of interior architecture and set-up
