Global student architectural competition Inspireli Awards was recognized for its humanitarian activities and support of students with an audience with the Holy Father.
Inspireli awards bring students and architects from 150 countries together every year to present current topics in Architecture and to react on international events. Last year, Inspireli organized a humanitarian competition for the reconstruction of the port of Beirut, destroyed by the explosion in 2020, with great interest from students bringing nearly 600 participants to offer their projects. Inspireli is free of charge, as to give equal chances to students from all around the world. As a recognition of the humanitarian activities and its support of students, Inspireli was rewarded with the audience with the pope Francis on May 24, 2023 and the team of 7 people received the honor to meet the Holy Father.
During the meeting, Pope Francis was presented with a unique gift - a fragment of a silo in Beirut Port, a building that was created by Czechoslovak civil engineers, and which was the only building standing after the tragic explosion. The donated fragment was placed in a special packaging created at the Faculty of Civil Engineering of the Czech Technical University.
The fragment was a symbol to words engraved onto the packaging „Thanks to INSPIRELI AWARDS and the students who were not indifferent to the fate of Lebanon, the Port of Beirut will rise again.“
The trip included a meeting with representatives of the Dicastery for Culture and Education, to whom the activities of Inspireli Awards and the "Virtual Faculty of Architecture" of INSPIRELI EDUCATION were introduced in order to open cooperation with Vatican on more humanitarian causes.
Inspireli continues with bringing the spotlight to important topic and is preparing a new competition that will start in September this year – Schindler’s Ark reconstruction with focus on urban design of the whole premises, where the events of the Schindler’s List story took place during the war, and creating a Museum of Holocaust survivors. More soon on www.inspireli.com/ark
