Canadian Centre for Architecture / Centre Canadien d’Architecture

“Market Landscape” is an investigation into the urban ecologies of two major financial districts: Hong Kong’s Central District and London’s Canary Wharf. Entangled by histories of empire stretching from the early stages of industrial capitalism up to the present day, this project explores how seemingly mundane design features—like parks, plantings, and land works—reveal new frameworks to understand the inner workings of global financial markets and their wider planetary impact. In doing so, the project aims to contribute to the knowledge of architecture’s role in the Anthropocene. (38 min English) To learn more on the project: https://www.cca.qc.ca/marketlandscape « Le paysage du marché » est une enquête sur les écologies urbaines de deux grands quartiers financiers : le district central de Hong Kong et Canary Wharf à Londres. Empêtré dans des histoires impériales s’étalant des premiers stades du capitalisme industriel jusqu’à nos jours, ce projet explore comment des caractéristiques de conception apparemment banales, telles que parcs, parterres et terrassements, révèlent de nouveaux cadres pour comprendre le fonctionnement des marchés financiers mondiaux et leur impact planétaire plus large. Ce faisant, ce projet vise à contribuer à la connaissance du rôle de l’architecture dans l’anthropocène. (38 minutes, Anglais)   Pour en apprendre plus sur le projet : https://www.cca.qc.ca/fr/evenements/70873/le-paysage-du-marche

The audio documentary “Off:Re:OnShore” explores the legacy of industrial offshoring, the effects of corporate actions on the built environment of labour, and the role of architecture in bringing closer ideas of work and the good life. This documentary was conceived and developed by Victor Muñoz Sanz during his residence at the Canadian Centre for Architecture as 2015–2016 Emerging Curator. (35min. In English) L’audiodocumentaire « Off:Re:OnShore » explore les legs de la délocalisation industrielle, les effets des actions corporatives sur l’environnement bâti du travail, ainsi que les manières dont l’architecture peut réconcilier travail et bien-être. Ce documentaire a été conçu et élaboré par Victor Muñoz Sanz lors de sa résidence au Centre Canadien d’Architecture à titre de Commissaire émergent 2015–2016. (35 min. En anglais) #offreonshore http://cca.qc.ca/offreonshore

Antoine Picon: Smart Cities: A New Challenge for Design Smart cities represent the new digital frontier. They are where top-down monitoring meets with individual empowerment, where computation allies itself with increased sensory stimulation. Smart cities appear also as the new urban utopia. What is the true content of such utopia that appears to hesitate between technocratic and democratic leanings? How does architecture fit into this frame? What are the limits of smart cities and the “economy of knowledge” that is often associated with them? In this lecture, Senior Mellon Fellow Antoine Picon addresses these pressing issues at the intersection of critical theory and technological studies. He argues that in order to contribute fruitfully to the construction of smart cities, design must start from the changing nature of the urban subject and the urban experience. For smart cities represent far more than a series of coordinated technological innovations. They are synonymous with a new kind of urban experience. Antoine Picon is the G. Ware Travelstead Professor of the History of Architecture and Technology at Harvard Graduate School of Design. He has published numerous books and articles on the relations between architecture and cities on the one hand, science and technology on the other. Among his recent publications are Digital Culture in Architecture: An Introduction for the Design Professions (2010), Ornament: The Politics of Architecture and Subjectivity (2013), and Smart Cities: Théorie et Critique d’un Idéal Auto-Réalisateur, (2013). The CCA Mellon Foundation Senior Fellowship Program was established in 2001 to encourage advanced research in architectural history and thought. With the generous support of The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, distinguished scholars of international repute are appointed Mellon Senior Fellows and join the Visiting Scholars in residence at the CCA Study Centre for extended periods each year. For a transcript and images of this lecture visit www.cca.qc.ca/mellonlectures Canadian Centre for Architecture, Montréal, 17 April 2003

Artists Hilario Isola and Matteo Norzi discuss Jacques Cousteau’s Conshelf II underwater base and their own project Liquid Door, which proposes to revive the dream of living underwater by making Cousteau’s Starfish House inhabitable. Based in New York, Italian-born Hilario Isola and Matteo Norzi have collaborated since 2003, pooling their backgrounds and interests in art history, museology, and architecture. Their installations respond directly to particular environments and everyday objects, using the studio or gallery as both canvas and medium. Presented in conjunction with the Testing at Homeseries which explores the possibilities of other worlds here on Earth, presented in conjunction with the exhibition Other Space Odysseys: Greg Lynn, Michael Maltzan, Alessandro Poli. Canadian Centre for Architecture, Montréal, 13 May 2010

Kadambari Baxi discusses the passport, a travel document whose design is often taken for granted, and presents excerpts from her recent project Citizenship By Design (in collaboration with Irene Cheng). The project investigates the design of international passports, identification technologies and travel regulations to raise critical questions about the contemporary nature of citizenship. These official objects, bureaucratic procedures and personal documents function at a paradoxical intersection of nation "branding", security technologies, individual identities, and dispersed communities. By highlighting the aesthetics of these objects and rules and by remixing their graphic elements into multinational hybrids, the project calls attention to the ways that citizenship is designed and the ways it might be reimagined in an era of proliferating global crossings. The Expert in the Galleries series is presented in conjunction with the exhibition Journeys: How travelling fruit, ideas and buildings rearrange our environment.. Canadian Centre for Architecture, Montréal, 17 February 2011

Commissaire invité Jean-Louis Cohen présente sur l’exposition Architecture en uniforme : Projeter et construire pour la Seconde Guerre mondiale, et les résultats de dix ans de recherche internationale sur la contribution apportée par l’architecture à la guerre. Jean-Louis Cohen occupe la chaire Sheldon H. Solow en histoire de l’architecture à l'Institute of Fine Arts de la New York University. Il a conçu de nombreuses expositions au Centre Pompidou, au Pavillon de l'Arsenal, au Centre Canadien d'Architecture, à l'Institut français d'architecture et au Museum of Modern Art. Architecture en uniforme porte sur la vaste contribution de l’architecture à la guerre entre les bombardements de Guernica en 1937 et d’Hiroshima en 1945. Centre Canadien d’Architecture, Montréal, 13 avril 2011

On Experimental Writing is an open discussion about different approaches to writing about architecture, urbanism and criticism today. Invited guests discuss and challenge these new editorial directions from their own perspective and based on their editorial experiences. Moderated by David Howes, with an introduction by Giovanna Borasi. Guests include: Albert Ferré, Editorial Director at Actar; Pedro Gadanho, editor-in-chief of the bookazine, BEYOND, Short Stories on the Post-Contemporary; Naomi Stead, architectural critic and editor of the journal Architectural Theory Review; and Kazys Varnelis, Director of the Network Architecture Lab at Columbia University and co-founder of the conceptual architecture group AUDC. Canadian Centre for Architecture, Montréal, 10 February 2011

Maristella Casciato, 2010 CCA Mellon Senior Fellow and Professor of Architectural History, School of Architecture "Aldo Rossi" at Cesena, University of Bologna, speaks on the important contribution of Swiss born architect Pierre Jeanneret to the construction of Chandigarh, India. Jeanneret is mostly known to the public as the cousin of Le Corbusier. This lecture takes out of the shadows his skill as designer, planner, technician, manager, and educator facing the construction of Indian post-colonial new architecture. Maristella Casciato’s scholarly studies focus on the history of twentieth century European architecture with an emphasis on the Dutch contribution, on Italian domestic culture from the nineteenth century onward, and on the architectural culture of post WWII reconstruction in Italy. She was a recipient of a Fulbright Fellowship (1992) and a Visiting Professorship at the Institut national d’historire d’art in Paris (2004). She has served as chair of Docomomo International from 2002 until 2009. She has taught at MIT, Harvard University, Cornell University, Universidad de Navarra and Università di Roma Tre. Her recent publications include: "A New Town Planned Literally from A to Z", in Chandigarh 1956. Le Corbusier, Pierre Jeanneret, Jane B. Drew, E. Maxwell Fry, with photographs by Ernst Scheidegger (2010); "Chandigarh, Brasilia: Two Modern Capital Cities. Model, Landscape, Monument", in Twilight of the Plan: Chandigarh and Brasilia(2007); "I concorsi per gli edifici pubblici: 1927-36", in Storia dell’Architettura Italiana; Il primo Novecento (2004); Il Palazzo della Civiltà Italiana. Architettura e Costruzione del Colosseo Quadrato (2002). The CCA Mellon Foundation Senior Fellowship Program was established in 2001 to encourage advanced research in architectural history and thought. With the generous support of The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, distinguished scholars of international repute are appointed Mellon Senior Fellows and join others in residence at the CCA Study Centre for extended periods each year. Canadian Centre for Architecture, Montréal, 18 November 2010

Gerald Frug, 2010-2011 James Stirling Memorial Lecturer on the City, speaks on the design of urban governance systems and its effects on the work of urbanists and architects. He focuses on the fragmentation of current urban governance by the allocation of power to a variety of mechanisms (such as public authorities, public-private partnerships, community benefit agreements, referenda) that diminish the authority of elected government. One result of this contemporary fragmentation is frustration, which has led to the increasing attraction of authoritarianism, even for those who live in the most democratic governance systems in the world. This is usually embraced with a reference to China. The James Stirling Memorial Lectures on the City is a competition established in 2003 to create a unique forum for the advancement of new critical perspectives on the role of urban design and urban architecture in the development of cities worldwide. It was conceived in homage to architect James Stirling, who believed that urban design is integral to the practice of architecture and a vital topic for public debate. The Stirling Lectures competition is a collaboration between the CCA and the Cities Programme of the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). The lecture is also presented at the LSE in 2011. Canadian Centre for Architecture, Montréal, 21 October 2010

Jeffrey T. Schnapp, 2007 CCA Mellon Senior Fellow and Professor at Stanford University, presents The Face of the Modern Architect. Jeffrey T. Schnapp is Professor of Comparative Literature and Founder-Director of the Stanford Humanities Lab. He is the author of Building Fascism, Communism, Democracy: Gaetano Ciocca - Builder, Inventor, Farmer, Writer, Engineer (2003); Crowds (2006); and co-author of Ball and Hammer: Hugo Ball's Tenderenda the Fantast (2002). His writings have appeared in Modernism/modernity, Art Issues, Journal of Contemporary History, and Grey Room. The CCA Mellon Foundation Senior Fellowship Program was established in 2001 to encourage advanced research in architectural history and thought. With the generous support of The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, distinguished scholars of international repute are appointed Mellon Senior Fellows and join the Visiting Scholars in residence at the CCA Study Centre for extended periods each year. Canadian Centre for Architecture, Montréal, 6 September 2007

In the Learning From... lecture series, Rahul Mehrotra examines Mumbai, a megalopolis with more than 13 million inhabitants, as two distinct elements that occupy the same physical space. The first, the Static City, built of permanent materials like concrete, steel and brick, can be captured as a two-dimensional entity on conventional city maps. The second is the Kinetic City, a three-dimensional construct of incremental development. The bazaar-like city in motion can be seen as a symbol of the emerging Indian urban condition. Rahul Mehrotra is principal of the firm RMA Architects of Mumbai, India and an Associate Professor at the School of Architecture and Planning at MIT in the United States. Learning From... examines cities and their response to new architectural and urban conditions in a rapidly transforming global economy. Canadian Centre for Architecture, Montréal, 9 April 2009

Geoff Manaugh examines urban design in the context of epidemiology, pandemics and quarantine, including measures taken by the United States’ government agency Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Geoff Manaugh is the author of BLDGBLOG and The BLDGBLOG Book, and a contributing editor at Wired UK. His fall 2009 design studio Landscapes of Quarantine examines the spatial implications of quarantine - the results of which will be the subject of a public exhibition at Storefront for Art and Architecture in early 2010. Canadian Centre for Architecture, Montréal, 22 October 2009

Joan Busquets, 2009 CCA Mellon Senior Fellow and professor at Harvard Graduate School of Design, presents Barcelona: Revisiting the "Grids." With an introduction by Alexis Sornin. The lecture addresses the experience of Barcelona following 25 years of major revitalisation, as part of broader research to develop new understandings of the urban grid system. Catalan architect Joan Busquets is principal of BAU B-Arquitectura y Urbanismo and Urban Planning and Design Professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Design. He was head of urban planning for Barcelona City Council during the period leading up to the 1992 Olympics, and has participated in strategic urban planning and design for the cities of The Hague, Lisbon, Marseilles, Rotterdam, Singapore, and São Paulo. Professor Busquets served on the jury of the 2004-2005 James Stirling Memorial Lectures on the City co-organised by the CCA and the London School of Economics (LSE). The CCA Mellon Foundation Senior Fellowship Program was established in 2001 to encourage advanced research in architectural history and thought. With the generous support of The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, distinguished scholars of international repute are appointed Mellon Senior Fellows and join the Visiting Scholars in residence at the CCA Study Centre for extended periods each year. www.cca.qc.ca/mellonlectures Canadian Centre for Architecture, Montréal, 16 April 2009

Philip Ursprung, commissaire de l’exposition, propose un aperçu de Herzog & de Meuron : archéologie de l’imaginaire dans le cadre d’une série de conférences qui explore la frontière entre l’art et l’architecture, présentée en lien avec l’exposition. Avec une introduction de Nancy Dunton. Herzog & de Meuron : archéologie de l’imaginaire a été présentée du 23 octobre 2002 au 6 avril 2003. Centre Canadien d’Architecture, Montréal, 17 octobre 2002

The third and final part of Urgency, in which major international architects Brigitte Shim and Adam Caruso present issues of vital importance in contemporary practice, followed by a conversation with CCA Director Mirko Zardini. This is the third annual presentation of the CCA’s Urgency event, after the 2007 discussion with Rem Koolhaas and Peter Eisenman and the 2008 discussion with Greg Lynn and Yung Ho Chang. Adam Caruso, Caruso St John, London Brigitte Shim, Shim-Sutcliffe Architects, Toronto Mirko Zardini, Director, Canadian Centre for Architecture Canadian Centre for Architecture, Montréal, 12 June 2009