The Minimum Cost Housing Group (MCHG) was founded in the early 1970s by Álvaro Ortega, Witold Rybczynski, Samir Ayad, Wajid Ali, and Arthur Acheson, a group of architects and students affiliated with the McGill University School of Architecture. The group later grew to include Vikram Bhatt, Garo Kevorkin, Bernard Lefebvre, and Alex Morse. MCHG’s work focused on issues relating to human settlements, mainly in countries of what was referred to at the time as “Developing countries”, and on questions around low-cost housing and energy conservation in wealthier countries. The group conducted research on construction materials, small building components, low-cost sanitation and servicing systems, and urban agriculture. MCHG also collected a library and published a series of research papers and theses written by members about these important topics.

At the exhibition 1973: Sorry, Out of Gas (2007–2008) at the CCA, the project Ecol House by Ecol Operation was presented, a group associated with the Minimum Cost Housing Group. This occasion established MCHG’s relationship with the CCA and led to the formal transfer of the Ecol House project to the collection in 2010. A second, much larger addition to the fonds was acquired in June 2016 when Vikram Bhatt initiated the transfer of the full archive of the Minimum Cost Housing Group offices from McGill University to the CCA. The arrival of the archive should be seen in light of two interrelated research directions at the CCA: the relationship between architecture and the environment and the history and practice of architecture beyond Europe and North America.

Find out more about the Minimum Cost Housing Group fonds by visiting its finding aid or using our search tool.