This exhibition presents American architect Ben Nicholson’s search for order, meaning, and logic in a world of art, science, and mystery. The Laurentian Library in Florence, a masterwork by Michelangelo designed in 1524–25, contains fifteen pairs of terra cotta panels bearing complex geometric patterns that have been long hidden from view. Nicholson studied the panels at(...)
Octagonal gallery
11 December 1996 to 9 March 1997
Uncovering Geometry: Ben Nicholson at the Laurentian Library
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This exhibition presents American architect Ben Nicholson’s search for order, meaning, and logic in a world of art, science, and mystery. The Laurentian Library in Florence, a masterwork by Michelangelo designed in 1524–25, contains fifteen pairs of terra cotta panels bearing complex geometric patterns that have been long hidden from view. Nicholson studied the panels at(...)
Octagonal gallery
Luigi Ghirri / Aldo Rossi: Things Which Are Only Themselves presents a visual dialogue between two leading figures in contemporary Italian art and culture. Their discussion is based on a sympathy between photographer and architect that is grounded in a shared fascination for a region—the Padana of northern Italy—and a common belief both in the autonomous eye of the(...)
Octagonal gallery
21 August 1996 to 24 November 1996
Luigi Ghirri/Aldo Rossi: Things Which Are Only Themselves
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Luigi Ghirri / Aldo Rossi: Things Which Are Only Themselves presents a visual dialogue between two leading figures in contemporary Italian art and culture. Their discussion is based on a sympathy between photographer and architect that is grounded in a shared fascination for a region—the Padana of northern Italy—and a common belief both in the autonomous eye of the(...)
Octagonal gallery
The decay and neglect of polluted industrial sites on the edges of cities became a worldwide phenomenon by the end of the twentieth century. The industrial site of Marghera lies on the waterfront overlooking the historical city of Venice, confronting La Serenissima as its titanic alter ego. This exhibition presents the complex and changing reality of Marghera through the(...)
Main galleries
9 December 1998 to 25 April 1999
Photography and Transformations of the Contemporary City: Venezia – Marghera
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The decay and neglect of polluted industrial sites on the edges of cities became a worldwide phenomenon by the end of the twentieth century. The industrial site of Marghera lies on the waterfront overlooking the historical city of Venice, confronting La Serenissima as its titanic alter ego. This exhibition presents the complex and changing reality of Marghera through the(...)
Main galleries
exhibitions
Learning Architecture
As architecture acquired its modern identity as both a liberal art and a regulated profession, and as architectural theories and forms underwent radical transformations, the training of architects did not fundamentally change. The core activities of architectural students remain “Authority,” the study of treatises and theoretical works, “Observation,” the study of the(...)
Hall cases
5 July 1994 to 2 October 1994
Learning Architecture
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As architecture acquired its modern identity as both a liberal art and a regulated profession, and as architectural theories and forms underwent radical transformations, the training of architects did not fundamentally change. The core activities of architectural students remain “Authority,” the study of treatises and theoretical works, “Observation,” the study of the(...)
exhibitions
5 July 1994 to
2 October 1994
Hall cases
The beginning of the 1950s was a moment of global upheaval. From India to Morocco, from Guatemala to Indochina, the process of decolonization gained momentum and the Cold War began. Architects working or acting as experts in the non-Western areas of the globe could no longer plan as if sites were terrains vague and people were mute subjects. The end of colonial(...)
Main galleries Keyword(s):
Casablanca, Chandigarh, Le Corbusier, Jeanneret, Morocco, Punjab, India, Morocco, modernism, Africa, Takashi Homma, Yto Barrada
26 November 2013 to 20 April 2014
How architects, experts, politicians, international agencies and citizens negotiate modern planning: Casablanca Chandigarh
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The beginning of the 1950s was a moment of global upheaval. From India to Morocco, from Guatemala to Indochina, the process of decolonization gained momentum and the Cold War began. Architects working or acting as experts in the non-Western areas of the globe could no longer plan as if sites were terrains vague and people were mute subjects. The end of colonial(...)
Main galleries Keyword(s):
Casablanca, Chandigarh, Le Corbusier, Jeanneret, Morocco, Punjab, India, Morocco, modernism, Africa, Takashi Homma, Yto Barrada
Meditations on Piero presents contemporary sculptures by British/Canadian artist Geoffrey Smedley alongside over thirty rare books from the fifteenth to the eighteenth centuries. The sculptures draw their inspiration from a series of drawings of the human head by the great Italian Renaissance artist Piero della Francesca. The exhibition relates these drawings and(...)
Octagonal gallery
2 May 2001 to 16 September 2001
Meditations on Piero
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Meditations on Piero presents contemporary sculptures by British/Canadian artist Geoffrey Smedley alongside over thirty rare books from the fifteenth to the eighteenth centuries. The sculptures draw their inspiration from a series of drawings of the human head by the great Italian Renaissance artist Piero della Francesca. The exhibition relates these drawings and(...)
Octagonal gallery
“Today everything is environment,” proclaimed a Montreal newspaper at the beginning of the 1970s. The word “environment” had dominated the discourses and practices of artists, architects, social activists and intellectuals during the previous decade. Visitors of Expo ‘67, the event that galvanized the world’s attention on Montreal, commented the phantasmagorical(...)
Octagonal gallery
19 March 2009 to 23 August 2009
Total Environment: Montréal, 1965-1975
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“Today everything is environment,” proclaimed a Montreal newspaper at the beginning of the 1970s. The word “environment” had dominated the discourses and practices of artists, architects, social activists and intellectuals during the previous decade. Visitors of Expo ‘67, the event that galvanized the world’s attention on Montreal, commented the phantasmagorical(...)
Octagonal gallery
The Greg Lynn Show
It’s Greg Lynn, in conversation with architects of seminal digital projects included in the exhibition Archaeology of the Digital: Complexity and Convention. Conversation has been a big part of the CCA’s Archaeology of the Digital program. Greg Lynn has spoken with the architects of projects produced from the late 1980s through the 2000s to develop an archaeological(...)
11 May 2016
The Greg Lynn Show
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It’s Greg Lynn, in conversation with architects of seminal digital projects included in the exhibition Archaeology of the Digital: Complexity and Convention. Conversation has been a big part of the CCA’s Archaeology of the Digital program. Greg Lynn has spoken with the architects of projects produced from the late 1980s through the 2000s to develop an archaeological(...)
The Anatomy of the Architectural Book, an exhibition presented in conjunction with the publication of a book of the same title by André Tavares, examines the relationships between book culture and building culture, making visible the axes along which architectural knowledge circulates through books into buildings and back. Through seven themes—Texture, Spread, Sequence,(...)
10 May 2016 to 20 November 2016
The Anatomy of the Architectural Book
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The Anatomy of the Architectural Book, an exhibition presented in conjunction with the publication of a book of the same title by André Tavares, examines the relationships between book culture and building culture, making visible the axes along which architectural knowledge circulates through books into buildings and back. Through seven themes—Texture, Spread, Sequence,(...)
In the Yesterday Today lecture series, Canadian architect and author Witold Rybczynski discusses the roots of Ecol House, a prototype for an autonomous dwelling for use in developing countries. The project was created in Montréal in 1972 by Ecol Operation, a group of architects and students of which he was a member that became an international point of reference for(...)
Paul-Desmarais Theatre
29 November 2007
Witold Rybczynski: Green Before Green
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In the Yesterday Today lecture series, Canadian architect and author Witold Rybczynski discusses the roots of Ecol House, a prototype for an autonomous dwelling for use in developing countries. The project was created in Montréal in 1972 by Ecol Operation, a group of architects and students of which he was a member that became an international point of reference for(...)
Paul-Desmarais Theatre