When the Canadian Centre for Architecture building was conceived and designed as an addition to the nineteenth-century Shaughnessy House, it also became an addition to the CCA’s extensive collection. Accordingly, the inaugural exhibitions in the new building in 1989 included a display on the Building and Gardens. The CCA, which plays an influential role in furthering(...)
Hall cases
22 April 2015 to 30 November 2015
The CCA in Photographs, 1987–2015
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When the Canadian Centre for Architecture building was conceived and designed as an addition to the nineteenth-century Shaughnessy House, it also became an addition to the CCA’s extensive collection. Accordingly, the inaugural exhibitions in the new building in 1989 included a display on the Building and Gardens. The CCA, which plays an influential role in furthering(...)
Hall cases
This exhibition looks at the transformation of Montréal from a nineteenth century merchant city to the metropolis of Canada. It examines the elements that made Montréal a political, social, and economic centre and explores the unique character of its architecture. The exhibition brings together some 350 objects, including drawings from the CCA collection by Montréal(...)
Main galleries
18 March 1998 to 24 May 1998
Montréal Métropole, 1880–1930
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This exhibition looks at the transformation of Montréal from a nineteenth century merchant city to the metropolis of Canada. It examines the elements that made Montréal a political, social, and economic centre and explores the unique character of its architecture. The exhibition brings together some 350 objects, including drawings from the CCA collection by Montréal(...)
Main galleries
The New Spirit: Modern Architecture in Vancouver, 1938–1963 looks at key buildings and projects from an exhilarating epoch in Vancouver’s history through design drawings, period photographs, furniture, and decoration. In the years following the Second World War, Vancouver emerged as a city with a particularly vital and progressive architectural culture, adapting the(...)
Main galleries
5 March 1997 to 25 May 1997
The New Spirit: Modern Architecture in Vancouver, 1938-1963
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The New Spirit: Modern Architecture in Vancouver, 1938–1963 looks at key buildings and projects from an exhilarating epoch in Vancouver’s history through design drawings, period photographs, furniture, and decoration. In the years following the Second World War, Vancouver emerged as a city with a particularly vital and progressive architectural culture, adapting the(...)
Main galleries
Through the work of internationally renowned architects, this exhibition reveals the presence of utopian modernist ideas thought to have been discarded with the advent of the postmodern era. According to the exhibition’s lead curator Reinhold Martin, much of the architectural production of the last half-century has been haunted by the ghosts of modernist utopias: “The(...)
Octagonal gallery
28 February 2008 to 25 May 2008
Utopia's Ghost: Postmodernism Reconsidered
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Through the work of internationally renowned architects, this exhibition reveals the presence of utopian modernist ideas thought to have been discarded with the advent of the postmodern era. According to the exhibition’s lead curator Reinhold Martin, much of the architectural production of the last half-century has been haunted by the ghosts of modernist utopias: “The(...)
Octagonal gallery
Other Space Odysseys presents three approaches to the idea of an adventurous journey that started forty years ago after the 1969 moon landing. Featuring the work of architects Greg Lynn, Michael Maltzan, and Alessandro Poli, Other Space Odysseys comes at a time when space exploration is the subject of renewed enthusiasm, but also of debate which questions its(...)
Main galleries
8 April 2010 to 19 September 2010
Other Space Odysseys: Greg Lynn, Michael Maltzan, Alessandro Poli
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Other Space Odysseys presents three approaches to the idea of an adventurous journey that started forty years ago after the 1969 moon landing. Featuring the work of architects Greg Lynn, Michael Maltzan, and Alessandro Poli, Other Space Odysseys comes at a time when space exploration is the subject of renewed enthusiasm, but also of debate which questions its(...)
Main galleries
Sense of the City
Sense of the City explores urban phenomena and perceptions of the city which have traditionally been ignored, repressed, or maligned. Challenging the dominance of the visual in the urban environment, the exhibition proposes a re-thinking of latent qualities of the city, offering complex analyses of the comforts, communication systems, and sensory dimensions of urban(...)
Main galleries
26 October 2005 to 10 September 2006
Sense of the City
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Sense of the City explores urban phenomena and perceptions of the city which have traditionally been ignored, repressed, or maligned. Challenging the dominance of the visual in the urban environment, the exhibition proposes a re-thinking of latent qualities of the city, offering complex analyses of the comforts, communication systems, and sensory dimensions of urban(...)
Main galleries
“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
Coined in the early twentieth century to designate progressive literary journals, the term “little magazine” was remobilized during the 1960s to grapple with the contemporary proliferation of independent architectural periodicals that appeared in response to the political, social, and artistic changes of the period. Clip/Stamp/Fold 2 investigates how a diverse group of(...)
Octagonal gallery and library rotunda
12 April 2007 to 9 September 2007
Clip/Stamp/Fold 2: The Radical Architecture of Little Magazines 196X - 197X
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Coined in the early twentieth century to designate progressive literary journals, the term “little magazine” was remobilized during the 1960s to grapple with the contemporary proliferation of independent architectural periodicals that appeared in response to the political, social, and artistic changes of the period. Clip/Stamp/Fold 2 investigates how a diverse group of(...)
Octagonal gallery and library rotunda
Inside the Sponge
Simmons Hall is an award-winning university dormitory designed by architect Steven Holl on the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) campus in Cambridge. Inspired by the sea sponge and the concept of porosity, the building is radical in structure and ambitious in its program to encourage social interaction. Inside the Sponge is an investigation of Simmons Hall from(...)
Octagonal gallery
10 August 2006 to 19 November 2006
Inside the Sponge
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Simmons Hall is an award-winning university dormitory designed by architect Steven Holl on the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) campus in Cambridge. Inspired by the sea sponge and the concept of porosity, the building is radical in structure and ambitious in its program to encourage social interaction. Inside the Sponge is an investigation of Simmons Hall from(...)
Octagonal gallery
Not only do toys provide evidence of the social and economic life of their period, but architectural toys ranging from wooden building blocks to iron and steel construction sets reflect distinct stylistic predilections and technological advances. New industrial and building techniques were used not only to create the new building types transforming our cities, but were(...)
Octagonal gallery
28 November 1990 to 31 March 1991
Buildings in Boxes: Architectural Toys from the CCA
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Not only do toys provide evidence of the social and economic life of their period, but architectural toys ranging from wooden building blocks to iron and steel construction sets reflect distinct stylistic predilections and technological advances. New industrial and building techniques were used not only to create the new building types transforming our cities, but were(...)
Octagonal gallery