The Other Architect at CCA

Twenty-three case studies assembled by Giovanna Borasi curatordating from the 1960s to today, on view at CCA, illustrate how international and often multidisciplinary groups invented and adopted new methods outside of traditional design practices.

Hollein and his Bau co-conspirators were part of a generation of designers in the 1960s who were “moving away from the norm and inventing ways that architecture can construct a cultural agenda,” writes curator Giovanna Borasi in the catalogue of The Other Architect, the ongoing exhibition at Montreal’s Canadian Centre for Architecture (CCA).

The Other Architect shows 700 documents that illustrate their ways of thinking and working. These alternative working methods and strategies manifested in a range of forms including letters, books, drawings, photographs, budgets, tactics for accessing resources, videos, mission statements and manifestos, surveys, posters, meeting minutes and organizational schemes, T-shirts, questionnaires, boats, and buses. The archival documents on display revea l how architects constructed a cultural agenda without the intervention of built form. Tracing the development of these unusual creative processes allows us to consider how these different ways of defining architecture can  be applied today.

In this relativist climate, if everyone is an architect, then an architect can be anyone.

The materials are organized in thematic galleries that identify shared interests and methodologies of the  groups. These themes are: “The experimental mix,” “The unexplored role,” “The tangential research topic,” “The intelligent tool,” and “The chosen mode and format ”. However, many alternate connections can be identified among the groups in regards to the formats or tools they used or the approaches they shared – even the appearance of the same protagonists in different contexts. The exhibition focuses primarily on the early years of production of the different groups, 3 considering their energetic founding periods which most clearly express the purpose,  priorities, and motivating forces of their founders.

In this relativist climate, if everyone is an architect, then an architect can be anyone. Since the Renaissance, the greatest builders have believed themselves to be artists; with the advent of Modernism, this occupational profile became diversified, integrating elements of the natural and applied sciences for objectivity’s sake. By the 1960s, a decade defined by upheavals of all kinds, the mold was shattered. Cross-pollinating influences entered the profession, and sociologists, psychologists, cyberneticists, media theorists, communists, conceptual artists, and even graphic novelists exerted an incredible pull on the imagination of young architects.

Observing and analyzing these experiences can supply us with an operating manual for critically engaging with the urgent issues of our time, an unusual and hopefully compelling collection that contains many methods, tools, and ideas for new ways of defining architecture. Reading the traces lets us begin to understand the other architect’s ingenuity and consider different ways of defining the roles and responsibilities of architecture.

Venue.- Canadian Centre for Architecture 1920, rue Baile Montréal, Québec H3H 2S6 Canada
Dates.- 28 October 2015 to 10 April 2016