The Globe and Mail, Azure, and Monocle are among the publications that have profiled the book Canadian Modern Architecture, 1967 to the present, co-published by Princeton Architectural Press and Canadian Architect magazine and released this fall.
The book was also recommended in Azure’s annual gift guide, as one of 10 “covetable” books for design lovers.
“What’s Canadian about Canadian architecture? In a country spanning almost 10 million square kilometres, it’s an imposingly big question,” writes Stefan Novakovic in his review for Azure. “A trip from coast to coast to coast traverses huge swathes of cultures and climates – and equally varied architectural landscapes. […] Canadian Modern Architecture, 1967 to the Present […] explores some of the places and movements that have shaped the nation in 15 chapters by 17 authors, and some 500 pages. It takes a stab at understanding what we built – and why we built it.”
“In the postwar period, Canadian governments explicitly used architecture as a tool of country-building,” writes Alex Bozikovic in his review for the Globe and Mail, published in the paper’s November 23 edition. “John Diefenbaker spoke to an assembly of the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada in 1960 and asked the architects for places ‘to touch the hearts of Canadians’ and ‘represent the unity of our country.’ The results must have blown Dief’s mind. Within a decade, an array of concrete culture palaces were in place across the country, from the Museum of Vancouver to the Ontario Science Centre to the heroic Confederation Centre of the Arts in Charlottetown.”
Book co-editor Elsa Lam was interviewed for the book by Monocle’s On Design podcast, in a special edition focused on the design culture of Toronto and Canada. The podcast is available for listening online, and was rebroadcast on the CBC. “We wanted to provide a really broad, yet comprehensive view of what’s been happening in Canadian architecture since the Centennial celebrations,” says Lam. “The best of Canadian architecture that we’re seeing in contemporary times respond to their contexts . It could be that they have a relationship to their landscape, but it could also be that they respond to their cultural or social contexts. Those contexts are so different across the country.”
In early 2020, cities including Toronto, Calgary, Winnipeg, Edmonton, Sudbury and Banff will host events related to the book’s appearance. The book is available at booksellers across North America, as well as from online retailers McNally Robinson, Indigo and Amazon.