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Publisher: Rout ledge I nforma Lt d Regist ered in England and Wales Regist ered Number: 1072954 Regist ered office: Mort imer House, 37- 41 Mort imer St reet , London W1T 3JH, UK Journal of Architectural Education Publ icat ion det ail s, incl uding inst ruct ions f or aut hors and subscript ion inf ormat ion: ht t p: / / www. t andf onl ine. com/ l oi/ rj ae20 Marking a New Territory Fabrizio Gal l ant i a a Canadian Cent re f or Archit ect ure Publ ished onl ine: 14 Mar 2014. To cite this article: Fabrizio Gal l ant i (2014) Marking a New Territ ory, Journal of Archit ect ural Educat ion, 68: 1, 61-66, DOI: 10. 1080/ 10464883. 2013. 865476 To link to this article: ht t p: / / dx. doi. org/ 10. 1080/ 10464883. 2013. 865476 PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR ARTI CLE Taylor & Francis makes every effort t o ensure t he accuracy of all t he informat ion ( t he Cont ent ) cont ained in t he publicat ions on our plat form. 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Any subst ant ial or syst emat ic reproduct ion, redist ribut ion, reselling, loan, sub- licensing, syst emat ic supply, or dist ribut ion in any form t o anyone is expressly forbidden. Terms & Condit ions of access and use can be found at ht t p: / / www. t andfonline. com/ page/ t erms- and- condit ions 61 JAE 68 : 1 The International Confederation of Architectural Museums (ICAM) and the Canadian Centre for Architecture (CCA) were founded in the summer of 1979. The international organiza- tion that brought together diferent architecture museums and centers of architecture was created during an international conference held in Helsinki in August, on the forti- ed island of Suomenlinna. Juhani Pallasmma, at that time the direc- tor of the Finnish Museum of Architecture, was the promoter of this initiative. It is useful to outline the historic and cultural contexts underlying these events. In reconstructing the history of the initiative, Pallasmaa recalled how the idea of a meeting that gathered diferent architectural institutions together came about spontaneously at the inauguration of the Centre Pompidou in January 1977. At this inauguration, the representatives of approximately twelve museums were invited to celebrate the founding of the new department of architecture and design of the Centre Pompidou. During informal conversations on that occasion, it became obvious that there were several other architecture museums, largely in Eastern Europe, absent from the Paris inauguration. These conversations gave way to an initiative to build an international network of people and institutions, with the objective of helping the exchange of ideas and information about architecture. Also, the aim was to generate future collabora- tions between institutions based in Western countries with those from the Communist bloc, especially in light of the fact that the Schusev Museum of Moscow (founded in 1945) and the Finnish Museum (founded in 1956) were the oldest museums dedicated to architecture. In the political climate of the 1970s (the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan in December 1979), Helsinki was a fairly neutral place selected in order to facilitate more widespread participation. During preparations for the event coordinated by Aarno Ruusuvuori, the director of the Finnish Museum, and by Pallasmaa, who was appointed its new direc- tor shortly before the conference, the list of institutions went from the twelve represented in Paris to approximately fy. In the end, thirty-six representatives from twenty-ve museums and centers of architecture from feen difer- ent countries (with a substantial component of Scandinavian institu- tions, Eastern European and various other representatives from the United States, Canada, Germany, and France) all gathered to discuss a range of diferent themes, including the role and structure of museums of architecture, the exchange of information and research materials, the experience of archives, libraries, exhibitions, and research, and the potential for future collaboration among the museums. The founding of the ICAM led to a newfound status for architec- tural culture, by supporting a broader discourse to which some of the best practices of other disciplines could be applied. Specically, the best practices in preservation could be derived from restoration experiences within the visual arts, the best prac- tices of museum studies could be applied to the creation of collections and of architects archives, the best practices of museum outreach could be applied to a wide array of activi- ties to engage audiences, including publications, public programming, and above all exhibitions. The deci- sion to afliate the ICAM with the ICOM (International Council of Museumsfounded in 1946 and composed of over 20,000 museums) was a response to the need to build a framework for a new type of insti- tution. This new institution would provide stability to a previously uid museology tradition. Throughout the course of the twentieth cen- tury, a series of signicant episodes cumulatively articulated a moment in which architecture functioned as an important focus of curatorial prac- tices. If pioneering examples such as the Weissenhof Siedliung in Stuttgart in 1927 acknowledged the promotional potential of modern architecture through the display of full-scale modelsreal buildings designed by Bruno Taut, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, and Le Corbusier, some of the most prominent architects of the timethen emerging architecture was subsequently supported by a number of other institutions such as the Triennale di Milano that established its new headquarters in the Palazzo dellArte in 1933, and the creation of the rst department of architecture and design at MoMA in 1932. For MoMA, during the postwar years, the architecture and design exhibitions functioned as promotional venues for possible new future lifestyles. Marking a New Territory ICAM and CCA and the Expansion of Curatorial Practices for Architecture Fabrizio Gallanti Canadian Centre for Architecture D o w n l o a d e d
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62 With the foundation of the ICAM, and throughout the 1980s, a new paradigm supported the hypothesis of history as a powerful tool with which to interpret architecture, facilitating connections to notions of its heritage. This position, already the basis for the foundation of institutions such as the Muse des Monuments Franais of 1795, that became the Cit de lArchitecture of 2007, could equally be recognized in the activities leading up to the creation of the architecture section for the Biennale di Venezia in 1976, which featured a series of exhi- bitions providing historic overviews of modern architecture, curated by Vittorio Gregotti. This eventually led to the rst international exhibition in 1980, curated by Paolo Portoghesi and entitled, The Presence of the Past. One might consider the found- ing of Do.Co.Mo.Mo. International in 1988an organization that has subsequently spread worldwide and is dedicated to the study and protection of modern architectureas part of a wider tendency in which to situate the founding of the ICAM and the CCA. During the last twenty-ve years, the events associated with the birth of an international association, such as ICAM, and the founding of hybrid institutions, such as the CCA, ofer an opportunity to identify some of the elements that have come to distinguish the constant expansion of the curatorial area dedicated to architecture. It is worth remember- ing that a key gure is instrumental in the overlap between these difer- ent historiesPhyllis Lambert was a member of the rst committee of the ICAM and is the Founding Director and Chair of the Board of Trustees of the CCA. Gradually, over the course of the twentieth-century, a paradigm of discussion and dissemination of architecture that relied mainly upon the publishing of books and journals has been accompanied by a complementary cultural system that includes exhibitions, biennials, and triennials, fairs, and various other temporary initiatives. Within this context, the CCA has functioned as an active agent of experimentation and innovation in terms of methods and formats, as well as a platform for absorbing and reacting to contem- porary discourses. The reading of the CCA as a hybrid entity emanates from its organizational structure and its institutional mandate. In fact, the institution combines four elements. The rst is a collection, composed of a library, architectural photo- graphs, drawings and prints, and a compendium of archives that include the research and practice materials of diferent artists and architects such as Cedric Price, Aldo Rossi, Gordon Matta-Clark, John Hejduk, James Stirling, Peter Eisenman, and Abalos & Herreros. The second is a museum, which engages the public through exhibitions and public and educational programs. The third is an editorial component that channels content, beyond the specic physi- cal location of the CCA, through publications, both print and digital. And the fourth is a research center that hosts international scholars who use its resources and partici- pate in collective research projects that enhance thematic areas that are deemed crucial to the CCA and its mission. This organizational structure does not imply a hierar- chical subdivision, as a constantly intertwined dialogue among these Figure 1. The American Lawn: Surface of Everyday Life, installation view at CCA, 1998. ( CCA). Marking a New Territory D o w n l o a d e d
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63 JAE 68 : 1 disparate components is central to the curatorial approach of the CCA. The rst phase of the CCAs history coincided with a series of exhibitions that focused on the col- lection that was being gradually curated and enriched. During those years, the CCA sought to establish procedures for the conservation and presentation of materials that had not been considered, either for archiving or exhibiting, at its incep- tion: technical drawings, sketches and design process notes, study models, and photographs both for documenting building construction and for publication purposes. While collecting, the CCA established and adapted protocols, policies, and pro- cedures to suit its objectives and to ensure the stability and continuity of its acquisitions. In combination with displays meant to disseminate and promote knowledge and expertise about its collection, the CCA also conceived of exhibitions as instruments for revealing the curatorial culture around architecture. The exhibition Cities of Articial Excavation: The Work of Peter Eisenman, 19781988, curated by Jean-Franois Bdard in 1994, involved a profound physi- cal alteration of the CCA galleries, which became, in and of themselves, new architectural works. A thematic approach to exhibitions, already inherent to several of the ongoing research and exhibition projects, was strongly expressed with Scenes of the World to Come: European Architecture and the American Challenge, 18931960, curated by Jean-Louis Cohen in 1995. Here, heterogeneous materials, in part from the CCA archives, in part on loan, allowed for a multidisciplinary narrative that supported the over- arching theme. This same approach guided the exhibition The American Lawn: Surface of Everyday Life of 1998, for which the curatorial agenda and design of the exhibition space were integrated under the aegis of a team that included Georges Teyssot, Elizabeth Diller, Ricardo Scodio, Beatriz Colomina, Alessandra Ponte, and Mark Wigley (Figure 1). The exhibition Mies in America, curated by Phyllis Lambert in 2001, was part of a complex historiographi- cal project that led to an important publication, conceived as a stand- alone, scholarly volume on Mies, rather than merely a catalog to an exhibition (Figure 2). The exhibition Out of the Box: Price Rossi Stirling + Matta-Clark, curated by Mirko Zardini in 2003, featured a number of recent acquisitions to the CCA archives, thereby stressing an open- ness that was increasingly becoming part of the institutions mission. With Zardinis appointment as CCA director and chief cura- tor in 2005, a series of exhibitions, some co-curated with Giovanna Borasi, curator for contemporary architecture, conrmed the the- matic model as key to the CCAs curatorial mission: advancing the exploration of ideas and projects in dialogue with the contexts from which they emerged. These exhibi- tions have stimulated contemporary debates on architecture by provid- ing interpretative tools with which to also understand other disciplines and broader cultural phenomena in which architecture is immersed and to which it responds. Sense of the City (2005) considered a new read- ing of urbanity, through a sensorial Figure 2. Mies in America, installation view at CCA, 2001. ( CCA). Gallanti D o w n l o a d e d
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64 Figure 3. 1973: Sorry, Out of Gas, installation view at CCA, 2007. ( CCA). Figure 4. Actions: What You Can Do With the City, installation view at CCA, 2008. ( CCA). Marking a New Territory D o w n l o a d e d
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65 JAE 68 : 1 Figure 5. Imperfect Health: The Medicalization of Architecture, installation view at CCA, 2011. ( CCA). Figure 6. Some Ideas on Living in London and Tokyo by Stephen Taylor and Ryue Nishizawa, installation view at CCA, 2008. ( CCA). Gallanti D o w n l o a d e d
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66 approach; Gilles Clement/Philippe RahmEnvironment: Approaches for Tomorrow (2006) examined diferent approaches to engag- ing environmental and ecological topics through design; 1973: Sorry, Out of Gas (2007) focused on the energy crisis, its impact on archi- tectural thinking, and subsequent technological development (Figure 3); Actions: What You Can Do with the City (2008) gathered and show- cased ninety-nine forms of informal urban activism, ofering a spectrum of spontaneous, bottom-up prac- tices, constituting alternatives to more established architectural ideologies (Figure 4); Speed Limits (2009) addressed the impact of veloc- ity on architecture; Journeys: How Traveling Fruit, Ideas and Buildings Rearrange Our Environment (2010) tackled the theme of migration and its consequences on territories; and nally, Imperfect Health: the Medicalization of Architecture (2011) examined the new moral and political agendas of health concerns (Figure 5). Collectively, all of these exhibitions are explorations of the cross-pollination of culture and contemporary society, through the simultaneous lenses of architecture, urbanism, and aesthetic practices. Seen as a whole, the initiatives developed by the CCA, and the transformations of its activities over the years, can be read as contribu- tions to a cultural context in ux that has gradually witnessed the consoli- dation of architecture as a cultural object. The CCA is not particularly interested in celebrating architec- ture as an isolated object. Rather, it embraces the principles embodied in the foundation of the ICAM in 1979: By individual and corporate efort to foster a critical attitude towards architecture and its allied elds. 1
Afer twenty-ve years, this critical principle is still relevant, and contin- ues to be a stimulating institutional mandate for an organization that has led the charge in the curating of architecture culture. Author Biography Fabrizio Gallanti (Genoa, Italy, 1969) is an architect who has taught archi- tecture theory and design in Chile (Ponticia Universidad Catolica, Santiago) and Italy (Politecnico di Milano). He contributes to publica- tions such as A+U, CLOG, Domus, and San Rocco. Between 2007 and 2011, he was the architecture editor at Abitare. He is currently the Associate Director of Programs at the Canadian Centre for Architecture in Montreal, where he has curated exhibitions and public programs. Note 1 Quote from ICAM charter, republished in Juhani Pallasmaa, ICAM. 30 Years. The Founding of a Confederation, in ICAM Print 03 (Wien: International Confederation of Architectural Museums, 2009). Figure 7. Other Space Odysseys: Greg Lynn, Michael Maltzan, Alessandro Poli, installation view at CCA, 2010. ( CCA). Marking a New Territory D o w n l o a d e d