Author and educator Lesley Lokko, founder of the African Futures Institute (AFI) in Accra, Ghana, has stated recently in a lecture, that ‘what you know is largely dependent on where you are’ adding that thus ‘one’s world view is shaped as is ‘one’s place within it’, and advocating that one may ‘live through imagination.’ During the pandemic many conferences and meetings have showcased the participation of African urbanists and architects, in part as a result of a new impetus, combined with...

We propose a rich and colorful inaugural evening, in a mythical place: Dawson Hall, behind St James United Church (1887-1889, Alexander Francis Dunlop, arch.), known as the "Montreal Methodist Cathedral" - with 2000 seats, it was the largest Methodist church in Canada when it was built. Designated a National Historic Site of Canada in 1996, it escaped demolition in 1980 when it was classified as a historic monument, and then escaped extinction thanks to an ambitious restoration project, in...

In recognition of the fact that Canadian practitioners, scholars, and students of architecture think, work, and act globally, this session invites submissions that are geographically unconstrained. The session welcomes case studies or analyses that illuminate how the transnational flow of ideas, people, and capital has changed the global built environment, including the multi-directional nature of exchanges between the so- called developing and...

The cultural landscapes of migration are an inextricable part of Canada’s urban, social and national identity. However, recent debates about immigration, diversity, multiculturalism and the visibility of cultural symbolisms raise controversial, often polarized public opinions. Policies of migration have accentuated divisive interpretations and legitimized isolation among multiple cultural communities, instead of promoting dialogue. This session...

Major parks have been part of the urban identity of Canadian cities for more than 150 years. From Pleasure Grounds to reformist and recreational parks as well as exhibition parks, parks have assumed different built forms over time and have had a wide range of vocations and uses. In recent years, a number of international publications have reflected on parks from the point of view of history, cultural diversity, good practices in terms of design...

This paper documents and describes a building typology that once dotted the shorelines of Lake Erie’s southern shore: the small, seasonal cottage. Known colloquially as the “worker’s cottage”, these modest structures are typically tiny, one-story light-framed buildings, uninsulated, built on piers, with stripped-down interior finishes. This humble spatial typology, which provides the most rudimentary, undressed type of interior spaces for a life that is lived largely outdoors, is found les...

We offer a unique experience for the closing dinner of this conference in Montreal, in the former U.S. pavilion of Expo'67 - the most popular of the exhibition, with 5.3 million visitors: the "geodesic dome" designed by architect Buckminster Fuller (1895-1983) with the collaboration of Shoji Sadao. The self-supporting steel honeycomb structure, covered with a polymer skin, was burned down in 1976 and redeveloped in the 1990s, according to the plans of architect Éric Gauthier, into an envir...