Title & Author:

On architecture : Melvin Charney : a critical anthology / edited by Louis Martin.

Publication:

Montreal : McGill-Queen's University Press, 2013.
©2013

Description:

viii, 483 pages : illustrations ; 26 cm

Series:

McGill-Queen's/Beaverbrook Canadian Foundation studies in art ; 11

Notes:
Includes bibliographical references and index.
pt. 1. Critical Context -- 1. From Liberatory Technology to Critical Figuration / George Baird -- 2. Displacements and Fragments in the Work of Melvin Charney / Georges Adamczyk -- 3. Montreal on My Mind : Melvin Charney and the Invention of "Montrealness" / Réjean Legault -- pt. 2. Beginnings -- 4. Beginnings / Louis Martin -- 5. A Journal of Istanbul : Notes on Islamic Architecture -- 6. Troglai : Rock-Cut Architecture -- 7. The World of Pop -- 8. The Old Montreal No One Wants to Preserve -- Photographic Revelations -- 9. Architecture without Architects : The Trulli of Apulia -- 10. Place Victoria, Montreal -- 11. The Rear End of the Xerox or How I Learned to Love That Library -- pt. 3. Beyond Architecture -- 12. Beyond Architecture / Louis Martin -- 13. Environmental Chemistry : Plastics in Architecture -- 14. Notes on a Guide for Travellers to the Plastic Inevitable -- 15. Recent Directions in Canadian Architecture -- 16. Environmental Conjecture : In the Jungle of the Grand Prediction -- 17. An Environment for Education -- 18. Grain Elevators Revisited -- 19. Learning Environments : Planning beyond Flexibility -- 20. Concrete : A Material, a System, and an Environment -- A Self-Erecting Exhibition System : Project for the Canadian Pavilion, Osaka, Expo 70 -- 21. Experimental Strategies : Notes for Environmental Design -- 22. Review of New Schools for New Towns -- pt. 4. Other Monuments -- 23. Other Monuments / Louis Martin -- 24. On the Liberation of Architecture : Memo Series on an Air Force Memorial -- 25. Towards a Definition of Architecture in Quebec -- 26. Low-Income Housing into the 70s with Sewer Pipes and Subsidized Speculation -- 27. Montreal ... More or Less -- 28. Learning from the Wire Services -- 29. Housing in Canada : A Dead-End Choice -- 30. Other Monuments : Four Works, 1970 -- 1976 -- Les maisons de la rue Sherbrooke -- 31. Corridart : Art as Urban Activism -- 32. Modern Movements in French-Canadian Architecture -- 33. The Montrealness of Montreal : Formations and Formalities in Urban Architecture -- 34. To Whom It May Concern : On Contemporary Architecture in Quebec -- pt. 5. Image and Its Double -- 35. Image and Its Double / Louis Martin -- 36. A Chicago Construction -- 37. Of Temples and Sheds -- 38. Signs of Recognition, Ciphers of Deception -- A Garden for the Canadian Centre for Architecture -- pt. 6. Postscripts -- 39. Explorer of Collective Memory -- 40. In Conversation -- A Short Biography of Melvin Charney / Louis Martin.
Issued also in electronic format.

Summary:

"Melvin Charney (1935-2012) spent his career working on the border between art and architecture. His internationally celebrated art employed a variety of media including photography, montage, painting, sculpture, and temporary and permanent installations, relentlessly pursuing the meaning of architectural images in the age of mass communication. A long career as an educator was punctuated by several high-profile and contentious interventions into debates about architecture and urban life in Montreal. In spite of his renown, few realize that his legacy is also that of a prolific architectural critic. Beginning in 1962, Charney published essays assessing the state of contemporary architecture. Assembled here for the first time, these texts place Charney among the most original architectural critics of his generation. Broaching topics as diverse as the Trulli houses of Italy, grain elevators, low income housing, and "The Montrealness of Montreal," they show Charney working through a constantly changing set of preoccupations: the value of everyday and vernacular architecture, the liberatory potential of innovations in building materials and technologies, the dangers of elitist and repressive understandings of formalism and architectural monumentality, the necessarily political nature of architecture, the creation of a built environment by and for people, and a socio-cultural understanding of urban architecture. This volume includes an astonishing visual archive of over three hundred illustrations, many of which served as source material and inspiration for Charney's intellectual and artistic work, and set up a dialogue between his criticism and his landmark projects. Essays from established architectural scholars provide critical assessments of Charney's body of work as well as new perspectives on many of the key issues he grappled with and that have transformed architecture since the 1960s. A comprehensive and revealing collection, On Architecture presents the extraordinary scope and lasting relevance of one of Canada's leading architectural minds. Essays from scholars, Georges Adamczyk, George Baird, Réjean Legault, and Louis Martin"--Back cover.

ISBN:

9780773541825 (pbk.)
0773541829

Subject:

Charney, Melvin Criticism and interpretation.
Charney, Melvin Critique et interprétation.
Charney, Melvin
Architecture, Modern 20th century.
Architecture, Modern 20th century Pictorial works.
Architecture Philosophy.
Architecture 20e siècle.
Architecture 20e siècle Ouvrages illustrés.
Architecture Philosophie.
architectural theory.
Architecture, Modern

Form/genre:

Writings.
Interviews.
Criticism, interpretation, etc.
Illustrated works

Added entries:

Martin, Louis, 1960- editor, writer of added commentary.
Charney, Melvin. Essays. Selections.
McGill-Queen's/Beaverbrook Canadian Foundation studies in art history ; 11.

Melvin Charney : a critical anthology

Holdings:

Location: Library main canada 284481
Call No.: NA44.C483.A35 2013
Copy: c. 2
Status: Available

Location: Library study room canada 284381
Call No.: NA44.C483.A35 2013
Copy: c. 1
Status: Available