Inside the Sponge
Simmons Hall is an award-winning university dormitory designed by architect Steven Holl on the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) campus in Cambridge. Inspired by the sea sponge and the concept of porosity, the building is radical in structure and ambitious in its program to encourage social interaction. Inside the Sponge is an investigation of Simmons Hall from(...)
Octagonal gallery
10 August 2006 to 19 November 2006
Inside the Sponge
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Simmons Hall is an award-winning university dormitory designed by architect Steven Holl on the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) campus in Cambridge. Inspired by the sea sponge and the concept of porosity, the building is radical in structure and ambitious in its program to encourage social interaction. Inside the Sponge is an investigation of Simmons Hall from(...)
Octagonal gallery
The American Lawn: Surface of Everyday Life reveals the lawn as a domestic symbol, civic showplace, economic force, and national icon. Bungalows in tract developments, suburban corporate headquarters, and the White House are all alike in that they sit behind a lawn: a carefully contrived patch of “nature” that lies open to the sky and to a multitude of uses and(...)
Main galleries, octagonal gallery, and hall cases
16 June 1998 to 8 November 1998
The American Lawn: Surface of Everyday Life
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The American Lawn: Surface of Everyday Life reveals the lawn as a domestic symbol, civic showplace, economic force, and national icon. Bungalows in tract developments, suburban corporate headquarters, and the White House are all alike in that they sit behind a lawn: a carefully contrived patch of “nature” that lies open to the sky and to a multitude of uses and(...)
Main galleries, octagonal gallery, and hall cases
Cedric Price: Mean Time
British architect Cedric Price draws upon the collection of the CCA to develop the complex relationships between time, movement, and space in the built environment. Looking at structures and building elements through the ages, including some of Price’s own projects, Mean Time presents photographs of an ancient Aztec sun dial, a railroad switching yard, a shot tower, and a(...)
Octagonal gallery
19 October 1999 to 27 February 2000
Cedric Price: Mean Time
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British architect Cedric Price draws upon the collection of the CCA to develop the complex relationships between time, movement, and space in the built environment. Looking at structures and building elements through the ages, including some of Price’s own projects, Mean Time presents photographs of an ancient Aztec sun dial, a railroad switching yard, a shot tower, and a(...)
Octagonal gallery
The exhibition addresses a central and timely aspect of the work of Carlo Scarpa: its distinctive approach to contending with the layers of history that mark the fabric of a city and a building. In addressing Scarpa’s ability to weave new work into, and often out of, the disparate fragments of the old, Carlo Scarpa, Architect: Intervening with History begins to unravel(...)
Main galleries
26 May 1999 to 31 October 1999
Carlo Scarpa, Architect: Intervening with History
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The exhibition addresses a central and timely aspect of the work of Carlo Scarpa: its distinctive approach to contending with the layers of history that mark the fabric of a city and a building. In addressing Scarpa’s ability to weave new work into, and often out of, the disparate fragments of the old, Carlo Scarpa, Architect: Intervening with History begins to unravel(...)
Main galleries
Just as Andrea Palladio’s Villa Rotonda helped to define for future generations the architecture of the Renaissance in Italy, so Chiswick is the locus classicus of the Palladian Revival of the eighteenth century. This exhibition follows a major architect’s thinking as he worked from source to design, from design to representation, in the making of a building which, as the(...)
Main galleries
19 July 1994 to 25 September 1994
The Palladian Revival: Lord Burlington, His Villa and Garden at Chiswick
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Just as Andrea Palladio’s Villa Rotonda helped to define for future generations the architecture of the Renaissance in Italy, so Chiswick is the locus classicus of the Palladian Revival of the eighteenth century. This exhibition follows a major architect’s thinking as he worked from source to design, from design to representation, in the making of a building which, as the(...)
Main galleries
The H-Block buildings of Maze Prison were a potent symbol of the often violent political struggles in Northern Ireland known today as the Troubles. The prison, opened in 1971 by the British government, was designed to keep apart warring loyalist and republican paramilitaries, the latter demanding to be treated as prisoners of war rather than criminals. As part of this(...)
Octagonal gallery
5 September 2013 to 12 January 2014
H-BLOCK: Prison Housing – Donovan Wylie
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The H-Block buildings of Maze Prison were a potent symbol of the often violent political struggles in Northern Ireland known today as the Troubles. The prison, opened in 1971 by the British government, was designed to keep apart warring loyalist and republican paramilitaries, the latter demanding to be treated as prisoners of war rather than criminals. As part of this(...)
Octagonal gallery
This exhibition looks at the transformation of Montréal from a nineteenth century merchant city to the metropolis of Canada. It examines the elements that made Montréal a political, social, and economic centre and explores the unique character of its architecture. The exhibition brings together some 350 objects, including drawings from the CCA collection by Montréal(...)
Main galleries
18 March 1998 to 24 May 1998
Montréal Métropole, 1880–1930
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This exhibition looks at the transformation of Montréal from a nineteenth century merchant city to the metropolis of Canada. It examines the elements that made Montréal a political, social, and economic centre and explores the unique character of its architecture. The exhibition brings together some 350 objects, including drawings from the CCA collection by Montréal(...)
Main galleries
Shaping the Great City explores the role of city-building throughout the Austro-Hungarian Empire, both before and after its dissolution, and expands architectural history by bringing to the fore a rich variety of modernisms. In the years surrounding World War I, these strains of modernism both reflected and shaped the many national and multinational identities of the(...)
Main galleries and hall cases
14 May 2000 to 15 October 2000
Shaping the Great City: Modern Architecture in Central Europe, 1890–1937
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Shaping the Great City explores the role of city-building throughout the Austro-Hungarian Empire, both before and after its dissolution, and expands architectural history by bringing to the fore a rich variety of modernisms. In the years surrounding World War I, these strains of modernism both reflected and shaped the many national and multinational identities of the(...)
Main galleries and hall cases
The New Spirit: Modern Architecture in Vancouver, 1938–1963 looks at key buildings and projects from an exhilarating epoch in Vancouver’s history through design drawings, period photographs, furniture, and decoration. In the years following the Second World War, Vancouver emerged as a city with a particularly vital and progressive architectural culture, adapting the(...)
Main galleries
5 March 1997 to 25 May 1997
The New Spirit: Modern Architecture in Vancouver, 1938-1963
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The New Spirit: Modern Architecture in Vancouver, 1938–1963 looks at key buildings and projects from an exhilarating epoch in Vancouver’s history through design drawings, period photographs, furniture, and decoration. In the years following the Second World War, Vancouver emerged as a city with a particularly vital and progressive architectural culture, adapting the(...)
Main galleries
Paul Nelson (1895–1979), American architect, film set designer, painter, critic, and educator, taught and practised architecture in the United States and France for over fifty years. Nelson was a central figure in the development of functionalism in the 1930s and 1940s, which rejected the Beaux-Arts language in favour of technological and functional expression. The Filter(...)
Main galleries
27 March 1991 to 26 May 1991
The Filter of Reason: The Work of Paul Nelson
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Paul Nelson (1895–1979), American architect, film set designer, painter, critic, and educator, taught and practised architecture in the United States and France for over fifty years. Nelson was a central figure in the development of functionalism in the 1930s and 1940s, which rejected the Beaux-Arts language in favour of technological and functional expression. The Filter(...)
Main galleries