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Journal of the Society for the Study of Journal de la Société pour l’étude de l’ ARCHITECTUREARCHITECTURE inin // auau CANADACANADA CONTENTS / TABLE DES MATIÈRES Luc Noppen 2 Présentation / Presentation ANALYSES / ANALYSES Rhodri Windsor-Liscombe 3 Grounding the New Perspectives of Modernism: Canadian Airports and the Reconfiguration of the Cultural and Political Territory Marie-Josée Therrien 15 Diplomatic Malaise. The Challenge of Representing Canada Abroad Olga Zorzi Pugliese 25 The Mosaic Workers of the Angelo Principe Thomas Foster Memorial ESSAIS / ESSAYS André Casault 31 House Hunting Or I’Ve Never “Lived” In My House Yves Deschamps 43 L’art nécessaire. Quelques réflexions sur le Nigog et l’architecture RAPPORT / REPORT Jean Bélisle 49 Le moulin Légaré, Saint-Eustache (Québec) COMPTE RENDU / REVIEW Isabelle Caron 63 Martin Dubois Architecture contemporaine à Québec : 112 repères urbains Volume / Tome 28, numéros / numbers 1, 2 (2003) PRÉSENTATION PRESENTATION e numéro d’Architecture Canada présente une sélection de his issue of Architecture Canada presents a selection of articles textes soumis à la rédaction par des membres bien connus submitted to the Editorial Committee by some of SEAC’s Cde la SÉAC, mais aussi par de nouvelles figures qui proviennent Tregular members, but also by some new figures coming from d’horizons variés et qui se joignent à la Société, intéressés par la various spheres who adhere to the Society, interested by the jour- revue dans son nouveau format. nal’s new format. Cette fois, dans la section analyses, Rhodri Windsor-Liscom- This time, in the analyses section, Rhodri Windsor-Liscombe be examine le rôle qu’a joué l’architecture des aéroports cana- examines the role played by postwar Canadian airports’ archi- diens de l’après-guerre dans la construction d’une identité tecture in the development of a modern Canadian identity. In the canadienne moderne. Dans le même registre de l’étude des re- same register, that is the study of representations, Marie-Josée présentations, Marie-Josée Therrien s’intéresse au programme de Therrien, inspired by the Tokyo example, studies the construc- construction des ambassades du Canada à l’étranger, en prenant tion programmes of Canadian Embassies abroad. Finally, the appui sur l’exemple de Tokyo. Enfin, Olga Pugliese et Angelo renowned italianists Olga Pugliese and Angelo Principe present Principe, italianistes reconnus, livrent une recherche sur les arti- their study on the craftsmen who adorned the Thomas Foster sans qui ont orné de mosaïques le Thomas Foster Memorial Tem- Memorial Temple (Uxbridge, Ont.) with their mosaics. ple (Uxbridge, Ont.). The essays section comprises two texts: André Casault pro- Le dossier des essais présente deux textes : celui d’André poses a few reflections and housing projects for a Northern Que- Casault qui livre quelques réflexions ainsi que des projets d’ha- bec native community and Yves Deschamps, using the articles of bitation pour les communautés autochtones du Nord québécois the Nigog–an innovative journal–discusses American identities et celui d’Yves Deschamps qui discute, au départ de textes du and the architecture in Montreal. Nigog, périodique précurseur, des identités américaines et de Finally, Jean Bélisle’s report on the Saint-Eustache’s Moulin l’architecture à Montréal. Légaré and Isabelle Caron’s report, our new Assistant Editor, Le rapport de Jean Bélisle sur le moulin Légaré de Saint-Eus- complete the table of contents of this issue. tache et un compte rendu d’Isabelle Caron, notre nouvelle ré- In the wake of the modernization efforts of our journal, we dactrice adjointe complètent la table des matières du présent now publish an issue with full colour cover page. After the ex- numéro. perience of a preceding issue that included a colour section in Poursuivant la mise à jour de notre périodique, nous nous order to do justice to the images produced in a CAAD studio by sommes cette fois engagés dans la production d’un numéro avec our colleague Pierre Côté and his team, this issue makes another page couverture couleur. Après l’expérience d’un précédent nu- step forward. From now on, we are in a position to publish arti- méro qui comportait un cahier couleur, notamment pour rendre cles that include quality colour illustrations and honour the con- justice aux images produites en CAAO par notre collègue Pierre tents with a cover page of similar quality. We hope that authors Côté et son équipe, cette livraison marque un autre pas. Nous and members of the Society will understand the implication: pouvons à l’avenir publier des textes avec illustrations couleur et they will have to cooperate, as we cannot print colour pages with rendre justice au contenu par une couverture de même qualité. black and white illustrations. Researchers in the fields of archi- Puissent les auteurs et les membres de la Société comprendre que tecture and planning, who study heritage and the built land- cela suppose un effort de leur part : on ne peut évidemment pas scape, must start using illustrations that are bound to reach a imprimer des pages couleur avec des illustrations noir et blanc. broader audience, that are mindfully considerate of our times, Les chercheurs qui œuvrent en architecture et en aménagement, and that do justice to the subjects of the studies that Architecture qui travaillent sur le paysage construit et le patrimoine, de- Canada wishes to broadcast. That not only allows us to publish a vraient dorénavant adopter une illustration qui rejoint un public journal with colour illustrations, but–as will be the case in 2004–a élargi, qui fait preuve d’une attention pour les sensibilités de journal designed according to a renewed and less severe graph- notre époque et qui rend justice aux objets des études qu’Archi- ic grid. tecture Canada souhaite diffuser. Cela nous permettra non seule- Luc Noppen ment de produire une revue avec illustrations couleur, mais aussi – ce sera le cas en 2004 – reconstruite sur une nouvelle grille graphique, moins austère. Luc Noppen ANALYSE / ANALYSIS Rhodri W indsor Liscombe Grounding the New Perspectives of Modernism: Canadian Airports and the Reconfiguration of the Cultural and Political Territory eronautical technology supplied conceptual and opera- tional models as well as novel typologies for Modern Move- Ament design.1 Its interconnections with commercial and state policy disclose the complicated structuration and displacement of Modernism within the modern project.2 Each shared a preoc- cupation with mobility and universality nonetheless grounded spatially. The airport building, initially denominated aerodrome, be- came a figure for the late phase of modernity and the instru- Fig. 1. Plan of Vancouver Airport and Seaplane Harbour, 1947; Harland Batholomew. (Royal Architectural Institute of Canada [1947], 326) mental use of science as well as an icon of the Modern Movement endeavour to redirect that generally hierarchical and colonial practice to more equitable and humane social ends. The conver- gence of such diametrically opposed agendas in aeronautical technology and architecture is exemplified in a 1947 proposal for a land and sea plane airport on a reclaimed section of English Bay, close to downtown Vancouver (fig. 1). That was included in the revised version of the City Beautiful plan drawn up by the United States firm of Harland and Bartholomew and published in the July 1940 edition of the Journal of the Royal Architectural In- stitute of Canada. Their theory of design and technology diverged from the radical functionalism espoused by the majority of de- signers involved in the construction of Vancouver’s first airport building, including the structurally innovative reinforced con- Rhodri Windsor-Liscombe, F.S.A., currently chairs the Department of Art crete aircraft hangar conceived by the architect-engineer Otto History and the Interdisciplinary Graduate Program at the University of Safir in 19553 (fig. 2). The spatial grounding of cultural change is British Columbia. A graduate of the Courtauld Institute of Art, he previously especially evident in later 20th century Canada as it moved from taught at London and McGill Universities. His major publications include imperial confederation to cosmopolitan constitutional independ- William Wilkins 1778-1839 (Cambridge, 1980)–revisited in The Age of ence.4 Moreover, during that period, Canadian scholars made Wilkins. The Architecture of Improvement (with David Watkin, Cambridge, significant contributions to the theorization of the spatial and Fitzwilliam Museum, 2000); Francis Rattenbury and British Columbia: Ar- chitecture and Challenge in the Imperial Age (with A. Barrett, UBC, 1983), socio-cultural impact of new communication systems and tech- “Altogether American:” Robert Mills Architect and Engineer (Oxford, 1994); nologies. and “The New Spirit.” Modern Architecture in Vancouver 1938-1963 (Cana- In those processes, Modernist design, typified in the federal dian Centre for Architecture and M.I.T., 1997). His current research on in- airport building program of the mid-1950s, acted as iconic and tersections between Modern Movement architecture and late British functional agent of supposedly unifying but ultimately contest- Imperialism was awarded a John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship. ed collective identity. Yet the often mundane rather than elegant abstract functional articulation of the Canadian federal airports, JSSAC / JSÉAC 28, nos 1, 2 (2003) ; 3-14. generally bereft of the “whammo” stylistic formalism of some 3 JSSAC / JSÉAC 28, nos