The Other Architect, an expansive exhibition that considers "architecture’s potential to identify the urgent issues of our time" through twenty-three case studies from the 1960s to the present, opens tomorrow at the Canadian Centre for Architecture (CCA) in Montreal.

Curated by Giovanna Borasi, the exhibition looks at various groups that have sought to critically intervene in the architectural profession, as well as to mobilize architectural thinking towards an expanded field. If the "normal architect" works within established conditions and using a defined toolset, these "other architects" developed (or borrowed) new methodologies, experimented formally and conceptually, and sought alternative organizational structures.



Architecture witnessed a proliferation of radical experiments beginning in the mid-20th century, resulting in outputs in a variety of a media, such as pamphlets, manifestos, videos, questionnaires, and books. In the exhibition, the material is organized in thematic galleries to help identify some of the more explicit connections and affinities: "the experimental mix," "the unexplored role," "the tangential research topic," "the intelligent tool," and "the chosen mode and format." 

“To find another way of building architecture, we have to be willing to broaden our understanding of what architecture is and what architects can do,” said exhibition curator Giovanna Borasi in the press release. “The groups represented in The Other Architect remind us that architecture has to do more than just resolve a given set of problems – it has to establish what requires attention today.” 




The Other Architect includes the work of AD/AA/Polyark, AMO, Anyone Corporation, Architects Revolutionary Council (ARC), Architectural Detective Agency (ADA), Architecture Machine Group (AMG), Art Net, Atelier de recherche et d’action urbaines (ARAU), Center for Urban Pedagogy (CUP), CIRCO, Corridart, Delos Symposion, Design-A-Thon, Forensic Architecture, Global Tools, Institute for Architecture and Urban Studies (IAUS), International Laboratory of Architecture and Urban Design (ILAUD), Lightweight Enclosures Unit (LEU), Multiplicity, Kommunen in der Neuen Welt, Pidgeon Audio Visual (PAV), Take Part, and Urban Innovations Group (UIG).

The Other Architect is on view at the Canadian Centre for Architecture from October 28, 2015 through April 10, 2016. For more information, visit the CCA's website.