ARCHITECTURE:A Section of Now
The exhibition “A Section of Now: Social Norms and Rituals as Sites for Architectural Intervention” looks at today, at the society in which we currently live, with a focus upon expanding notions of family, property ownership, activism, work, technology, and life expectations. While contemporary values are rapidly reshaping the built environment, architecture is not only responsive but can also, at its best, anticipate and even influence the direction of society through spatial endeavours.
By Efi Michalarou
Photo CCA Archive
Adaptations of existing typologies and also new typologies are required for our current society where the nuclear family isn’t a societal bedrock; where robots become a mainstay of domestic life and caretaking; where friendship takes on new meanings; where birth and death can be planned and designed; where the youth is extremely committed to environmental and spatial justice; where we work more than ever, regardless of the increased automation of labour; where addictions are many and simultaneous; where it is possible to retire at thirty years old or to be already in substantial debt at the age of twenty, and where there is an obsession with sharing and yet more and more people choose to live alone. Together these multivalent conditions have gradually displaced societal norms, leaving many interconnected questions – and design opportunities – in their wake. How might we create housing that better reflects the broad scope of contemporary living arrangements, from those living alone to those living with multiple generations under one roof? How might we implement alternative frameworks to mediate how property is owned and shared given rising rents and debt? How might our personal choices and collective actions create long-term social, political, and environmental change? How might we create equitable working conditions amidst demands for personal and technological optimization? How might we better manage the symptoms of technological addiction and withdrawal? How might we rethink our plans given ever-increasing life expectancy? Through TV series, contemporary photography, architectural research, and designed objects, A Section of Now critically depicts where we are now and points to the urgent need for a new spatiality and the formation of new societal relationships. In this, the exhibition and the accompanying publication, copublished with Spector Books (available in December 2021), include many voices, and progressive practices from within as well as outside of architecture will guide these dialogues.
With contributions by: 2050+ and -orama; Christopher Anderson; Nicolas Asfouri, Assemble Studio; Center for Spatial Technologies; Certain Measures; Dan Chen; Sam Chermayeff Office; Benson Chien and Samantha Ingallina; Aaron M. Cohen; Thaddé Comar; Common Accounts; Coop Himmelb(l)au; Estudio Teddy Cruz+Fonna Forman and Kotti+Co; Degelo Architekten and Gamperle AG; Cynthia Deng and Arta Perezic; Jamie Diamond; DOGMA and New Academy; Elena Dorfman; Expanded Design; Lucas Foglia; Maison Edouard François; The Future Market; Salwan Georges; Ginger Design Studio; Paul Graham; Michelle Groskopf; Max Hampshire, Paul Kolling, and Paul Seidler; Ai Hasegawa; Go Hasegawa+Associates; Het Nieuwe Instituut; HOMEOFFICE; Marisa Morán Jahn and Rafi Segal; Dafydd Jones; Valérian Mazataud; June14 Meyer-Grohbrügge & Chermayeff; Anaïs Langlais-Schmidt; LATENT Productions and Columbia University GSAPP DeathLAB; Jesse LeCavalier; Mueller Sigrist Architekten; Christinne Muschi; N H D M; Ewa Nowak; Brittany M. Powell; Alice Proujansky; Anna Puigjaner MAIO; Kamila Rudnicka; Nadia Sablin; Klemens Schillinger; Michael Schmelling; Jack Self; Space Popular; Giulia Spadafora; Special Projects; Marie-Claire Springham; Stefan Marx; OFFICE Kersten Geers David Van Severen; Other Architects; Pollard Thomas Edwards; Republic of Estonia; reWork; Something Fantastic; StrongArm Technologies; Takahashi Ippei Office; Teple Misto; terra0; Bryan Thomas; Elisabeth Ubbe; UNSense; Jonas Voigt, Philipp Schmitt, and Stephan Bogner; Aubrey Wade; Christoph Wagner Architekten; Nick Waplington; Williamson Williamson; Hardy Wilson; Yangying Ye.
Photo: Jamie Diamond, Cuddle Party, 2019. Photograph, 95.3 cm x 127 cm. © Jamie Diamond
Info: Curator: Giovanna Borasi, Canadian Centre for Architecture (CCA), 1920 rue Baile, Montréal, QC, Canada, Duration: 13/11/2021-13/5/2022, Days & Hours: Wed-Sun 11:00-18:00, www.cca.qc.ca
