Canada?s history is an urban history?as well as a modern one?whose roots began towards the end of the nineteenth century, when the transcontinental Canadian Pacific Railway was completed. With the business of exploiting natural resources established, Rhodri Windsor-Liscombe and Michelangelo Sabatino describe in their book?s opening chapter how ?the Canadian mindset towards its vast natural assets expanded from the source of profit to embrace constructs of aesthetic and identity.?
It is this underlying ?geographic imperative? of Canada?s architectural history that explains why the planning of mining communities like Asbestos, Quebec provides greater insight than a visit from Alvar Aalto, or how the Massey Medals helped define our sense of modernity. These are the kinds of preoccupations that move through this richly illustrated and smartly written book?s narrative arc. As the authors? account of Canadian architecture evolves within the context of political and cultural themes, so too does their discussion concerning a national architectural identity. For Windsor-Lisbombe and Sabatino, Canadian architecture comprises a series of recognizable regional identities coalescing into expressive built forms. Key themes in shaping the distinctiveness of Canada?s built environment range from postwar suburban and industrial growth to urban intensification, environmental sustainability and the strengthening of social cohesion through ambitious urbanism.
McCarter and Nair...