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Temporary exhibition

Being There: Photography in Arthur Erickson's Early Travel Diaries

from Nov 15, 2024 to Mar 23, 2025
Canadian Centre for Architecture (CCA)

Presented as a geographical and thematic reading, the exhibition is structured around two collections: Erickson’s letters to his family, teachers, colleagues, and friends; and photographs. Central to the exhibition is his correspondence from the 1961 trip to Japan, Cambodia, and Indonesia, which includes a series of letters to Gordon Webber, his former teacher and mentor.

While Erickson’s physical presence in a place was crucial for him to comprehend the essence of a site and a building, photography and writing were forms of site annotations in his architectural practice. The photographs and letters produced during his travels constitute a vivid narrative of his experiences and itineraries and reveal discoveries and insights that reappeared in his architectural work, public presentations, and writings, contributing to a broader understanding of his architectural journey.

Being There is part of a longer, ongoing investigation at the CCA into the use of photography and new media as a means of studying the built environment. This new chapter explores how travel photography acts as a mode of note-taking and thinking in design practice.

Curator: David Covo
Curatorial team: Laura Aparicio Llorente with Keamogetse Mosienyane, Ella Eßlinger, and Leonie Hartung
Graphic design: Sean Yendrys
Design development: Sébastien Larivière, Anh Truong

Exhibition

Temporary

Prices

Adult : $10.00
Seniors : $7.00
Students, children, Friends of the CCA : Free

Canadian Centre for Architecture (CCA)

Address

Canadian Centre for Architecture (CCA)
1920, Baile street,
Montreal, QC H3H 2S6

Regular Schedule

From Jan 1 to Dec 31
Monday
Closed
Tuesday
Closed
Wednesday
11:00 - 18:00
Thursday
11:00 - 21:00
Friday
11:00 - 18:00
Saturday
11:00 - 18:00
Sunday
11:00 - 18:00

Holidays Schedule

Holidays follow the regular schedule

Facilities

Museum’s Exhibition(s)

Temporary exhibition
from Dec 11, 2024 to May 25, 2025
To Build Law
According to a 2020 report by the UN Environment Programme, the construction industry accounts for at least 38 per cent of carbon emissions globally, operating with narrow methods geared toward profit. Buildings are held as assets, torn down, and redeveloped, with limited consideration of community and environmental impacts. Meanwhile, housing crises escalate. Evidently, a systemic shift in the way we build and value our built environment is urgently needed.
Incoming exhibition
from Apr 25, 2025 to Oct 26, 2025
Oscillating Spaces
The Rhône Glacier, located high in the Swiss Alps and accessible via the Furka Pass, can only be visited from the summer solstice to the autumnal equinox, roughly 120 days a year. For the rest of the year, time stays still: the pass is closed, the landscape is covered with snow, and there are no human visitors. Despite the limited time it can be accessed, the Rhône Glacier and the Furka Pass are layered with natural and cultural histories. The site is shaped by the entanglement between the environment, spirituality, and local traditions; the genesis of glaciology; military and transportation infrastructure; Alpine tourism; and the construction of the sublime.
Incoming exhibition
from Mar 19, 2025 to Nov 30, 2025
Records of Protest
Architecture is a political medium. Buildings define social relations and reify power dynamics. In turn, the profession has an immense capacity to either maintain hegemonic value systems or propose new orders. The Groundwork series, currently on display in our Main Galleries, features the ongoing political endeavours of contemporary architects. Their stories demonstrate approaches to advocacy and activism in face of ecological collapses and social crises. While their processes are represented in this series through documentary film and research fragments, Records of Protest is a display of archival material from the CCA Collection exploring how architects in the past engaged with crises of their time.
Incoming exhibition
from Oct 16, 2025 to Mar 15, 2026
How Modern : Biographies of Architecture in China 1949-1979
Between the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949 and the implementation of Reform and Opening policies in 1979, architecture was a key part of the country’s vision for socialist modernity. While this political focus shaped a variety of formal and spatial strategies in the built environment, driven by shifting policies throughout these three decades, modern Chinese architecture has largely been perceived as stunted and not progressive. Many misconceptions of this history persist even today: that nationalization and collectivism denied architects creative freedom, that projects were more focused on industrial productivity than design quality, and that the state’s emphasis on a “national style” limited the diversity of modern architecture.