From 1964 to 1989, Montreal architect and artist Melvin Charney (1935-2012) published some forty essays dealing with the problems confronting contemporary architecture in Quebec and elsewhere, and describing the works he designed in response. This collection makes accessible to French-speaking readers, in revised and often unpublished translations, a selection of these writings that presents the essence of Charney’s critical reading of contemporary architecture in Quebec, while exposing the originality of the thinking that nourished his artistic practice.
Published during a pivotal period in Quebec’s cultural and social history, beginning with the advent of the Quiet Revolution and ending with the first referendum on sovereignty, these documents are a veritable barometer recording the changing climate of an architectural culture in perpetual motion during one of the most turbulent periods in the history of architecture. They also describe the unsuspected contribution of Montreal, Quebec and Canadian architecture to the international debates that marked the transition from late modernity to an uncertain postmodernity.