The Ordinary Amazing Symposium: The Cultural Value of Modernist Architecture

May 25 to May 27, 2007 in Regina, Saskatchewan

Spurred on by a growing awareness that an astounding chapter in the history of architecture is at risk—with modernist buildings routinely being demolished and abandoned—architectural heritage groups are realizing that there is something amazing in these seemingly ordinary buildings. The Ordinary Amazing Symposium intends to address this situation both as a question of cultural values and as a very real issue for the local and national community.

Clifford Wiens’ intelligent and elegant buildings present a compelling case for the continuing importance of modernist buildings, while the buildings presented in 41° to 66°: Regional Responses to Sustainable Architecture in Canada demonstrates the viability of modernism in relation to questions of regionalism and sustainability. The understanding of modernist architecture’s distinctiveness within place experience will be further explored in Foreign and Familiar: A Selection of Place Experience from the Permanent Collection at the Dunlop Art Gallery in the spring 2007. The Dunlop has already set the stage for this discussion with its 2005 fall lecture series Visual Culture, Community and Citizenship, which examined the role of built spaces in Regina’s downtown area and which attempted to define an understanding of the Regina Public Library’s modernist building – its social cohesion, openness and adaptability as a multifunctional and democratic meeting place. Lastly, the series will coincide with the official opening of the latest contribution to Regina’s architectural mosaic, the R.C.M.P Heritage Centre, representing another giant of modernist architecture, Arthur Erickson.

The Ordinary Amazing Symposium will bring together these threads by examining two key questions. The first revolves around the general cultural value of modernist built spaces. What standards and values should we use in evaluating a style of architecture which has often been associated with an alienating disregard for context, and, on the other hand, what values do modernist spaces contain that have been lost in more recent architectural enterprises? The second question revolves around re-use and sustainability; through case studies with practicing architects we will examine recent attempts to re-use modernist architecture from the standpoint of practicality, ethics and aesthetics. Finally, recent debates over the future of the Regina Public Library building will be informed by keynote speaker Patricia Patkau in relation to her recent library projects. It is our hope that this symposium will bring local and national attention to the architectural value of our existing built environment in Regina, and will encourage a discussion of the importance of public space and public libraries.