The emergence of the Centres for Architecture
dates from the late 1970s, being the initiative and personal efforts of
the architect and philanthropist Phyllis Lambert - through the creation
of the Canadian Centre for Architecture in Montreal - a model that was
followed by other institutions in Copenhagen, Vienna, New York City, and
so on. The activities promoted by them range from the establishment of
collections, research, exhibitions, and publications to the promotion of
educational programs to engaging with the general public. However,
with an elastic definition, the Center for Architecture is yet to be
individually considered amid the foggy place it fluctuates among the
Architecture Museums, Institutes, and Galleries. The contrasting
scenario - of the inexistence of a differentiation apart from their
self-semantic denomination - is also to be confirmed either through
their similarities and/or singularities. When taking a closer look, a
few gaps appear as questions about the topic. First and foremost, there
is no consolidated definition of what defines this typology in the
academic literature, which allows a very elastic self-definition of each
existing institution. Despite that, they are geographically
concentrated in countries in the Global North, mainly in Europe and
North America. The proposition for this Seminar is - parting from the
belief that Centers for Architecture represent a potential bridge
between the scientific community, the professionals in the architectural
field, and the general public - to analyze them with particular
attention to their actions of collecting, researching, and communicating
architecture. The course will work as a laboratory of collective
thinking and discussion with an approach to the process of their
emergency; with lectures from guests that have either researched the
topic or directly worked on similar institutions; and, towards its
conclusion, the final activities will lead to the elaboration of a
guidebook related to different examples of Centers for Architecture.
Moreover, throughout the seminar, we will come up with a collective
definition for the typology.
