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Canadian Urbanism Uncovered

NO MEAN CITY: Concrete Ideas book launch

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Cross-posted from No Mean City, Alex’s personal blog on architecture

This Wednesday (Jan 25), Pina Petricone launches what should be a fascinating new book.

The architect and University of Toronto professor leads one of the city’s and Canada’s best architecture offices – Giannone Petricone – who do creative and successful work from furniture up to whole blocks. With a sense of fun, no less.

Petricone edited this new book, a collection of essays that looks at concrete buildings as city-building blocks and as objects of beauty. She looks at the generation of Toronto concrete buildings from the 60s and 70s, and potential new works using new concrete technologies that offer incredible strength, plasticity and performance. I’ve seen some of the research and it’s fascinating.

Writers here include the illustrious George BairdCharles Waldheim and Will Bruder.

I am a defender of Toronto’s concrete modernism – it includes many serviceable buildings and a few rock-solid ones like Robarts Library that are both beautiful and potentially very useful. If you agree, and enjoyed  the Concrete Toronto anthology – or even more so if you disagree – please check it out.

 

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