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IJCS/RIÉCthe Killam-Massey House (West Vancouver, B. C., 1955). Both are variationsof the modern “glass box” but each is uniquely placebound—the former to itsdensely wooded site, the latter to its location on a rock outcrop overlookingHowe Sound, indicating that the architect did not subscribe to the blatantrejection of regional and cultural specificity often presumed synonymous withthe International Style. 6 Erickson turned to a very different syntax ofmodernism, that of Frank Lloyd Wright, and to Japanese architecture; bothvest the land with great power (see Erickson, 1988, pp. 18-21, 41-44). LikeWright, he asserted that “site has to be understood before it can be enhancedwith architecture” (Erickson, 1988, p. 19). A broad definition of context,comprised by the tangible factors of topography, orientation, climate andsurrounding structures, and the more elusive qualities of character and light,became touchstones for Erickson in diametrical opposition to modernism'sconstruct of the building as a privileged, autonomous objet d'art.By the mid-1960s, the period when he was enjoying great success followingthe completion of Simon Fraser University, Erickson was not alone among thevoices that challenged an acontextual doctrine of modernism. There is greatresonance between Erickson's concern for cultural practice and the theories ofChristian Norberg-Schulz whose 1965 Intentions in Architecture counteredmodernism's rejection of tradition. “Architecture itself is a cultural object,”Norberg-Schulz (1965, pp. 122-127) stated, “only through cultural symbolismcan architecture show that the everyday has a meaning beyond the immediatesituation and a share in the cultural and historical continuum.” RobertVenturi's precedent-setting Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture,published the following year, directly challenged the Miesian doctrine “less ismore,” with new ways of knowing a wide spectrum of architectural traditions.True to the exhortations of Venturi's “Gentle Manifesto,” Erickson was rarely“...intimidated by the puritanically moral language of orthodox modernarchitecture” (Venturi, 1966, p. 22). His Anthropology Museum speaks toVenturi's (1966, p. 22) demands for “elements that are hybrid rather than pure,accommodating rather than excluding” (Figure 3); so too do his Law Courts(Provincial Government Offices and Law Courts Complex, Robson Square,Vancouver, B. C., 1973; Figure 4) have the “messy vitality...richness ofmeanings...and implicit function as well as explicit function,” that Venturi(1966, p. 23) sought. Perhaps most important, in the rich and purposefulcollisions of the ancient and the modern in the Anthropology Museum and itstotems (Figure 5), or the art moderne stone and the late-modern skin of theBank of Canada (Ottawa, Ont., 1969; Figure 6), Erickson offers what Venturi(1966, p. 23) called “a valid architecture that evokes many levels of meaningand combinations of focus...its space and its elements become readable andworkable in several ways at once.”Erickson's position in this progressive breakdown of the Modern Movement'santi-historicist underpinnings begins in theory and praxis that predates byalmost a decade such hallmarks of postmodern architecture as the publicationof Learning From Las Vegas, the 1980 Venice Biennale, and the erection of30
The Architecture of Arthur Erickson: Redeeming ModernityFigure 3.Arthur Erickson, Museum of Anthropology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BritishColumbia, 1972. View from the south (author).the AT&T tower, all frequently cited in the cultural studies literature (seeespecially Jameson, 1983; Huyssen, 1986; and Collins, 1989). Nevertheless,his work embodies an “alternate search for tradition and history...whichmanifests itself in concern with cultural formations not dominated by logiccentric and technocratic thought,” qualities which Huyssen (1986, p. 172)identified as essences in postmodern architecture. Clearly, the notion thatmodernism went up with the Bauhaus and came down with the Pruitt IgoeHouses does little to foster an understanding of the twentieth century as acontinuum of history. 7 Moreover, it scarcely secures the place of Canadianarchitecture in that continuum.Erickson and the Doubles of PostmodernityThe early theoretical tracks that challenged the project of modernity did soduring a period when the International Style was radically altering NorthAmerican cities. In Canada, massive refigurings of the cityscapes of Torontoand Montreal, which left a wake of demolished historic fabric in downtowns“reborn” in steel and glass, figure significantly in this heritage. Sucharchitectural manifestations of modernism's master-narrative denied peoplenecessary opportunities for negotiating their built environments in terms ofknown experience. Effectively, they were cut off from the cultural inheritanceof the past. At this critical juncture, theorists, critics and architects (in additionto Norberg-Schultz, 1965 and Venturi, 1966, see especially Jacobs, 1961)31
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Roshan G. ShahaniIn Quest of a Habi
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Immigrant Voices from Indiapromised
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Immigrant Voices from Indiawhich is
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