Canada, like many countries who benefited from strong economic conditions and government investment during the 1960s and 70s, has a large selection of brutalist structures. Once hated, I’ve come to love many of them for the architectural history and period they represent, rather than their soulless design and lack of pedestrian consideration. The question we’ll be plagued with over the next number of years concerning these structures is the consideration of ‘reimaging’ them when it comes time for major structural repairs. If kept, repaired and preserved, do we retrofit them to repair their shortcomings (pedestrian connectivity, lack of contextual integration, etc.), or do we respect the original intent and design and put up with the technical flaws for the sake of architectural ‘art’?
