Abstract

This thesis is a study of Melvin Charney’s competition entry for the Canadian Government Pavilion at Expo 70 in Osaka, Japan. As the competition was held in early 1967, this thesis looks at how Charney’s pavilion design for a future Expo was in fact a response to the architectural impact of Expo 67 on his hometown of Montreal. Charney’s Expo 70 pavilion design was emblematic of ‘megastructure’ design – a movement in avant-garde architecture in the 1960s that drew from new technological advancements to create flexible, complex architectural systems. In this thesis, I argue that Charney was drawn to megastructure design because it seemed to present a resolution to contradictory objectives within his architectural practice. Focusing on Charney’s practice in the 1960s and drawing from his critical writings on architecture published during this time, this thesis examines how Charney’s conception of megastructure design was a celebration of modern technologies and industrial systems that offered a means of preserving vernacular building methods, while also serving as a critique of architectural and political institutions.