AP205 Amancio Williams: Readings of the archive by Studio Muoto, Claudia Shmidt, and Pezo von Ellrichshausen is dedicated to the work of Argentinian architect Amancio Williams (1913‒1989), one of the key figures of modern architecture in Latin America. The vast output of projects and proposals produced by his office over several decades from the 1940s‒1980s is evidenced through an expansive archive of drawings, photographs, correspondence, and models, donated to the Canadian Centre for Architecture by the Williams family in 2020. Structured as a study in three acts and conceived in tandem with an exhibition series of the same name, the publication features research by Studio Muoto, Paris; Claudia Shmidt, Buenos Aires; and Pezo von Ellrichshausen, Concepción; who each possess distinct backgrounds in architectural practice and history. Together, their readings present new and expanded understandings of Williams’ work, and situate social, material, and political dimensions of his practice within the contemporary architecture scene.

Studio Muoto is an architectural office founded in Paris in 2003 by Gilles Delalex and Yves Moreau. Their activities cover the fields of architecture, urban planning, design, teaching, and scientific research. Muoto’s work features minimal structures that can combine different activities, evolve over time, and merge economic and aesthetic issues. Delalex holds a master's degree in urban planning and a doctorate from Alvar Aalto University, Helsinki. He is a professor at the École Nationale Supérieure d'Architecture Paris-Malaquais, and has been a researcher at the Liat Laboratory since 1998. Moreau studied at the École des Arts de Saint Luc in Brussels and Chalmers Teknista Högskala, Gothenburg. He has collaborated with the agency Blå Arkitektur Landskap, Parfums Christian Dior, and Dominique Perrault. In 2008, he was awarded the Albums des jeunes architectes et paysagistes. They bring their interest in modernity and infrastructure to their role as guest researchers and curators for AP205.

Professor and researcher at Universidad Torcuato Di Tella in Argentina, Claudia Shmidt is an architect and holds a doctorate in history and theory of arts from the University of Buenos Aires. She has lectured extensively across Argentina and abroad and has received grants and scholarships from various institutions such as the Rockefeller Foundation for Humanities Fellowship, the Universidad de Buenos Aires, the Goethe Institut, and the Agencia Nacional de Promoción Científica y Tecnológica de Argentina, among others. Her research topics include the history of public state architectures during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and the historiography of modern architecture in Latin America, among others. She is the author of numerous books on subjects related to Argentinian architecture, construction, heritage, and the state, and has also published numerous articles in international journals. As guest researcher and curator of AP205, she brings a deep contextual understanding of both Argentinian modernism and Williams’ work.

Pezo von Ellrichshausen is an art and architecture studio founded in 2002 by Mauricio Pezo and Sofia von Ellrichshausen. They live and work in southern Chile, both in Concepción and on a farm at the foot of the Andes mountains. They share the position of associate professor of practice at Cornell University’s College of Architecture, Art, and Planning and have taught at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago, and the Universidad Catolica in Santiago de Chile. Their work is part of the permanent collection at The Art Institute of Chicago and The Museum of Modern Art, New York and has been exhibited widely, including at the International Architecture Exhibition in Venice, where they were also the curators for the Chilean pavilion in 2008. With deep associations to theory and practice both within and outside of Latin America, they serve as guest researchers and curators for AP205.

Our Polite Society is exhibition and publication designer for this project and a studio for graphic design, type design, and typographic research based in Montréal and Stockholm, founded in 2008 by Jens Schildt and Matthias Kreutzer. Their work comprises formats such as books, magazines, posters, exhibitions, signage systems, graphic identities, websites, and typefaces. Among others, Our Polite Society have produced works for Bauhaus Dessau, the University of Stockholm, the Sandberg Instituut Amsterdam, the New Institute Rotterdam, Malmö Konstmuseum, Kunstverein Bielefeld, and Internationale Bauausstellung (IBA). Their self-initiated work investigates how typographic form reflects social phenomena, and how it relates to ideology and the distribution of knowledge. Their work has notably been exhibited internationally, was twice awarded with the Best Dutch Book Designs, and is part of the collection of the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam. Our Polite Society have taught at the Konstfack University, Stockholm; the Gerrit Rietveld Academie, Amsterdam; the Royal Academy of Art, The Hague; and L'Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM), Montreal.

Francesco Garutti is Associate Director, Programs at the CCA since April 2017, where he has curated Our Happy Life: Architecture and Well-Being in the Age of Emotional Capitalism (2019) and The Things Around Us: 51N4E and Rural Urban Framework (2020) among other projects. He was formerly art and architecture editor at Abitare magazine (2011–2013) and worked as an architect and researcher for Peter Zumthor Architekturbüro between (2007–2008). Using art and architecture to activate cross-disciplinary research, Garutti has developed projects such as Elegantia at Triennale di Milano (2016) and War Games (2016) at Villa Croce Contemporary Art Museum Genoa. As the CCA Emerging Curator in 2013–2014, he directed Misleading Innocence as a curatorial and editorial investigation into the relationship between architecture, technology, and politics.

Albert Ferré is the Associate Director, Publications at the CCA, where he oversees the print and online publishing program as an essential component of the institution’s curatorial activity. Ferré studied at the Barcelona School of Architecture (ETSAB) and the Städelschule Frankfurt, and served in numerous editorial positions at the magazine Quaderns (Barcelona), the Prince Claus Fund (Amsterdam), and Actar (Barcelona / New York) before joining the CCA in 2012. He is co-editor of the CCA’s publication questioning the role of cultural institutions, The Museum Is Not Enough (CCA and Sternberg Press, 2019), and editor of the CCA Singles series.

Alexandra Pereira-Edwards is a designer and writer who joined the CCA in the role of Editor in 2021. Having variously worked in publishing and product design, she holds a Master of architecture from Carleton University’s Azrieli School of Architecture and Urbanism. As a master’s student, she was involved in the Towards Unsettling project at the CCA which highlighted the continued effects of settler colonialism in the Canadian North while questioning architecture’s role in its proliferation. Her work, which explores dynamics of power, infrastructure, and intimacy as they relate to space, has been published and presented internationally, including at Goldsmiths, University of London, and the Melbourne School of Design, among others.

The Canadian Centre for Architecture (CCA) is an international research institution operating from the fundamental premise that architecture is a public concern. It was founded in 1979 by Phyllis Lambert as a new type of cultural institution, with the specific aim of increasing public awareness of the role of architecture in contemporary society and promoting research in the field. The CCA produces exhibitions, publications, and a range of activities driven by a curiosity about how architecture shapes—and might reshape—contemporary life. It invites architects, scholars, and the wider public to engage with its collection, deepening the collective understanding of the past and giving new relevance to architectural thinking in light of current disciplinary and cultural issues.