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Articles

Volume 77/78 (2013)

Moderne et officiel ? Autour d’Eugène Beaudouin à l’ambassade de France au Canada

Submitted
August 12, 2014
Published
2013-01-01

Abstract

Nations are often represented in foreign countries by their embassy and therefore its architecture is an especially delicate matter: it houses offices, hosts meetings and is an official monument of the home country. The French Embassy in Ottawa is an example of an aesthetic that is somewhere between tradition and modernity. Designed by Eugène Beaudouin (1898- 1983), a formally trained architect known for his very modern style, the building is a site of tension between a national style and the political use of Canadian heritage and illustrates the evolution of embassy architecture during the 20th century.