For the Temporary Accommodation of Settlers: Architecture and Immigrant Reception in Canada, 1870–1930 by David Monteyne has received two major book prizes: the Abbott Lowell Cummings Award, and the John Brinckerhoff (J.B.) Jackson Book Prize.
The Abbott Lowell Cummings Award, given annually by the Vernacular Architecture Forum, recognizes “the book that has made the most significant contribution to the study of vernacular architecture and cultural landscapes.” The book was also one of ten winners of the John Brinckerhoff (J.B.) Jackson Book Prize from the University of Virginia Center for Cultural Landscapes.
For the Temporary Accommodation of Settlers explores the infrastructure built to accommodate immigrants making the transoceanic journey from Europe or Asia to North America, and their experience of disembarking in a new country. “In Canada, the federal government built a network of buildings that provided newcomers with shelter, services, and state support,” writes Monteyne. “‘Immigration sheds’ such as Pier 21 in Halifax – where ocean liners would dock and global migrants arrived and were processed – had many counterparts across the country: new arrivals were accommodated or incarcerated at reception halls, quarantine stations, and immigrant detention hospitals.”
The book reconstructs the experiences of people in these spaces – both immigrants and government agents – to pose a question at the heart of architectural thinking: how is meaning produced in the built environments that we encounter?
Monteyne interprets official governmental intentions and policy goals embodied by the architecture of immigration, foregrounding the unofficial, informal practices of people who negotiated these spaces to satisfy basic needs, ensure the safety of their families, learn about land and job opportunities, and ultimately arrive at their destinations.
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