The Canadian Centre for Architecture (CCA) presents The Good Cause: Architecture of Peace, an exhibition in its Octagonal Gallery examining issues arising from the reconstruction of postwar territories. The Good Cause explores the creation of lasting peace through architecture and planning projects designed to stabilize, humanize, and rebuild cities and territories devastated by armed conflict. The exhibition questions whether reconstruction can be an instrument of peace and conflict prevention, and it highlights the complexities alongside factors of success and failure involved in this process.

The Good Cause looks at the production of space in wartime and peacetime and presents case studies of projects undertaken with the participation of architects, planners, and architecture schools in several regions scarred by long-term geopolitical tensions: Afghanistan, Kosovo, South Africa, Rwanda, Israel, and Palestine.

‘The Good Cause – Architecture of Peace’ was curated by Lilet Breddels, Arjen Oosterman and Saskia van Stein and conceived by the NAI (Rotterdam) and Archis (Amsterdam) and realized in collaboration with the CCA, where is was exhibited between June and September 2011.