Barry Johns Architects

James A. Love is a professor of architecture in the Faculty of
Environmental Design and an adjunct professor of mechanical engineering
at the University of Calgary. His latest publication (in press) is the
Illuminating Engineering Society’s Recommended

Barry Johns is a recipient of a Governor General’s medal for
architecture and numerous other awards, as well as a distinguished
graduate of the Technical University of Nova Scotia (now Dalhousie
Polytechnic), the home of the press that published this volume. Nine of
Johns’s projects are presented, including a farmhouse, a technology
centre, a community college, an art gallery, and several schools.
Descriptive narratives by the architect briefly recall the design
process and principal ideas underlying the forms. The critical
discussion is limited to a few introductory pages, including the comment
that Johns’s work “is masterful when it arises out of the land and
... ill at ease when it has to stand alone in an artificial
environment.” This leaves the reader desiring a deeper and more
extensive analysis, especially as most of the projects are set among
other buildings.