Scientific Study

“We Knew It Right Away: This Was No Easy Job”

Eva Hollo Vecsei’s Life and Work from Socialist Hungary to Montréal’s Megastructures

“Fifth Façade” Place Bonaventure; designers: Raymond T. Affleck and Eva Hollo Vecsei Photo: Anna Ágnes Sebestyén, June 2024

Eva Hollo Vecsei (1930), a pioneering Hungarian architect who emigrated to Canada in 1956, became a significant figure in Québec’s modern architecture. Despite her achievements, her contributions remain largely unknown in Europe. This paper offers a biographical analysis of her modernist architectural oeuvre, initially shaped in Hungary under socialist-realist mandates before 1956, and later in Canada, where she gained prominence for her megastructures, particularly associated with the 1967 Expo in Montréal. Drawing on archival research and interviews, the paper explores the conditions that facilitated her success, the constraints she navigated, and the challenges she faced as a woman émigré in the male-dominated architectural profession of her time.

 

DOI: https://doi.org/10.31577/archandurb.2025.59.1-2.4

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