New book looks at the how and why of Ontario architecture

In 1978, an unusual BBC television show hit U.K. screens. Connections, hosted by science historian James Burke, would begin each episode with Mr. Burke uttering a seeming bizarre statement such as: “In this episode, I’m going to show you how a group of French monks and their involvement with sheep rearing helped to give the modern world the computer.” Then, he’d connect the dots through history.

Architectural historian Shannon Kyles’s new book, The Story of Ontario Architecture: What We Built and Why We Built It, is rather like the architectural version of Mr. Burke’s groundbreaking show. For instance, on pages 22 to 24 of the heavy, 380-page tome, she shows readers Maple Grove, a house at Upper Canada Village in Morrisburg, Ont. On top of a fence post sits a seemingly innocent urn decoration, but she whisks readers back to the rediscovery of Pompeii in the mid-1700s. She then posits that while in medieval times architectural beauty was “primarily reserved for the glory of God” and “medieval man spent most of his life either immersed in relentless warfare of trying to escape plagues,” the Renaissance era was about the “enjoyment of life.”