The Globe and Mail

Grande Bibliothèque du Québec

While ugly buildings and soulless suburbs continue to pummel Canadians with their stupidity, the year 2005 gave the country a taste of architecture defined by its daring, clarity and spectacle. Canada's National Ballet School, the Canadian War Museum and the Grande Bibliothèque du Québec rank as exceptional works of architecture. All three buildings opened this year. All three are transforming. And, all three happen to be designed by Canadians. Architecture can allow any one of us to lose ourselves in space. Such is the achievement of the Canadian War Museum, a masterful building designed by Raymond Moriyama with his son, Jason, in a joint venture with Griffiths Rankin Cook Architects. Whereas much of Ottawa is a triumph of neo-Gothic boosterism of the federal government, the museum kneels its heavy concrete shape down by the edge of the Ottawa River. A visit requires time -- you'll find the doubt and terror of war in the slanted walls and floors. The memorial hall, cast in light on Remembrance Day, is otherwise awash in sorrow.