Canadian Interiors January February 2020

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CrossPollinators:

Inspired by Alternative Disciplines

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January | February 2020 / V57 #1

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01/022020 Features

15 CROSS-POLLINATION Embracing inspiration from alternative disciplines 22 DESTINATIONS BY DESIGN How Air Canada leverages interior design and

singular spaces to instill a sense of its brand, even without using logos or colours.

By Matthew Hague

27 F&B AND BEYOND Hospitality is now a holistic design endeavour.

By Leslie C. Smith

Regulars

8 CAUGHT OUR EYE 10 THE GOODS The new decade has inspired new trends in wall coverings, upholstery and paint. This year’s freshest crops are curious, cheeky and crisp. 34 OVER & OUT Combining multi-purpose flexibility with a fixed-in-place restaurant aesthetic to increase profits.

COVER – Left to right: Jeff Forrest; Michaela MacLeod; Mark Steel; Christopher Bates.

Portrait by Stacey Brandford Photography

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com

scene View all the parties online @ canadianinteriors.com

The Right Addresss Address, a seven-year-old design exhibit from Vancouver, made its debut in Toronto at the Lightform showroom as an opening event of DesignTO in January. The show featured studio-based furniture, artwork, textiles, ceramics and fashion.

TSA Bash at the Barns

Holts Café The restaurant portion of the iconic Toronto retailer Holt Renfrew has been reimagined by international architect Alex Cochrane.

The Toronto Society of Architects Bash holds its holiday party in a building that exemplifies design excellence in the city. 2019’s event took place at Artscape Wychwood Barns, an adaptive-reuse project of an abandoned century-old streetcar maintenance facility.

Hôpital Vétérinaire du Parc Thomas Balaban Architect squeezes a state-of-the-art veterinarian hospital into two floors of an abandoned photo studio.

Sweeny Holiday Shindig

University of Toronto McLennan Physical Laboratories and Physics Café

The views from The One Eighty, the 51st-storey restaurant atop the Manulife Centre, make a dramatic setting for the annual holiday soiree that Sweeny&Co Architects throws for clients and friends.

Open to non-science students, the space invites the wider university in to meet the physics community.

ADFF The Architecture & Design Film Festival, billed as the world’s largest festival of its kind, launched its 11th season in New York, with inaugural runs in Toronto and Vancouver. Eventscape, the festival’s lead sponsor, celebrated the Toronto opening by throwing a cocktail party at Arcane nightclub.

Ruth’s Chris Steak House DesignAgency revamps the 6,727-sq.-ft. restaurant in Toronto’s downtown Hilton Hotel.

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inside

Free Thinking Ain’t Free

People are lazy. Which is why, when faced with a difficult problem, they tend to grab the first idea that comes to mind and run with it.

Often right into a wall. Skills such as quantitative analytics are certainly valuable, and often appear at the top of the list in the Talents section of resumes for architects, designers and engineers, but to truly break through that idea wall requires flexing a special set of creative muscles: conceptual free-thinking.

This means moving away from the well-worn ruts of idea cloning that occur thanks to dipping into the Instagram well when “brainstorming” ideas for a project. After all, as we already know about social media, that approach only gives you more of what you already have.

Instead, enrich your creative diet by actively exposing yourself to design palettes outside your normal routine.

Thomas Edison, for example, was famous for employing a “roving” technique (sometimes referred to as “draghunt”), where he and his team

would conduct massive searches for useable solutions from any industry they could. Although sometimes criticized for the “random nature of luck” that a draghunt seems to rely on, rather than reasoning or imagination, that “rather than” argument is a mistake. While breakthrough thinking is by definition lucky, those who understand luck know the only way to acquire it is to expose oneself to it, as often as possible.

When you are thinking about experience, design, and innovation, look for the ability to cross-pollinate. If you consider the power of interdisciplinary design, you can expect new and different ideas to come from seemingly dissimilar work. In the hands of a good designer, this can help you come up with surprisingly innovative products that stimulate both the mind and the body in unusual ways, become the inspirations for everything from the clothes we wear to the spaces we inhabit, and even bring to light some ripe possibilities in a still-dim creative future.

07 Peter Sobchak

psobchak@canadianinteriors.com

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The Red Pill Canadian architect Jean-Maxime Labrecque has been scooping up awards for his residential project, entitled Infinite Buildings. In addition to an exterior makeover of their residence, Labrecque’s two art-collector clients instructed him to create an installation that would occupy the entire lower floor of their Montréal building. The goal was to trans­form a claustrophobic space into a generous volume without altering the building’s structure.

A solution was achieved (as any good magician would say) through the use of mirrors.

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Frédéric Bouchard

caught our eye

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Stephany Hildebrand David Boyer

Touch of Spring Montréal artist Pascale Girardin’s latest site-specific sculpture hangs in the open-air atrium of the newly opened Four Seasons Hotel on Montréal’s Golden Square Mile.

Made of lightweight aluminum with gilded accents of 24-karat gold, the all-white installation, entitled Contemplation, is made up of over 90 floral suspensions ranging from 30cm to one metre in diameter.

Suspended between floors eight to 17, the piece both references the hotel chain’s name by “evoking the cycles of nature,” according to the artist, while sharply contrasting the building’s linear architecture.

Stacked Up Montréal-based KANVA, together with Ædifica, have given the Faculty of Fine Arts at Concordia University a place to put all their stuff. The Visual Collections Repository (VCR) assembles differently formated art in one place, for example the Slide Collection (one of the largest in Canada with over 350,000 catalogued 35mm slides and data bands of over 18,000 high resolution digital images); the Moving Image Collection; and the Canadian Women Artists History Initiative. At the heart of the project are “inhabited walls” where thousands of slides, cassettes and discs are displayed and stored in a large wooden wall that spreads across the space, embossed with laser engravings inspired by the different digital formats used throughout history.

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the goods

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Apply Yourself

The industry’s newest wall products are reliable, decorative, and easy to install.

By Shannon Moore

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1 Wanderlust | Marcel Wanders Working closely with Italian wallpaper manufacturer Londonart, Marcel Wanders has developed a new collection of 13 designs inspired by the world’s most alluring cities: Vienna, Versailles, Shanghai, Havana, Pompeii (shown) and Machu Picchu, to name a few. Digitally printed in different colourways, the whimsical and highly decorative collection also includes a special pattern known as Athena, which mixes cultural references with Wanders’ signature knotted chair, bell and vase design. www.marcelwanders.com

2 SurfaceSet 2020 | Formica Canada In an attempt to blur the lines between nature and technology, Formica Canada has developed a new collection of woodgrain, solid and patterned laminate products for commercial material applications.

The SurfaceSet 2020 collection uses recycled content from industrial waste, and is available in two new textures that add natural depth and luminosity to the products. The line features three palates, each with its own distinct aesthetic properties: No Boundaries, Engineered Design and Fluidity (shown). www.formica.com

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3 Peony Collections | Lisa Batson

Goldberg This Toronto-designed, U.K.-crafted wallpaper features hand-sketched peony blooms digitally printed on wipeable and washable vinyl. The four collections – Peony Magic (shown), Peony Shimmer, Peony Classic and Peony Stripe – are all feminine and fun, boasting oversized florals and pops of pink underneath polished pearl, luminescent mica or matte finishes. Lisa Batson Goldberg’s peonies are also available in muted, colourless tones for neutral lovers.

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www.lisabatsongoldberg.com

4 ARO Plank | FilzFelt This clever and fully customizable acoustic wall system allows for one-of-a-kind applications thanks to six modular plank widths, eight standard patterns, 21 Spinneybeck leather qualities and more than 60 pure wool felt colours.

Designed by New York-based Architecture Research Group, the ARO Plank wall system is easy to install and NRC-rating approved for optimal acoustic properties. www.filzfelt.com 5 EchoPanel Diamond Tiles | Kirei These diamond-shaped wall tiles are thoughtfully designed to ensure advanced and balanced sound control.

Minimalist and easily applied, the diamonds are made from recycled materials and contain 187 cubic inches of air space each, resulting in increased sound absorption at lower frequencies. Kirei’s Diamond Tiles are available in 27 vibrant and neutral colours, in 1-, 2-, 5- or 10-diamond clusters. www.kireiusa.com

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the goods

Oxford Navy | Annie Sloan The brand’s much-loved Chalk Paint line has found a new hue. Reminiscent of traditional Indian block printing and nineteenth century military uniforms, Oxford Navy is a deep, inky blue named after Oxford University’s insignia and the brand’s English headquarters. Like all Chalk Paint products, Oxford Navy is easily applied to virtually any surface including furniture, walls and floors without the need for priming or sanding. www.anniesloan.com

Serenity Collection | Jolie Paint Now available in Canada, this water-based, non-toxic and low-VOC paint collection contains five colours that evoke feelings of tranquility and calm. Dove Grey, Palace White, Zen, Misty Cove (shown) and Eucalyptus offer different takes on neutral tones, from cool greys and crisp whites to subtle pinks and muted greens. www.joliehome.com

First Light | Benjamin Moore Their Colour of the Year is a stark contrast to its competitors’ picks.

Soft, delicate and feminine, the pinky hue is a cheeky alternative for neutral-lovers who gravitate towards white and beige. First light is one of 10 colours identified by the brand as top trends for the new decade. www.benjaminmoore.com

A Fresh Start

Chinese Porcelain | DULUX DULUX’s Colour of the Year is a rich, traditional tone that combines the energy of cobalt blue with the depth of muted navy. Drawing on the influ­ences of sea and sky, Chinese Porcelain makes a bold statement as an accent wall, or as the colour of choice for rich, drama-seeking rooms. www.dulux.ca

The new decade has inspired new trends in paint. This year’s top tints are curious, cheeky and crisp.

Classic Blue | Pantone Clean, vibrant, classic: Pantone’s choice for 2020 is a boundless blue evocative of the evening sky. Thought to aid concentration and provide clarity and calm, Classic Blue was chosen through thoughtful consideration and trend analysis.

Pantone’s Colour of the Year has long influenced product development in multiple industries, including fashion, home furnishings and industrial and graphic design. www.pantone.com

By Shannon Moore

Colour by Nature | Farrow & Ball The newest palette contains 16 colours imagined in collaboration with the Natural History Museum in London, England.

Blending vibrant and jewel-like oranges and reds with natural and opulent green and blues, the collection found its inspiration in the museum’s rare book library and Werner’s Nomenclature of Colours, an 1814 guide used by Charles Darwin to identify colours during his seminal voyage on the HMS Beagle. www.farrow-ball.com

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the goods

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1 Some Like it Mod | Architex This latest collection features four patterns inspired by the fashion and culture of “Swinging London.”

Cavern Club, Good Day Sunshine, Lucy in the Sky and Space Oddity are punchy, modern, and equally sophisticated and bright – bringing 1960s cool into present-day 2020.

Each pattern is made in the U.S. and is available in multiple colourways for a wide variety of material applications. www.architex-ljh.com 2 Viewpoint Collection | Carnegie

Traditional in feel yet modern in look, this new textile collection evokes familiarity and warmth, with a hint of something new. In one design, the ever-common floral pattern is scaled back to a simple petal and paired with lifting yarns to create a tactile motif. In another, traditional Scottish wool plaid is reimagined in soft chenille. The Viewpoint Collection contains 10 designs in total, in a variety of highly-durable fabrics and colours. www.carnegiefabrics.com 3 Topo | Concertex Short for “topography,” this new line is inspired by the patterns of movement found in common maps and diverse landscapes. Digitally printed solid contour and embossed metallic dotted lines intersect on the face of the polyurethane upholstery, establishing a unique and captivating linear design. Topo is available in eight colourways, including a variety of neutrals and energetic hues.

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Back At It

With a nod to the past and a fit for the present, the industry’s latest fabrics are familiar yet brand new.

www.concertex.com 4 The Bauhaus Project | Designtex In celebration of its centennial year, Designtex has released new designs based on the work of Anni Albers and Gunta Stölzl; two students who played a seminal role in developing the weaving program at the famous Bauhaus. Through experimentation with different materials and techniques, these women established innovative new approaches to the once traditional discipline. Designtex’s recreations pay tribute to their patterns and approaches, featuring linear geometries, circle jacquard, woven textiles and more.

By Shannon Moore

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www.designtex.com 5 Loom State Collection | Luum Suzanne Tick’s newest line uses the natural materials and familiar patterns found in traditional weaving techniques. The collection’s six designs — Structured Stripe, Dispersion, Duo Change, Homage, Oeuvre and Doyenne — bring the character of handwoven textiles to life. Embroidered drapery, double weave upholstery, plush blended yarn, wool, silk and heathered chenille are just a few of the highlights from this versatile line. www.luumtextiles.com

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Ideas cannot and should not be contained, and if designers open their strategies up to being influenced and inspired by diverse aesthetic disciplines, they will unlock new resources of materials, behaviours and emotions that when fused together can increase our experiences and bring greater pleasure to our material and immaterial lives. The multibillion-dollar creative industries of fashion, art, film, automotive, and others are rooted in parallel passions for making beautiful things and solving problems, which should make them deep wells of inspiration for anyone that calls themselves a designer and is staring at that flashing cursor on the screen, searching for a conceptual blockbuster.

This past December in Toronto, The Buildings Show brought back the Interior Design Roundtable, for which moderator Peter Sobchak, editor-in-chief of Canadian Interiors, assembled a group of four creatives at the top of their games to explore cross-pollinating design ideas and strategies. What follows are tightly edited portions of that roundtable. For the full transcript visit www.canadianinteriors.com

Inspiration through cross-pollination is one aspect of the design process, but there are also business considerations. We all must, dare I say, pay the bills, and pay attention to how we run our businesses. I’m curious how the four of you manage client relationships? When you’re given a brief, you also want to try and push the boundaries a bit and raise the bar on what you’re asked to do and what the output ends up becoming. You each have different types of clients that you must do to work with—in Christopher’s case, it’s not that many: you can pick and choose a little more because your primary focus is your fashion brand—but other ones like in architecture and design, it’s not that easy. Jeff, how do you work with clients on that level to try and bring in new inspirations or push boundaries?

Jeff Forrest: The process starts by bringing them into an active conversation about what they’re trying to achieve at a broader level and engaging them in a capital “D” Design discussion that is not disciplinebased but more holistic. In that case, if they want to go down that road, it becomes a very collaborative conversation and is usually quite fruitful. If they’re reluctant to go down that road, we can either pivot and sort of come to a compromise or there is no compromise to be had and we end up getting our asses fired. [In that case] what I have as a

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Portrait photography by Stacey Brandford Photography

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Cross-Pollination: Embracing Inspiration from Alternative Disciplines

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backup is a section of my business that’s speculative and I can turn research and design product into actual product and leverage it in a different way so that no work that we’ve done becomes wasted.

That kind of applies to a lot of what you do, Christopher. A lot of your lines are speculative: you design them with input, I’m sure, but then you put them out to the market and wait to see how well they’re received, correct?

Yeah, I design about 50 pieces when I do a new collection, and a store like Nordstrom, which is my main retailer for clothing, might pick up 20 of them. So I have 30 designs that I’ve prototyped that never really make it to the retail level. That’s not a total waste though because I do use those pieces on the runway. I’m thinking okay, maybe 80 per cent of this is commercial and then 20 per cent is a little bit more creative. And those are the pieces that are great for the runway, they’re great for editorial, great for photo shoots, marketing, press, dressing celebs, whatever. And you hope that the retailer will go a little out of their comfort zone and maybe take some of those pieces because that’s where you can show a little bit more of your creativity and design. But it doesn’t always happen.

Christopher Bates:

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Christopher Bates Creative Director at Christopher Bates

Marco Esposito

Both educated and establishing a design studio in Milan, Christopher has an innate curiosity and is inspired by anatomy, architecture, geometry and also from other art forms such as cooking.

He sells to influential retailers including: Nordstrom; Harry Rosen; and Gotstyle. He’s accumulated a long list of awards and recognitions, including most recently the 2019 Canadian Menswear Designer of the Year Award, and been featured in many of the top fashion publications including Vogue Italia, Forbes, GQ Brazil, Monocle, Elle, and more.

A Spring/Summer collection by Christopher Bates, displayed on the penthouse terrace of the Grattacielo di Milano in Milan, not far from the Istituto Marangoni where Bates was educated.

Mark Steel: I have a very similar interaction to what you’re describing.

But my process tends to be much more organic in that the clients are involved in all aspects every step of the way and have a very specific intention for what they would like. But what often happens is in the negotiation between the realities of different things, like time, budget and even when you actually start to present the idea of a production, you start to put together this whole basic palette for what this project is. It starts to become an open exchange that evolves, so we’re always in communication from start to finish about each change and each evolution, and it’s always a consensus which ensures that no step is taken without everybody agreeing.

nance: how many hours is it going to take to maintain; who’s going to weed-whack around it; who’s going to repaint this thing. And safety issues: are kids going to climb and fall; what’s the surface beneath it? I think it’s a completely different set of issues. We just try to push the boundary of what’s possible in public art. Often they’re asking for a bronze object that is a solitary thing, just decorative, and I guess our focus is to create pieces that contribute back to the park and complement the park.

There is a lot of similar language that illustrates just how much overlap there is in these different design disciplines, and I think everyone will agree that softening the boundaries between different disciplines, when

A lot of projects from Polymetis are public art and in that case the client

done well, is a great source of inspiration. But I’ll flip that around a bit and

really is a municipality or a civic body which, while a bit of a cliché, are not

ask is there any point at which certain types of design would be inappro-

that receptive to pushback. They’re a little more rigid in terms of expecta-

priate to borrow or appropriate from? Or is everything fair game?

tions than some of the clients that the other panelists have encountered.

Michaela, what is that working relationship like? How do you execute what you want to do in a tight and not very organic client structure?

I guess for us a bit of the commercial aspect is removed, so we don’t have a lot of, let’s say, design feedback from the towns and cities we work for. Their considerations are mainly mainte-

Michaela MacLeod:

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JF: I think everything’s fair game. Design is everywhere, and I find as much beauty in an Excel spreadsheet as I do a floor plan. I would say we should not be discriminating for any particular reason. I think that there’s a lot of value in looking cross-platform no matter what and frankly, we have a lot to learn from people who are specialists in areas that we wouldn’t even think to necessarily approach.

2020-02-03 3:00 PM

This Calgary-born, Toronto-based designer has successfully executed projects in furniture, sculpture, installation and architecture.

Working in close collaboration with experts in fabrication, craft and science, STACKLAB’s work has been exhibited at fairs in New York City, Chicago and even Paris Fashion Week; has received multiple awards; and been acquired by the City of Toronto’s Fine Art Collection, and the permanent Collection of the Embassy of Canada to Iceland in Reykjavik.

Sean McBride

Jeff Forrest Founder at STACKLAB

The newest addition to Toronto’s Stackt Market, the Forme Pavilion by STACKLAB is a 5,000-sq.-ft. food and beverage area covered by a scaffolding structure, itself wrapped in an undulating polyethylene terephthalate (PET) roof.

close as we can and then we bring a new idea in at the last minute.

That’s sort of how that works. Where we get into trouble is when we do a literal appropriation where we might take an artist’s piece and put it on the screen without their permission. That’s the thing studio lawyers try to keep from happening: copyright infringement. There are some very complicated and very rigid rules about that. But creatively speaking we always are just trying to get away with being as close to some other idea that we all really love and appreciate and know and then add our spin to it.

I would assume that would be the case for most creatives, but the reason I put the word “appropriation” out there is because it’s a big word these days. What is the difference between “borrowing,” “stealing,” “homage” and outright ripping someone off? This is a big issue in the design industry in terms of IP ownership and copyright. I’m not sure how much of an issue it is in fashion in terms of litigation, but how do you protect your ideas yet also borrow without getting blowback like “you stole my idea, and I’m going to sue you!”? I know in the film industry, it’s a big issue these days, isn’t it?

MS: Well, it is on certain levels. I think on a larger scale the film industry is all about keeping and building an audience and things that work get recycled and reworked. There’s always that idea of “Do it like Game of Thrones or do it like 2001.” Often the very beginning of my process is about an appropriation of an idea. When they pitched The Umbrella Academy to me it was like, “it’s The Royal Tenenbaums meets X-Men” right away. We’re already talking about genre expropriation or a mash-up of genres that have a whole bunch of licensed ideas inside of them. We don’t say we’re doing exactly that, but we always try to stay adjacent the idea by saying we want the energy of an appropriation. We want the energy of Stanley Kubrick; we want the energy of Wes Anderson to infuse our project, but we don’t want to be accused of actually doing exactly what they do. We run up as

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Christopher, how do you protect your designs? Or is that even an issue in fashion?

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CB: It’s difficult. One of my signature designs is a white dress shirt with a kiss on the collar. Now as far as I know I was the first person to do this commercially. It’s what I’m known for. But there’s been several brands since that have copied it. I spoke to a lawyer early on and they just thought that it wasn’t something that you could copyright. I’m still looking into this, it’s kind of an active thing and something that I do want because it’s a real signature for my brand. But fashion is tricky and fashion law is still kind of a new emerging realm, so there’s not a lot of precedent in my industry.

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Michaela MacLeod Founder at Polymetis

Photo courtesy of Polymetis

Moncton-born and Waterlooeducated, Michaela was awarded the OAA’s Guild Medal Award and the Prix de Rome in Architecture for Emerging Practitioners.

Her studio’s site-specific temporary installations are popular at events such as Winterstations, Icebreakers, Winter Light at Ontario Place, Jardin des Métis, and Nuit Blanche, and highlight an interest in experimental material applications, phenomenology, and the fusion of manual and digital means of representation to inspire new fields of exploration.

A major draw during 2015’s Winterstations festival on Toronto’s Beaches Park, Polymetis’ HotBox mimicked the typology of ice fishing huts but heightened the contrast between inside and out by using an oculus to focus on the sky.

JF: First an editorial comment: copying is not design; its unlicensed manufacturing. So, while those people are bad people I don’t think that it’s bad to consider the great design canon as you work. I mean, if somebody does work here and you feel that you can add positively to it by referencing it or paying homage to it than I absolutely think we should be doing that, so long as it’s advancing the conversation. But more with respect to protecting IP, there’s an interesting way around that. On the product or speculative side of my practice, we straddle the line between goods that can be made ad infinitum as products that you buy in furniture showrooms, and we also make items that are sold in the art market and in limited editions. Anything that’s limited and qualifies as art can be protected very easily: anything that is a product that is mass manufactured cannot. So sometimes what we find ourselves doing in the luxury market is we will just make a larger limited run to protect it. I’ll make a hundred units instead of 10 and if I can sell a hundred in that market then that’s good for me anyway, but I’ll just cap it at that and I know I can protect it because it’s “limited.”

There is a topic that drives me a little crazy: it’s the issue of social media and what it’s doing to the design industry. We can’t ignore its power, but is there an effort to reign it in as it relates to, for example, design brainstorming versus just Instagram referencing? Is there a pushback on that or is it

just another source of inspiration? Because the problem with social media is that it just gives you more of what you already like. It’s not really a tool to explore sources of inspiration that you don’t already know.

CB: You can get inspiration from anywhere, but if it’s already on Instagram or Pinterest, I consider it to be stale because everybody else has already seen that. If you were to reinterpret it, you really must make it an abstract reinterpretation. If you’re looking for inspiration, I would suggest going offline. That’s what I do with my team, we try to find inspiration in the real world away from screens through travel and experience and living your life and getting out a camera and taking a picture of something or sketching when you’re out. I find that to be a much better source now.

MS: I do the same. The algorithm of online image browsing really becomes a limitation very quickly. Now, to find a theme or a resource I usually try to go to a printed version, like a book. But even that is hard to do now. But I do try to get offline as much as I can and I also try to encourage my team to get involved with the language of a particular design for a set and really explore where it might exist in reality. Open your eyes, look around, because a lot of what we’re doing is just recreating worlds that we already live in

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He has helmed art departments on many projects for major studios and networks such as CBC, FX, CBS, ABC and NBC Universal. His credits include What We Do in the Shadows, Star Trek Discovery and Heroes Reborn. He is most recently wrapping up production on the second season of The Umbrella Academy for Netflix.

Courtesy of Netflix/Christos Kalohoridis

Mark Steel Production Designer at Umbrella AcademyNetflix/UCP

The Umbrella Academy, based on the comic book of the same name, was filmed in Toronto and Hamilton, Ont. The first season aired in February 2019 and was been seen by 45 million viewers in its first month, says the streamer.

and you want people that actually travelled and understand the world. Look up, look sideways, look down. It sounds basic but it almost is necessary now because so many people are just changing their field of view to a very short perspective.

I agree with you in principle, although I wouldn’t discount the computer. Look, the algorithm doesn’t own us. If the algorithm owns you then you’re being lazy. I think we all have the ability to go search for content actively. Instagram is way easier than the Dewey Decimal System and it’s easy to go in and search for content that you are legitimately interested in. I think that while there’s a lot of vapid trash on social media there’s also an incredible wealth of information on there. Plus, it’s a good capture of what’s happening currently with our peers. I think that if you spend the time to access what’s good, then it’s incredibly valuable. All the same, I’d love to do it while walking through the streets of Milano or outside at the cottage. There’s inspiration everywhere. I just don’t want to shit-talk Instagram because I think it’s a very important thing if used wisely.

JF:

MS: I don’t disagree. I just think it’s not the only resource. When I’m under a time constraint and we’re trying to conceptualize design and execute in very short periods of time, it becomes a sort of shorthand.

But when you’re at the beginning of a project where you’re trying to do a much larger conceptual design, it’s great to get out of that world when you have the time. But nobody has the time they used to have.

JF: We can push back on that a little bit. There might be an allowance professionally for all of us to tell our clients or tell our customers or tell whoever to just wait a hot second for us to take pause and really do what we need to do to produce good work, and sometimes that’s a matter of a day extra.

I love what you said, Christopher, where if you see it, you already know it has been used and is stale. Do you almost use social media as a defence to see what’s being done to make sure you don’t do the same thing?

CB: That’s a good point as well. I do pay attention to what is currently out there. I go to a site called Mr. Porter, which is the benchmark for menswear in my industry. They have everything from all the top brands. I go there and say, “Okay, what are they stocking and what’s in?” and then I make sure that I’m not doing something that someone else has already done. That said, I also don’t want to be doing something wildly different necessarily. I have to know what’s going on and then gauge it and react accordingly.

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MM: Nick [Croft] doesn’t even have Instagram and we don’t have Facebook. But I do see it. I teach first year studios at Ryerson and UofT and they come to me with a Pinterest board of what they like, which I think is fine. You have all these inspirations, but then they must make the second, third, tenth pass to distill all these ideas and make them their own. Do your thing and come back to me with a drawing that incorporates all those ideas. I do see Pinterest. That’s the main one for students. But personally, we don’t do that. In our training as architects, your mentors tell you “Go to the space. You measure it, you experience it.” You’re never going to do that in a photo.

what we were going to do anyway,” or we’ll fix it in post, or visual effects will come in to do something. There’s always another solution that isn’t the one that you’re currently not achieving. It’s much like having that thick skin. You just have to live with it.

It feels like in architecture, you don’t get to fix it in post. You put your piece out there and it’s gotta work. It’s gotta be a home run.

MM: [There’s definitely] Photoshopping in architecture. People now Photoshop whole storeys out of their buildings or huge mechanical units on the roof and stuff like that just to get published. So you can fix it [in post]. But rejection and failure are just a daily part of my life.

There’s a topic that not everyone wants to talk about, but in the creative experience it figures prominently. It’s the topic of failure. I’m curious about failure as it relates to different creative disciplines because it seems that

JF:

Same here. I feel like we need to hug.

each of you are coming from a different temporal angle. For example, if an

But you get used to it to a point and then yeah, you decide not to do those things or take another path.

architect fails the result potentially is the building collapses, which seems

MM:

to be a bigger potential scale to that failure. Whereas in fashion, there’s a shorter lifespan for these products, so maybe the issue of failure isn’t

JF: The reality is it’s kind of a cliché, but I want to fail a little bit because I learn from it and I also know that I’m not pushing myself if I don’t subject myself to the possibility of failing. If we legitimately work collaboratively in this sort of environment of cross-pollination, you’re bringing insurance to the table by having other people validate the process, validate the idea and protect you. My experience has been when I try to go it alone or when we try to own too much of it, I fail. Maybe by bringing in more people we can avoid it.

such a big deal (not to minimize it at all).

CB: I think in fashion you must have a really thick skin just to start because you put in all of your blood, sweat, tears and a fortune into making a collection, and then you go out and pitch the collection to different stores and you’re just really hoping and wishing that you can get in, [especially] with a department store. It took me years and many collections before I would get a chance at that level. That’s serious rejection. I was able to get orders from some boutiques so it’s not like you’re a total failure, but it’s really tough and even then, you’re presenting 50 pieces and they only order 20. What about these other 30 prototypes here? That’s also kind of a fail. I think in my industry you just keep rolling. The speed of my industry is rapid, so you don’t have any time to really be concerned too much. You take it into account, and you want to go with what’s working, but you also still have to keep trying other things.

I don’t mean to be a downer by spotlighting failure and asking “How have you failed? How did you deal with it?” Because obviously in the creative process you learn from those failures, and you become a better artist or a better creator. But what I’ve always found interesting about different design disciplines is the level to which you’re either afraid of it at the outset and therefore don’t do things in order to avoid it, or you think that there’s enough of a safety net that if you blow it, no big deal. I’m not giving the film industry a pass, but it feels like you can get away with a lot more of

I would say my entire process is a failure exercise. It’s set up to fail in a way. [For The Umbrella Academy] we had 12 weeks to design a Jacobian manner with a Gilded Age, Fifth Avenue apartment attached to it with a hallway with a whole bunch of features within a very large 4,000-sq.-ft. structure, all in 12 weeks to design, build, prepare and finish it. At some point it’s impossible and in those impossible moments there isn’t really a failure, it’s just a series of compromises where you try to preserve the best intention of what you started out doing, put it up there and let the edges of the frame get less of your attention. You just have to let go. Another phrase we use is “you have to be prepared to kill your babies” because you will fail if you try to do everything you set out to do. We start with the biggest idea and we basically fail to the point that it becomes the finished product. If you’re lucky you don’t go so far that it’s horrible.

MS:

just trying something to see if it sticks if it doesn’t, who cares, as you said “we’ll fix it in post.” But in fashion the consumer market decides if you win or lose and they’re not forgiving at all.

How forgiving is the film industry to you for not achieving your own goals?

MS: Well, funnily enough, everybody in a collaborative production are doing the same thing. We’re all being put through the same sort of mill, whether you’re on set photographing and blocking or directing you may run out of time that day, so you change your plan instantly and the rationalizations start to form after that. It’s really a big huge post-rationalization, like, “Oh it’s better that way,” or “That’s CANADIAN INTERIORS 1/2 2020

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CB: That’s true. I mean if you don’t have a good sell-through in one of these department stores, they will boot you. When I was early in my career, I got into Holt Renfrew which was a huge achievement and we had two seasons where sell-through was good. Nonetheless when there was a buyer turnover, and that happens a lot in my industry, these new buyers exited 35 brands of which I was one, and there’s really nothing you can do about it. You say “Oh, but I had a good sell-through and now we’re just ramping things up here.” But literally you’re just out. It took me another few years to get into a department store after that. It was really a tough blow, but you learn a lot from the process and you keep fighting. I feel like a boxer. In my industry, you’ve got to fight for every single inch that you get. When I first started my business I met with John Fluevog, a legendary Canadian designer, and the first thing he said to me was “Christopher, how brave are you?” That’s all he really wanted to ask me. And I said “John, I’m totally brave. I’ll do anything. I’m going to make it happen.” And he’s like, “Okay, we’ll see.” But it was the right question to ask and that’s the same thing I would ask a young aspiring designer nowadays, “How brave are you?” Because courage and failure are real and they’re daily.

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Photos by CNW Group / Air Canada

Destinations by Design

By Matthew Hague

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Photos by Brandon Barré

How Air Canada leverages interior design and singular spaces to instill a sense of its brand — even without using brand logos or colours.

opposite page The new Air Canada Café, located in the domestic gate area at Toronto Pearson International Airport, is a “Grab & Go” format bistro for premium clientele. A large mural by Canadian artist Shawn Evans of the places he has lived and travelled dominates the background. this page Deep in Scotiabank Arena, the redesigned Air Canada Signature Club (formerly The Chairman’s Suite) is still both a fine dining restaurant and a premium bar and lounge decked in 8,000 square feet of newly upgraded finishes.

Between the intermissions of a Maple Leafs or Raptors game, if you’re lucky enough to be invited into the Air Canada Signature Club you will see the following: descending down through a discrete passageway between the platinum seats, you’ll enter into a foyer where you can either walk through a wine room lined with smoked glass toward a marble-topped bar; turn right into a supper area dotted with cozy banquettes; or head left and sit in a lounge where an icetrough might by pre-stocked with champagne, oysters or both. You’ll be surrounded by a sports-mad crowd that has either accented their bespoke Italian suits with team scarves, or left the office behind and donned a proper jersey. The atmosphere will be warm, with soft lighting, brass, Deco-esque accents and walnut walls.

As you work your way around the lounge, perhaps glimpsing Maple Leafs president Brendan Shanahan in one of the private dining rooms, here’s what you won’t see: crass use of corporate branding from either the titular sponsor, Air Canada, or MLSE, the sports conglomerate that originally commissioned the space from Toronto interiors studio, DesignAgency. If you’re paying close attention, you’ll see the Air Canada logo embossed on the bottoms of the bar menus, or the maple leaf icon outlined in brass on some of the service stations, built-in, walnut millwork that share similarly slim proportions to the pushcarts found on airplanes. And if you’re eyes are extra keen, you might notice variations on Air Canada’s signature colours on some of the upholstery: light grey dining chairs, dark burgundy leather banquettes (it offsets some

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this spread Upon entry, guests encounter the new central lounge and bar area, featuring a curvilinear leather paneled bar with glass and bronze detailing, ringed by leather barstools with comfortable, rounded backs and a continuous bar-top surface lit for dining. Entering past the walnut-paneled entrance, guests are immersed in a warm and welcoming atmosphere defined by richly coloured materials, soft ambient lighting and signature Canadian art. A wood paneled private dining room, dubbed “The Hangar” in a nod to Air Canada’s aviation roots, enable guests to entertain in their own inner sanctums.

indigo upholstery, a wink to the Leafs). But the colours aren’t exact replicas, they are more muted. “It’s the subtle hints we wanted,” says Matt Davis, DesignAgency co-founder. “The spaces weren’t supposed to be overtly like ‘welcome to your jetliner.’”

spiration from other premium Air Canada spaces, like the Signature Club, but from “the sophisticated environments more characteristic of museum cafés,” she says. “That resulted in a highly tactile environment of terrazzo, blackened steel, marble, charcoal glass and maple wood.”

In the world of corporate branding, logos and colours are usually sacrosanct. Air Canada uses a highly specific, proprietary red: RGB 240.20.40. It’s much brighter and more recognizable than the red in the Signature Club. And in our heavily corporatized world, the rule seems to be that the more logos the better (that’s why Toronto now has a Rogers Centre, not a SkyDome). According to Davis, though, “both Air Canada and MLSE are very sophisticated clients. They understood that the Signature Club needed to be a successful room on its own. They encouraged us to evoke the ethos of their brands as luxury, elevated experiences, and did not necessarily tell us to replicate their branding directly. Which is great.”

On the project, Heekyung says she worked with an Air Canada brand manager to get a sense of the company’s corporate palette. As with the Signature Club, there are grey chairs: just not the same grey (hers are darker). And in keeping with the idea that the Café is meant to be an aspirational experience, rather than something cookie-cutter, Duquette had latitude to introduce elements that won’t repeat in any other Air Canada lounge. To give her design a distinctly local flavor, one wall is backlit steel perforated with aerial images of the city of Toronto. Likewise, she celebrated the vibrancy of Toronto street life with a photographic series called Queen Street by artist Nicolas Ruel.

The Café is the latest in a series of projects Duquette has designed for Air Canada, including other premium spaces such as the Toronto International Signature Suite and the Montréal International Maple Leaf Lounge. None of them have been roll-out. They all have somewhat of a passing resemblance, a bit like distant cousins, but they all have highly distinct personalities. The Signature Suite, for example, has a more somber vibe of dark slate floors and black armchairs compared to the Café’s youthful tones of white marble and blond woods (not to mention the self-serve kombucha station). For Duquette, what unites her projects to the person who might potentially be sitting on their laptop for a while in the Signature Suite before grabbing a coffee at the café right before hopping on the flight is that each “reflects Air Canada’s ongoing commitment to ever-evolving customer services through quality design.”

The notion of a brand as an essence, rather than a set of hard assets like logos and hues, allows companies to work on a deeper, more subliminal level than traditional advertising. The same CEOs who dine at the Air Canada Signature Club might also fly Air Canada business class out of Toronto Pearson, stopping into the new Air Canada Café, a grab-and-go snack and coffee bar for Elite and Gold Status flyers. Despite both spaces having quite different aesthetics and material palettes, the company hopes they tie together in the minds of their clientele because of a shared level of quality. Rather than simply being associated with bright red, Air Canada is trying to associate themselves with luxury, which can be a much more valuable link when those CEOs ask their assistants to book a flight.

The brief for the Café, designed by Montréal’s Heekyung Duquette Design Office with Eric Majer Architect, was to provide “top-tier customers with a new, grab-and-go concept near the domestic departure gates,” says Lynn Haroon, product manager, Maple Leaf Lounges. As a design lead on the project, Heekyung Duquette did not take her in-

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That might sound a bit amorphous, which it is, on purpose. And it’s definitely less tangible than simply showing the same logos or billboards or ads over and over again. But ultimately, the hope is that variety is more tantalizing and engaging, the versatility more durable.

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Hospitality is now a holistic design endeavour.

Three designers, three recent hospitality projects: Here’s their take on what today’s hotel chains want from their public spaces.

Not looking like a hotel chain. This isn’t Tim Hortons, people. Generic venues that

could exist in Anytown, Canada don’t cut it with today’s experiential traveller. Caitlin Flynn, lead interior designer for Calgary’s Frank Architecture and Interiors, says most international hotel brands now seek to offer “a boutique experience in a larger setting. Some place that has its own character and unique detailing.”

Multi-purpose-ness. Adèle Rankin, principal and global design lead for Vancouver’s

CHIL Design, talks of modern, streamlined customer flexibility and ease of use where

public areas — lobby, bar and restaurant — are not separated entities but blend into each other. Together, they present visitors with a variety of options for diverse requirements and times of day, from quiet nooks to communal dining tables to convivial gathering spots.

Real-life social interaction. Sure, available WiFi and electronics charging stations are

a given in our contemporary culture. But so too is the desire for human connectivity. Zébulon Perron, creative director of Montréal’s Atelier Zébulon Perron, labels his approach to design “social ergonomics,” in other words, ways and means of encouraging “opportunities for people to strike up conversations, to see each other.” This entails immersive public spaces that are special yet approachable, built for both the traveller and city-based visitors.

In Perron’s words, “the social scene is part of hotel amenities now.”

F&B and Beyond

By Leslie C. Smith

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Social Square, Marcus Restaurant / Four Seasons Hotel Montréal Atelier Zébulon Perron / Zébulon Perron, lead Photography by Olivier Blouin

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previous page and this spread For The Four Seasons Hotel Montréal, Atelier Zébulon Perron helped develop the Social Square, a sprawling third-floor space encompassing both the hotel’s lobby as well as Marcus, a lounge, bar, restaurant and terrace concept by chef and restaurateur Marcus Samuelsson. Inspired by many things, including circadian rhythms, these immersive spaces are designed to be a novel, one-of-a-kind experience: from the floating velvet bench in the lounge, to the prismatic lighting cast by the crystal wall, to the leather banquettes or material-heavy men’s and women’s bathrooms. Everything from the positioning of the furniture to the ceiling heights is treated as an opportunity to encourage interaction.

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Four Seasons is a Canadian institution that has become synonymous with luxury in its more than 100 hotels and resorts around the world. For the new Four Seasons Hotel Montréal, Zébulon Perron incorporated his concept of the Social Square, a closely knit area “planned tighter than the typical hotel lobby,” incorporating reception, lounge, bar, restaurant and terrace in one flowing sweep. Visitors are encouraged to interact in this experiential space that starts with stepping out of a burnished gold-boxed elevator on the third floor and encountering a small brightly lit cube containing a fragmented crab. The latter is an insider nod to Michelin-starred chef Marcus Samuelsson, whose specialty is seafood, and whose name and talents grace the hotel’s restaurant. Winding throughout the lounge area is a floating velvet bench complemented by a “curtain

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wall” of prismatic glass panels that creates differing mood lighting throughout the day and well into the night. The day/night divide is echoed in the centrepiece bar that is also divided by circadian rhythms. On the one side, bleached wood and a calm gradation of blue impart the serenity of a day at the seaside, another nod to Marcus’s menu offerings. On the other side, custom-designed photographic wallpaper of the “enchanted forest” in Mont Royale Park (so distinctly “Montréal” that the city itself was named for it) sets the tone for a nighttime palette of dark moss greens and setting-sun bronze sconces. The kinetic yin-yang comes full circle in the restaurant area that combines the activity of an open kitchen bar with the relaxing comfort of soft lights and leather banquettes at night and sunny days spent dining on the adjacent terrace.

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Shoe and Canoe / Delta Calgary Downtown CHIL Interior Design / Adèle Rankin, lead Photography by Jaime Anholt

this page The restaurant’s concept pays homage to 19th century Canadian explorer David Thompson, a surveyor and mapmaker known for getting around either by foot or boat, hence a stylized canoe greets arrivals either in the logo or suspended in the lobby.

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opposite page From ethereal floating ‘clouds’ to a hip, woodsy vibe, design elements were carefully thought out to offer a subtle taste of Canadiana. The design also captures the bright optimism of the young and evolving city through the use of colour. Rope accents remind guests of the early days of exploration along the Bow River, which the hotel looks out on.

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Delta Hotels began in British Columbia in 1962 and branched out over the decades into a four-star brand. Marriott International bought the chain in 2015; it now boasts 63 hotels and resorts worldwide.

Rankin’s firm has worked closely with Marriott for several years and is deeply involved in the repositioning of its Delta properties to “streamline the customer experience, make it more immersive.” Traffic patterns were closely studied to allow for easier transitions from the lobby to and through the bar and dining area. Rankin purposely turned the upscale-casual bar serving local food and craft brews into a community hub. Seating varies from communal to private, in addition to “noncommittal space allowing flexibility without necessarily dining.” A good example of this is the intimate “family room” feel at the bar lounge’s centre, which features a homey fireplace and throw-pillowed couches. Woven throughout the space are homages big and small to Welsh-Canadian explorer David Thompson, whose daring exploits Rankin equates to Calgary’s can-do spirit. Thompson’s geographic explorations of Western Canada and parts of the States (“by shoe and canoe,” hence the hospitality area’s moniker) began seven years before the much more lauded Americans Lewis and Clark started their own cartographic adventures. In tribute, Rankin uses a palette inspired by forests and rivers, and “natural materials like wood, copper and rope, plus bespoke wool fabrics reminiscent of old tailoring.” Above the bar hangs a pen-and-sepia map of present-day Calgary and an upside down canoe-cum-light-fixture graces its lounge.

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Hawthorn Dining Room & Bar / Fairmont Palliser Calgary Frank Architecture and Interiors / Caitlin Flynn, lead Photography by Bonjwing Lee

this page The design incorporated threads from the space’s original use as a rail station, for example raising the ceiling to invoke its grandeur.

The bar was pushed into the lobby and surrounded with comfortable cocktail seating, animating the lobby area and creating a space in line with international hotel lobby bars, while complementing the existing historic detailing of the lobby archways and decorative ceiling.

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opposite page Existing elements were preserved and considered in the design, such Charles Beil’s 1962 western theme “cowboy” mural, the Heraldic Badge, and the existing historic fireplace.

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Fairmont joined up with Canadian Pacific Hotels in 1999 and owns some of this country’s most iconic sites, including the Royal York and Banff Springs, among over 60 other luxury hotel properties around the world. Since both brand names are so closely associated with Canada and since the Palliser was once-upon-a-time a CP Rail station, Flynn incorporated nostalgic-yet-timeless Canadiana and train travel imagery into her remodelling of the hotel’s main floor restaurant and cocktail lounge. A statement bar now straddles the lobby and dining area, enticing visitors to enter and explore further. “The space that is now the restaurant used to be where trains went right through,” Flynn says. She employed subtle detailing to harken back to the Grand Era of locomotive adventuring. Intricate metal work behind the banquettes echoes leaded glass features in antique rail cars. The ceiling “has strapping detail typical of old rail stations,” she says. “We used herringbone, plaid and leather straps to reflect travelling suits and luggage.” Murals of grand vistas enlivened by cowboys painted in the 1960s were kept as evocative reminders of CP’s famous Travel Canada posters. Yet even with the weight of all this history — including the magnificent original stone fireplace gracing the cozy bar lounge — the space appears fresh and modern, thanks to lighting, a warm beige and wood palette, and a mixture of furniture styles that confers its own eclectic energy.

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Photo by Larissa Issler Photography

over & out

Solid Ground

Combining multi-purpose flexibility with a fixed-in-place restaurant aesthetic to increase profits.

By Peter Sobchak

space that can easily convert between daytime restaurant service and evening events, while keeping the existing “regulars” happy.

Across the street from the Royal Ontario Museum in downtown Toronto sits the Gardiner Museum of Ceramic Art. Certain key things are known about this institution: the outside was re-done by KPMB Architects in 2006, and the inside is full of Meissen, Du Paquier and Hausmaler porcelain art collections (among many other treasures). But what is relatively and surprisingly unknown is its Clay Restaurant, seemingly stuck with serving elderly lunch patrons or people attending private catered events. Toronto-based Denizens of Design was tapped with improving that situation.

Taking on the 4,000-sq.-ft. project in 2018, owner and principal Dyonne Fashina first began incorporating the elemental nature of the museum’s identity. “As a ceramics museum, the Gardiner offered such a rich story,” she says. “Its pieces are essentially made of earth, water and fire. That’s such an inspiring place to start.” But Denizens needed to do more than just refresh the look: they needed to inject functionality and profitability into a stagnating space. This was done by analyzing the behaviours and needs of, and then directly engaging with, the museum’s new hospitality partner, The Food Dudes, who asked for a CANADIAN INTERIORS 1/2 2020

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A key move was to invest in new set-up/tear-down friendly furniture that not only established the aesthetic but also created an opportunity to take that revenue stream away from third-party rental companies and funnel it back into the museum. “We essentially created a space with furnishings that required fewer outside vendors to support major events, which translated directly into profit for our client” said Fashina. Modularity and compactness were key considerations due to the strict one-hour conversion timeframe: for example, since existing storage is limited, locking storage solutions were integrated into the bar millwork.

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In addition to helping increase profitability for the Gardiner Museum, the new design has also scooped up industry awards through 2019, including an Innovation in Hospitality Design Award of Merit at the IDC Value of Design Awards, and an ARIDO Award of Merit in the Restaurant/Bar category.

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