Up and Down the Green Chain

“Heightened awareness of the growing threats to our planet has increased attention on how the ways we design and build contribute to poor environmental stewardship.” said Dr. Michael J. Berens in one of our early correspondences that would later evolve into his op-ed that appears in this issue. He is obviously right in this assessment and pointed out that the “alarm about climate change and a greater sense of social responsibility have pushed sustainability and eco-ethics into the mainstream of design practice.” That mainstream he refers to typically means those who make interior products and those who spec them, but it also refers to an invariable link of consequences: where there’s products there’s money, and where there’s money there’s corner cutting, which leads to misinformation and then confusion and then inaction.

Manufacturers and practitioners may only pick certain aspects of sustainability and ignore the rest to suit whatever business conditions they face, but it is unfair to lump the growing greenwashing problem solely at the feet of small independent product designers with limited resources and maybe even more limited knowledge, or at the feet of small design firms who do not have the capacity to vet every single product to rigorous standards, instead taking manufacturers at their word.

Calling out “greenshit” (a term I am test driving) on products or projects that qualify as sustainable by only the thinnist definition is important now, but so too is the need for some sensitivity in how we do it. Greenwashing is detrimental to genuine sustainability efforts, but so is scaring off honest practitioners interested in progress but whose efforts, while genuine, are imperfect and fail to hit some sweet spot we are unable even to define at this point. I saw a lot of greenwashing at Salone del Mobile.Milano in April, but also some diamonds in the rough (more on that in the next issue), and I would hate to see them suffer by association. The industry needs to recognize those who genuinely want to work sustainably and provide better resources to assist designers in becoming better sustainable practitioners.

Peter Sobchak psobchak @canadianinteriors.com

When Digital Meets Physical

potential to add value.

Catwalking Into New

Developments:

The Décor Studio dkstudio architects creates an upscale decor centre for a developer building a condo hotel in Toronto.

Dream Staycation: Memphremagog

Lake Residence

MU Architecture designs a 6,700-sq.-ft. shoreline residence in Québec’s picturesque Eastern Townships Region.

Lock it Up: NFB

Taktik designs The National Film Board’s new reception area inside the distinctively red Îlot Balmoral flagship building.

Next time in

Bright ideas erupted at Salone del Mobile.Milano, Euroluce and Milan Design Week.

Largest stop on the Asia Furniture Show Circle posts

Transition to Next-Level Sophistication

Silk Complex™ LVT collection features a brushed matte texture, reminiscent of silk fabric, as well as metallic accents. Each style is stunning alone; together they deliver beautifully refined transitions tailored to your preferred intensity.

Spin the Black Circle For the fourth consecutive year a Canadian took top honours in the 2023 FORM Student Innovation Competition, which challenges students to create furniture pieces using Formica products this year under the theme of “maximalism.” Tom-Elliot Monette, an 18-year-old interior design student at CEGEP Saint-Jean-SurRichelieu in Québec, grabbed the judges’ attention with his vinyl records storage cabinet, dubbed “Voluta.” The top three winning students receive cash prizes, but Monette will have the additional pleasure of seeing Voluta manufactured and displayed at NeoCon.

Another Brick in done it again, this time at one most pieces entirely is metres in length and spans an entire wall in London’s

Museum where Ai

Making Sense is being staged, Weiwei’s biggest U.K. show in eight years. The piece is both a recreation and criticism of one Claude Monet’s most famous paintings: the garden lily ponds of his home in Giverny near Paris and world-renowned for its depiction of nature’s beauty. However, Weiwei wants to remind people that the pond and gardens were a man-made construct by Monet himself, who diverted the nearby Epte river to create a tranquil landscape. Weiwei challenges these ideals by using nearly 650,000 Lego bricks to strip away Monet’s brushstrokes in favour of a depersonalized language of industrial parts and colours, a motif he has famously explored many times with other materials such as pottery shards and neolithic tools.

A Whole New World Montréal-based studio Moment Factory was tasked with transforming the lobby and main hall of the Grand Magic Hotel in Paris into essentially a theme park attraction that fuses scenography, architecture, and multimedia. Upon arrival, guests are greeted by “Mr. Maurice,” the fictional owner who comes to life in a digital portrait that hangs above the Reception Desk and encourages them to explore everchanging interior environments brought to life through architectural effects and trompe-l’oeil illusions that not only evolve throughout the day, but also over the course of the seasons.