Canadian Interiors November December 2017

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Best of Canada design awards winners

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11/122017 Features

Regulars

27 BEST OF CANADA The winners from our 20th annual design awards – including

Project of the Year (Bezier Concertina), 25 projects (August 8; Augustinian Sisters permanent exhibition; Centre Hospitalier de l’Université de Montréal; Cha Le Teahouse; Chinoiserie Villa S3; Emerald Hills Leisure Centre; Ericsson Research and Development Centre; Espace CDPQ; Generator Rome; Hoogan & Beaufort Restaurant; Leña Restaurante; Medicine Hat Tigers retrofit; Mosaic Chicago; OSM - Musique aux enfants; Penguin Shop; Playster office; Ponderosa Commons, University of British Columbia; Rosemary House; Saint-Laurent apartment; Story Pod; The Gray Olive Cafeteria; The Plant; The Standard; UNDRCARD Boxing Studio; Westlight) and four products (Gweilo; Ware Lamp; Perplex Bench; Expansion Cityline).

17 CAUGHT OUR EYE 20 SEEN The best of local and international design was in full blush at Feria Hábitat Valencia. 62 THE GOODS A round-up of stylish gifts worth giving. 67 SCENE 70 OVER & OUT Toronto’s Fig40 turns a simple seat into a social enterprise.

COVER – Bezier Concertina, Paris by Stacklab. Photograph by James Munroe.

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11/12 2017 CANADIAN INTERIORS

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Next time in

What does design smell like?

We connect with Tracy Pepe, perfumer and founder of Nose Knows Design, about how a scent is a design tool that can create newly deepened ways of visitor sensation.

John Lennon and Yoko Ono Suite The Queen Elizabeth’s newest suite recreates the space where John Lennon and Yoko Ono held their iconic 1969 Bed-In in MontrÊal to promote peace.

Edmonton Oilers Group Workspace A slap shot away from Rogers Place arena, DIALOG has created a new workplace for Oilers Entertainment Group (OEG).

Kuskoa Bi Alki together with Studio TK has launched Kuskoa Bi, a chair made of fully recyclable materials derived from plantbased renewable resources, making it the first chair manufactured in bioplastics.

The Future Office Humanscale speaks to experts in design, ergonomics, technology and sustainability to explore the changing workplace landscape.

Pick up the next issue of Pick up the next issue of

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to see our roundup!

November| December 2017 / V54 #6

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inside

A Numbers Game

While attending a recent industry event I had an interesting conversation with a good friend of mine: we were joking about how many professional anniversaries are on the books or about to occur: for firms, individuals within firms, associations or awards programmes – as in the case this year with Canadian Interiors’ Best of Canada at 20 years old and Canadian Architect’s Awards of Excellence at 50. We also commented on how those professional anniversaries have an interesting correlation to personal ones, like birthdays, to which my friend quickly sang the usual refrain of how “those numbers are arbitrary and don’t really represent anything.” - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - At first I agreed, but the more I thought about it, the more that agreement dissipated. I believe there is something powerfully motivating in not just the acknowledgement but also the analysis of significant temporal mile markers. This was demonstrated to me while researching the history and legacy of our Best of Canada Awards. This 20th anniversary catalyst created a wonderful lens through which to view a fascinating evolution of not

just Canadian design in general, but arguably “the best” Canadian interior design, a crucible of quality that has used leading practitioners in our industry to help distill our industry’s best work. Maturing like single malt, the Best of Canada is now an industry benchmark, and as Drew Mandel opined in the retrospective feature we ran in the last issue, “remains a wonderful annual survey of a wide range of design in Canada.” - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - On another level, however, that earlier conversation also reminded me of the installation I saw at the recent EDIT: Expo for Design, Innovation & Technology festival. Created by Dennis Kavelmen, Expiry Dates was easily one of my favourites: it mined data from a lifespan calculation app to create a life expectancy prediction, and then used that prediction as the basis of a video portrait capture (mine is above) that uses the pixel — apropos in this day and age — as a measure of time: time you’ve used up and time you’ve got left. Having your own mortality projected onto the wall of a decaying industrial facility is a surprisingly powerful thing. But any significant event in either your personal or professional life that can catalyze any kind of intense reflection is almost always beneficial. It can help one make wise decisions on how to spend and prioritize their time, identify mistakes, set goals and paths to achieve them. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Getting to 20 with an Awards programme is something to be proud of — and we definitely are — but it is by no means a reason to ease back and let it ride. We are looking for ways to improve its value and utility to the industry, and would welcome your feedback as we prepare for another round of competition. - - - - - - - - •

15 Peter Sobchak

psobchak@canadianinteriors.com

C D i gi ta l I ma gi ng P a tter n: La nter ns

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TORONTO • MONTREAL • C ALGARY • VANCOUVER • WINNIPEG • DE TROIT • LOS ANGELES

caught our eye

Commune with the Divine Part of Montréal’s 375th anniversary celebrations, AURA by Moment Factory is a 45-minute immersive sound, light and video projection-mapping experience staged in the landmark Notre-Dame Basilica. Within its grandiose architecture and sacred art, a layer of augmented reality and spatialized orchestral scoring are united beneath the building’s lofty rood screens, all to amplify Basilica’s existing details and produce a transformative visual experience. www.momentfactory.com

Take a Seat (metaphorically) The Mah Jong sofa has been a hit and a staple for Roche Bobois since it was created in 1971. So to celebrate, the company collaborated with Art Toronto and tapped five Canadian artists to reimagine the iconic “free form” modular cushions, including Patrick Cruz, Karen Kraven, Philippe Caron Lefebvre (below), Ningiukulu Teeve, and Ron Moppett (left). The project, called Canada 150, is halfway through a three-city tour of Vancouver, Toronto and Montréal. At the end the pieces will be put up for auction and the profits donated to The Canadian Art Foundation. www.roche-bobois.com

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11/12 2017 CANADIAN INTERIORS

caught our eye caught our eye

An Idea Factory In the inaugural edition of what is intended to be a biennial festival, EDIT: Expo for Design, Innovation & Technology ran for 10 days in Toronto’s former Unilever Soap Factory and featured 150,000 square feet of installations and exhibits intended to showcase “the transformative power of design.” Two of the standouts were The Future is Wood, designed by Stacklab and sponsored by Great Gulf (owners of the factory site); and the Terreform Cricket Shelter, a dual-purpose shelter and modular insect farm intended to address two crises: a lack of food and shelter in disaster-struck regions. www.editdx.org

CANADIAN INTERIORS 11/12 2017

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seen

Spanish Fling Continuing in a healthy tradition of Spanish vibrancy, the best of local and international design was in full blush at Feria Hábitat Valencia My love affair with Spain began as a child, the country in which I celebrated my sixth birthday. Madrid, to be specific. Repeat visits over the years have further entrenched early memories of bullfights, paella, the winding mountain roads near Seville, the architectural drama of historic paradors in Toledo, the Moorish exoticism of Córdoba and Granada, and swimming in the Alboran Sea along the shores of Torremolinos. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Culturally, Spain has always been ahead of the curve, personified by so many trailblazers: filmmakers Luis Buñuel and Pedro Almodóvar; artists Salvador Dalí, Pablo Picasso, Joan Miró CANADIAN INTERIORS 11/12 2017

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By Leslie Jen

Value Added Italian manufacturer Lapalma is continually expanding their modular system of seating, surface and storage units to provide limitless combinations and permutations. Designed by Francesco Rota, ADD launched in 2014 with seating geared towards the contract market. A basic aluminum-frame structure permits an impressive degree of flexibility: components for even the most complex seating systems can be added, including trays, magazine racks, side tables, and electrical sockets to recharge smartphones and tablets.

2016 saw the launch of ADD-T, a system of tables premised on linkable die-cast aluminum legs, and now, the newest addition to the family: ADD-S, a storage system designed as 90cm x 45cm metal modules in three heights of 40, 70 and 155 centimetres. Drawers and cabinet fronts are available in lacquered plywood, blanched oak or fabric-upholstered finishes, encouraging mix-and-match personalization. www.lapalma.it

Sweet Treats Brokis, a Czech manufacturer, revealed new lighting designs that are equally delicious in their appearance as they are in name. Designed by Lucie Koldova and Dan Yeffet, Muffins are available in a variety of shapes and sizes, and as either pendant or tabletop versions. Their flared glass forms in clear, smoked or amber tints reveal the stark beauty of a naked filament bulb within. The shades are set in hand­-crafted oak or walnut bases, available in stained black and white or natural finishes. As an equally sweet complement, Macarons function as either tabletop or floor lights. Like their French pastry namesake, they are available in a range of delicate pastel shades. A translucent onyx plate in white or honey is sandwiched between shallow domes of hand-blown glass, allowing light from the base to filter through to create a subtle and diffuse effect. Natural imperfections in the glass and onyx yield qualities unique to each light. www.brokis.cz

A Spool’s Paradise A new release from Albiol, Zara is a spool-shaped table with a round top and base that bears an elegantly thin profile. Available in three different heights and diameters, Zara functions well as a coffee or end table. Both top and base are made of MDF, complemented by a joining column constructed of solid beech. 20 lacquered finish options include colours as compelling as pistachio green, rubine red, mustard and graphite. www.albiolmodular.com

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11/12 2017 CANADIAN INTERIORS

seen

Circus Act Outdoor furniture manufacturer Calma presents Circus, a collection of three stackable side tables designed by Andreu Carulla that evoke the contours of last century’s design classic, the Butterfly Chair. Here, a galvanized steel rod frame is finished with a powder coat and supports a tabletop of 10-millimetre-thick Trespa, a highpressure compact laminate. In complement, the Sra Pepa lounge chair features the same powder-coated steel rod frame and a reticulated foam seat and backrest, both upholstered in tailored Sunbrella acrylic fabric. www.calma.cat

Well Connected A Spanish company specializing in the design and manufacture of rugs and carpets, Alfombras Veo Veo presented an array of hand-woven, hand-tufted and hand-knotted samples of wool and silk. Connect is the name of the new collection comprised of five models (Cell, Linde, Kolme, Plug and Mika) designed by edeestudio. Attractive geometric patterns in an array of colours mean the rugs in this collection do double duty as interior textile enhancements and works of modern art that you can walk on. www.alfombrasveoveo.es

and Antoni Tàpies; Michelin-starred culinary masters Ferran Adrià, Andoni Luis Aduriz and Juan Mari Arzak; architects Antoni Gaudí, Rafael Moneo, and this year’s Pritzker Prize-winning RCR Arquitectes.

-------------------------------------------------They’re no slouches in the furniture department either. I had the privilege of attending Feria Hábitat in September, a time when much of Spain still feels like summer, with blistering heat and relentless sunshine. Held annually in Valencia, this year’s edition of the fair featured an expanded list of over 250 exhibitors showcasing the best of European furniture and lighting. Spanish design sensibility has always been sophisticated; bearing many of the same characteristics as Danish design, the best examples are defined by cleanly tailored forms, high-quality materials, and at times, a boldness in hue that recalls the supersaturated colours seen in the most vivid of Almodóvar’s films. The dominant presence of established mainstays such as Andreu World and Capdell anchored the show, signifying their longevity and industry leadership in Spain. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - • CANADIAN INTERIORS 11/12 2017

Folding Chair Designed by the ever-prolific Spanish designer Patricia Urquiola for Andreu World, Nuez debuted at Habitat in a variety of colours and material choices. Here, a thermoplastic shell comprises the seat and backrest of the armchair, its form derived from the folds in a sheet of paper; grooves in the plastic give it a pleasing texture. The interior of the chair can be upholstered in fabric, leather and faux leather. Bases come in four configurations: four wooden legs, aluminum four-star, five casters and cantilever.

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www.andreuworld.com

Sexy Rexy Slovenian company Rex Kralj has reintroduced its Rex 120 armchair that was first unveiled in 1953. Unsurprisingly retro in spirit and form, the Rex 120 embodies both strength and elegance. Constructed of solid American walnut and walnut veneer, the finessed ergonomic design features curved wooden armrests that echo the sinuous contours of the chair’s seat and backrest. Rex 120’s equally attractive sibling is the Shell chair; comprised of two equally formed plywood panels seated on a metal frame. The joinery of backrest and seat is articulated by three rivets on either side. The Shell chair comes in walnut or ash veneer in a natural, black or white finish. www.rex-kralj.com

Miró, Miró, On the Wall Designed by Swedish multidisciplinary architectural/design firm Claesson Koivisto Rune for Spanish manufacturer Capdell, the newly released Miró 412T is a lightweight chair with an attenuated profile that is suitable for a variety of private or public environments. Structured with slender metal legs and a thin plywood or beechwood frame (with the option of an upholstered seat and backrest), the armchair is available in a delightful range of colour options. A variation of the previously launched 410T, this version of Miró features elegantly curved armrests and a padded cushion. www.capdell.com

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Swingers Designed by Alberto Sánchez of MUT Design for Expormim, Nautica is a hanging swing chair that pays homage to one of the first pieces created by the company in the 1970s. Suspended by a sturdy polyester rope, Nautica is constructed of high-resistance aluminum tube and peeled natural rattan finished in textured epoxy paint. Seat and back cushions are upholstered in a choice of natural leather, faux leather or pure virgin wool fabric. www.expormim.com 11/12 2017 CANADIAN INTERIORS

SVEND NIELSEN Custom Furniture

Project > Dinner by Design | Designer > Gensler | Gensler | Photographer > Alec Ng

The Design Exchange, Canada’s museum devoted to showcasing design excellence, invited Gensler to partake in Monogram Dinner

by Design, to raise awareness and funds for local AIDS hospice Casey House. Inspired by the möbius band, the designers transformed a 12’ x 12’ room into a futuristic yet functional space for a memorable feast. The LED-illuminated strip wrapped around the ceiling and floor and underneath the table, creating an unforgettable dining experience. Ultramodern elements included the wired Corian tabletop, black-lacquered wood, geometric steel-framed chairs and acrylic placemats. Designed over three months, the entire set was erected within a day by millworkers, electricians and volunteers who donated their materials, expertise and time. More than 600 people enjoyed Monogram Dinner by Design while raising thousands of dollars for Casey House.

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Š2017 California Closet Company, Inc. All rights reserved. Each franchise independently owned and operated.

Experience the before and after

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Canadian Interiors’ Best of Canada Design Competition is the country’s only design competition to focus on interior design projects and products without regard to size, budget or location. We welcome submissions from interior designers, architects, interior architects, decorators, and crafts persons.

Best of Canada

Our platinum anniversary shines bright with project and product winners that reflect the best of Canadian design.

By David Lasker Forward by Peter Sobchak

The on-going success of the Best of Canada, coupled with the anniversary year, prompted an opportunity to separate the two main categories of Projects and Products into distinct judging exercises. Held on separate days, both at the Teknion Toronto Collaboration Hub and with Teknion’s support, we enlisted the aid of two groups of judges. For Projects we recruited: Ian Chodikoff, Director of Marketing & Programming, IIDEXCanada; Alex Josephson, co-founder, Partisans; Stephanie Davidson, partner, Davidson Rafailidis; and John Tong, principal and executive creative director, +tongtong. On the Products side, three judges were conscripted: Matt Carr, design director, Umbra; Jeff Forrest, co-founder, Stacklab; and Gaston Isoldi, Director, the Americas, Maison+ Objet.

Ultimately, a total of 30 winners were chosen, which include four Products and 26 Projects representing a crossCanada spectrum as well as international locales such as the United States and China. When it came time to select the Project of the Year, the judges were not only unanimous but almost visceral in their choice: a paper-based retail display system for a clothing store designed and fabricated in Toronto but installed in Paris, Stacklab’s Bezier Concertina.

Peter S o

bchak

Projects judges (l to r): Ian Chodikoff, Alex Josephson, Stephanie Davidson and John Tong

Products judges (l to r): Matt Carr, Jeff Forrest, Gaston Isoldi (via conference call)

We’ve been saying this mantra for officially 20 years now, and without too much humble-brag, we are blown away by the legacy our Awards programme has created: 419 (not counting this year’s crop) of the best interior projects and products created by Canada’s incredibly talented design industry have been recognized. And as evidenced by the comments of past winner John Tong of +tongtong in the previous issue’s retrospective, it “reveals the Canadian design industry as a tour de force on the international stage. Winning the BOC and being published in Canadian Interiors is really important in reinforcing that to our clients.”

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This year also provided a new opportunity to further celebrate the exceptional work of Canada’s product designers. With the Judges’ Pick one of the Products category winners got the nod for a trip package to attend Maison+Objet Paris as a VIP in January, 2018 (the result of a generous sponsorship by Maison+Objet). This honour went to Partisans for their show-stopping Gweilo lamp.

Congratulations to all 30 winners!

11/12 2017 CANADIAN INTERIORS

Josephson: Tong:

It’s so precise. It pushes an approach to manufactured display and conceptualization.

Chodikoff:

Davidson:

It’s not a single element, it’s a whole experience.

That installs easily and turns into something very precious.

There’s no magic or fancy millwork skill. I like how humble the materials are. It’s one single, very common material that everyone can recognize and understand how it’s made.

CANADIAN INTERIORS 11/12 2017

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project of the year

Bezier Concertina

Paris, France

Stacklab

Toronto

James

Munroe

Japanese starchitect Shigeru Ban put cardboard on the map as a building material for churches and disaster-victim housing; Stacklab’s Bezier Concertina brings similar innovation to the pop-up display. The reusable, paper-based display system for clothing and leather goods was designed and made in Toronto and installed in a Parisian storefront. Was the French venue a landmarked heritage interior? It mattered not because the system is self-supporting. It’s also inexpensive to transport thanks to the low weight of the white 1.5mm sign-grade paperboard material and its suitability for IKEA-like flat-pack shipping. The system comes with integral hangers. It even sports an elegant appearance, thanks to the paperboard’s structural ribbing acting as instant careful detailing. In Paris, the system was arrayed as an accordion or concertina-like display wall, which created visual intrigue for passersby on the busy street. In plan, the installation resembles the serpentine, helical spring shape of a Slinky toy.

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The tightness of the folds were varied to create a gradient of high and low density. Notches were cut out of the densely folded areas on-site to form pocket-like shelves and hooks for the display of leather goods such as shoes and bags. Low-density areas, where the folds were stretched out to evoke a paneled screen, supported face-out hanging apparel displays. The timeline for fabrication was one day; installation on site by one person, two days; strike time, two hours.

11/12 2017 CANADIAN INTERIORS

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retail

Penguin Shop

Toronto

figure3

Steve T sai

Toronto

31

As a student, I so admired the graphic design of Penguin Classics that I would buy esoteric titles, such as Tacitus’s Annals of Imperial Rome, merely to augment my bookshelf’s load of the handsome black-spined paperbacks.

The fetishization of fan love for Penguin graphics reaches its apotheosis at Toronto’s playful, endearing Penguin Shop. The famous logo of the flightless aquatic bird on an orange field graces the book stacks and the backlit branded back wall. Display text is set in the book jackets’ familiar Gill Sans type font of Britain’s Helvetica. Turning the store’s small footprint to advantage, figure3 used library rolling stack shelving, with the book racks mounted on concealed wheeled carriages. The arrangement obviates the need for fixed, spacewasting aisles between every stack. The stacks, resembling oversized Penguin paperback spines, remain compressed into a compact storage area. Single aisles are created as needed whenever a customer wishes to access a specific range. This encourages the customer to engage by pulling out and perusing other shelves, furthering the urge to splurge. The delighted corporate parent is pondering rolling out the design as a prototype store.

11/12 2017 CANADIAN INTERIORS

residence

Chinoiserie Villa S3

Beijing

David Chang Design Associates International

MConce

pt Imag

e

Beijing

CANADIAN INTERIORS 11/12 2017

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The challenge with a practically unlimited budget and an opulent materials palette is knowing when to edit, when to stop short of looking over-the-top. While the judges in a competition such as the Best of Canada are congenitally partial to minimalist Modernism, they recognize when a project in a more classical style, such as Chinoiserie Villa S3, is good of its type. Imagine Bramante, Bernini and Michelangelo collaborating, after their St. Peter’s Basilica, on an updated late-Renaissance palazzo for a Chinese tycoon. There’s plenty of travertine, the building stone of Rome, as well as leather, brass and crotch mahogany veneer. The project is Baroque in its sense of theatre, though not gratuitously so. The 18,000-sq-ft. villa boasts 14-ft. ceilings, rising to 25 feet for the 900-sq.-ft. living room and dining room area. A spectacular long chandelier illuminates the spiral staircase that connects the five storeys. Chinese decorative motifs and details include arches and latticework screens inspired by Qing-dynasty Huizhou architecture, and stone pedestals shaped like plum blossoms.

residence

Rosemary House

Toronto

Kohn Shnier Architects

Double

space P

hotogra

phy

Toronto

33

In designing a house for a family with the difference in children’s ages spanning 10 years, Kohn Shnier planned spaces that are zoned but not always enclosed. Circulation patterns offer continuous loops and vantage points for overlook, providing abundant running space for the kids and art display, and constant contact among family members. A signature element, the pleated ceiling comprising folded sections of oak boards in lieu of the customary flat drywall, attenuates loud sounds. The ceiling folds, and the seams between the boards catch the light, providing a progression of shadows according to weather and time of day. Tracks for lighting aimed at the client’s extensive art collection are partially, though gracefully, concealed in ceiling slots. Also notable are the subtle transitions between rooms and zones. They intersect not with edges abutting but through the intermediary of a reveal or narrow gap, which adds feathery shadow lines to room borders.

The client couple are both doctors; their health concerns ruled out consideration of materials such as carpet and paints that off-gas volatile organic compounds (such as formaldehyde and benzene), hence the predominance of white oak and travertine.

11/12 2017 CANADIAN INTERIORS

Formica® Surfaces. FOR REAL.™

residence

Saint-Laurent apartment

Montréal

Atelier Barda

Adrien

William s

Montréal

35

This 1,150-sq-ft. space, accommodating visiting international clients and collaborators of a Montréal fashion-industry firm, was conceived as a cross between a hotel room and a loft apartment. The base building was reconfigured to position the bedroom, dressing room and bathroom in their own circulation zone and free up the main space to create a large open living room, bathed in natural light. The original beams and fire-sprinkler pipes overhead were deliberately left visible and painted white, which visually heightens the ceiling. These crude framing elements contrast against the black of the stovetop, plumbing fixtures and carefully detailed new oak millwork. All freestanding furniture was custom-designing, including the dining room table and benches in solid oak and black metal tubular base that continue the kitchen’s monochrome palette. The thickness of the materials was concealed to give sharp edges where surfaces meet, such as at the intersection of the kitchen and the adjacent hallway. Here, the marble, stained oak and gypsum appear surreally to lack dimensionality, as if they were horizontal bands of tonality in a desaturated abstract painting by Mark Rothko.

11/12 2017 CANADIAN INTERIORS

office

Mosaic

Chicago

Johnson Chou

Ben Ra

hn / A-F

rame S

tudio In

c.

Toronto

CANADIAN INTERIORS 11/12 2017

36

The new Chicago office of Mosaic, a marketing and sales (no one says “advertising” anymore) agency, occupies 43,000 square feet in a renovated brick-and-beam publicschool. Johnson Chou aimed to convey Mosaic’s brand message of “immersive experiences” by creating a bright, airy environment that would foster transparency, collaboration and serendipitous conversations throughout the building. One repetitive signature element is metal mesh screens. The diaphanous panels reinforce the openness of the company culture while guiding movement, framing views and demarcating different zones. On each floor, a hub offers a communal getaway from the private offices and open workstations. The hubs vary in size and type, from coffee bars and lounges to bleacher seating and long tables. In one striking vignette, glassed-fronted meeting rooms are strung out in a saw-tooth array. A lighting-trough bulkhead running above the meeting-room fronts has outward-sloping sides and long tapering bow to evoke a long boat.

office

Playster

Toronto

ACDF Architecture

Adrien

William s

Saint-Hyacinthe, Que.

37

Only the colour-blind will need signage in the MontrĂŠal office of Playster, a subscription-based entertainment service.

The extensive colour coding on carpet tile, walls and ceilings of the various work areas, from boardrooms to workstations, does double duty as a wayfinding device. Surely it also yields a productivity benefit, with the bold juxtapositions, not to say clashes, of highly saturated, correlating and complementary hues acting as visual caffeine. The effect’s potency relies on antiseptically clean floors where nary a jute thread protrudes from a carpet-tile edge, and on pristine walls unsullied by posters or electrical outlets (breakout-area walls, fittingly, are white). So, one wonders, is the scenario as conveyed in the images real or is it Photoshop? Regardless, the consistent, strong approach to the use of colour to create distinct environments within a large floorplate, where each team has its own colour identity, injects playfulness into a contemporary workplace without resorting to the usual playground clutter of swings, hammocks and foosball tables.

11/12 2017 CANADIAN INTERIORS

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office

Espace CDPQ

Montréal

Lemay

Adrien

William s

Montréal

39

There are business incubators and then there is Montréal’s Espace CDPQ, the acronym for the giant Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (known in English as the Quebec Deposit and Investment Fund, or just “Caisse”). The place brings together budding entrepreneurs, money men and coaches to mentor them. The mandate is to accelerate the growth and globalization of Québec SMEs (jargon for small and medium enterprises) with the ultimate goal, according to CDPQ president Michael Sabia, of creating a collaborative culture of “shared knowledge and pooled networks” enabling Montréal to rival Silicon Valley, New York and Tel Aviv. The 53,000-sq.-ft. project’s highlights include a subtly canted reception desk, and a birch-slat ceiling with folded planes that reads like an inverted landscape element or abstracted reptile. The globalization laboratory hints at mystery with its concealed entrance and slits at the four corners evoking zippers on a tent, allowing visitors a sneak peek of live coaching sessions.

11/12 2017 CANADIAN INTERIORS

office

Ericsson Research and Development Centre

Montréal

Menkès Shooner Dagenais Letourneux Architectes

Stepha

ne Brug

ger

Montréal

CANADIAN INTERIORS 11/12 2017

40

There are two “money shots” of this large, heterogenous office project comprising three low-rise towers linked by an internal courtyard. In the heart of the central area, an atrium incorporating a communication staircase allows daylight to penetrate to the ground floor. Concentric rings of increasing width, with furniture to support informal encounters, are deployed around the stairs: Frank Lloyd Wright’s Guggenheim Museum spiral meets Corporateland. Then there is the intimate scale of the daycare centre, divided by a central passage whose angled ceiling charmingly evokes the gable end of a roof: a totemic image for children and one of the first things they learn to draw. Small windows allow the little ones to see inside the classrooms, each with its own identifying features and child-scaled furniture.

marketing

The Plant presentation centre

Toronto

+tongtong

Naomi

Finlay

Toronto

41

Condo dwellers in the Big Smoke with green yearnings will surely sell out The Plant, a low-rise condominium development in Toronto featuring “vertical aeroponic tower gardens” and marketed as promoting a healthy lifestyle based on eco-nostrums such as producing zero waste and carbon. To that end, +tongtong’s design for the presentation centre relegated space for the usual model suite, layout panels, material finishes and upgrade palettes to the periphery.

The main area features a custom commercial kitchen that repurposed an industrial exhaust hood from the production facility that previously occupied the site. Custom furniture includes stools and benches made from salvaged old-growth lumber, mobile herb and compost carts integrated with the kitchen design, and sales and event tables updating the traditional communal picnic table. Micro-gardening bleachers intended for the project’s terraces and patios are displayed in a lounge whose focal point is an array of sea-urchin-like beanbag chairs.

11/12 2017 CANADIAN INTERIORS

institutional Undrcard Boxing

Calgary

McKinley Burkart

Calgary

As portrayed on the silver (Rocky) and small (Ray Donovan) screen, “boxing studio” is inevitably preceded by the adjective “grungy.” Calgary’s new Undrcard Boxing Studio confounds this stereotype. Rather, it harks back to the Victorian era’s introduction of the Marquess of Queensberry rules, which brought timed rounds and gloves, and boxing was known as the gentlemen’s sport. Indeed, it’s hard to picture anyone breaking a sweat or getting a shiner in these immaculate, yuppified surroundings. The macho industrial bones of the existing brick-and-beam heritage building play off against the refined white-washed oak finishes and white display fixturing. Graphics announcing the fight times are big and bold enough to get attention. The venue is multi-programmed, not just for boxing, but as smart nightclub, retail store for branded merchandise, and juice and coffee shop, with the multiple functional layers clearly articulated and organized.

Medicine Hat Tigers arena operations spaces

Medicine Hat, Alta.

Spectacle Bureau for Architecture and Urbanism

Jamie H

yatt

Calgary

CANADIAN INTERIORS 11/12 2017

42

The Medicine Hat Tigers, a WHL hockey team in Alberta, hired Spectacle Bureau to design coaches’ offices, meeting and video review, therapy, fitness, equipment maintenance, first aid, players’ lockers, showers, washrooms and the dressing room in the city’s new arena. The lack of detailing and changes of texture (at least, as photographed) give the 12,000-sq.-ft. project a surrealistic, brooding quality. The enfilade view, from showers to washrooms, make the rooms seem monumentally large because of the absence of anything that could provide a sense of scale. In the dressing room, to convey team spirit, co-operation and solidarity, each player’s stall is a unit in a continuous birch grid that conceals lighting and ventilation. To put players in a contemplative, ritualized mood just before combat, the corridor from the dressing room to the ice surface is clad with black reflective high-density polyethylene sheets on walls and ceiling, and black rubber on the floor. Carefully spaced downlights cast separate circles of light onto the floor to intensify the feeling of movement.

institutional

Ponderosa Commons, University of British Columbia

Vancouver

KPMB Architects / HCMA Architecture + Design

Adrien

William s

Toronto / Vancouver

43

Primarily a commuter campus, Vancouver’s University of British Columbia was laid out with student residences located at the perimeter. Apparently, its master planners gave no thought to fostering a vibrant after-hours community.

This, then, is the mandate of the new Ponderosa Commons, which brings new lounge, food service areas and dorms (with 1,150 beds), as well as a new level of animation to the campus core. The fresh-food market and pizzeria are the first in UBC history to turn a profit. The LEED Gold project earns its keep as a hotel and conference centre when school’s not in session.

The 600,000-sq.-ft. project is so big it has two monumental staircases, a yellow and a purple; both are strong gestures. A third monumental staircase, this one black, curvy, and conjuring memories of Frank Gehry’s invasive, colossal Walker Court stairs at the Art Gallery of Ontario, serves as the focal point in a large open ground-floor area. Indeed, it’s evident that the architect, interior designer and landscape architect collaborated closely. Many interior spaces in this project take advantage of B.C.’s uniquely mild (for Canada) climate and extend seamlessly to the exterior.

11/12 2017 CANADIAN INTERIORS

institutional

Emerald Hills Leisure Centre

Sherwood Park, Alta.

MJMA

Shai Gil

Toronto

CANADIAN INTERIORS 11/12 2017

44

Whether as MJMA or under their previous, spelled-out name, MacLennan Jaunkalns Miller Architects, the Toronto firm seems to have a lock on creating Best of Canada-winning civic aquatic centres. Previously, one could speak of their exteriors, such as Toronto’s Regent Park Aquatic Centre, as combining a curtain wall with metal cladding that had been subjected to fascinating nips and tucks. Their new 57,000-sq.-ft. Alberta facility ups the ante by seemingly shedding its flat skin, like a snake molting, and sports a crustacean carapace whose folds and angles continue the fractal geometry that animates the interior. Even the big boxy main space looks like a rectangle caught in the act of erupting into a quadrilateral (a shape with no parallel sides): heady stuff for a hamlet located a half-hour east of Edmonton. In the main interior area, lighting was carefully positioned so as not to break up the pristine expanse of ceiling above the pool. A graphic program of multi-coloured superimposed hexagons, made of ceramic tile and playfully evoking the optical effect of chlorine blur, weaves throughout the interior. The motif recurs in the lobby, pool space and in the fully transparent, accessible and inclusive gender-neutral universal change room (translation: you gotta change clothes and get naked inside a telephone-booth-sized closet).

institutional

Centre Hospitalier de l’Université de Montréal

Montréal

CannonDesign + NEUF architect(e)s

Adrien

William s

Montréal

45

At 22 stories tall and more than three million square feet in area sprawling over two city blocks, the Centre Hospitalier de l’Université de Montréal (CHUM) is the largest healthcare construction project in North America. The complex incorporates two structures that previously stood on the site, Saint-Sauveur Church, built in 1865, and the contemporaneous church custodian’s house. They were dismantled, then integrated into CHUM’s public spaces and make a welcome foil to the predominant slick Modernist architecture. They, along with the city’s largest public-art program since Expo ’67, offer cultural enrichment while helping visitors orient themselves.

This is a welcome advance over the familiar yellow arrows in vinyl floor tiles as a hospital wayfinding device. Most of the 772 single patient rooms overlook expansive gardens, which aids in the healing process. Thanks to the narrow tower floorplates, the rooms also enjoy impressive city views.

11/12 2017 CANADIAN INTERIORS

hospitality Westlight restaurant

New York

Studio Munge

Michae

l Stava

ridis

Toronto

Westlight, the 22nd-floor rooftop bar and lounge atop the William Vale Hotel in the New York City borough of Brooklyn, boasts an impressive view across the East River of the Manhattan skyline. The entry builds a sense of suspense and arrival by funneling guests through a twotone, boldly patterned narrow corridor. A dropped eye-of-needle grid with globe lights poking through makes the tall ceiling appear lower, which makes the big room feel more intimate, while concealing the utilitarian-looking electrical conduits and sprinkler pipes overhead. The wide-ranging materials palette includes black iron, natural stone, leather, velvet and a Mexican mission tile floor. Upholstery panels on the columns provide sound-absorbing soft surfaces that are, no doubt, sorely needed in this glam beau-monde establishment.

The Standard café

Montréal

Jean de Lessard Designers Créatifs

Adrien

William s

Montréal

CANADIAN INTERIORS 11/12 2017

46

Here is the exemplar of urbane urban living: the smart, intimate coffee shop. Despite its name — “Deluxe” would be more apt than “Standard” — this venue in Montréal’s Westmount district serves Grand Cru, if you please, coffee and gourmet pastries. The designer sought a period-café look. So, stopping short of recreating Ernest Hemingway on the Rive Gauche, he evokes the Belle Époque with a grid of reveals on the walls suggestive of wainscoting, which in turn aligns with shallow ceiling coffers suggesting intersecting beams. The imposing white quartz worktop at the barista station, the polishedbrass pastry showcase and the herringbone blond hickory floor stand out against the elegant backdrop of the very dark walls and ceiling. The café’s success proves once again that you can never go wrong with basic black and pearls.

hospitality

Generator Rome

Rome

DesignAgency

Mans B

erg

Toronto

Back when they called themselves The Design Agency, DesignAgency won a 2014 Best of Canada award for the first and prototype Generator Hotel, in Barcelona, where their mandate extended beyond design and decoration and into corporate identity. Thus were born the signature supergraphics, light fixtures and logo “G” sculptures recurring in subsequent locations. The client’s niche is a hybrid of hostel and hotel. Guests sleep in private rooms or in communal bunk beds; rooms lack inessential items such as dressers and landline phones; the variety of public areas, some quiet and others flashy and brassy, encourages guests to hang out and mingle. (Airbnb, whatever its competitive advantage, lacks Generator’s social dimension.) The mismatched aesthetic encourages exploration. Decorative highlights include a polished concrete floor; a distressed plaster wall; red Chinese lanterns; a wildlife mural by Italian street artist Luca Maleonte; supergraphics of retro VW busses; and, above the market-style café counter, a custom light fixture of pots and pans by local design duo Rigodritto paying homage to Nona’s kitchen.

11/12 2017 CANADIAN INTERIORS

hospitality

Leña Restaurante

Toronto

DesignAgency

Nikolas

Koenig

Toronto

CANADIAN INTERIORS 11/12 2017

48

Down Argentine Way, the 1940 film starring Betty Grable and Don Ameche, showcases the Latin-American country when it was one of the wealthiest and most fashionable on the planet. The new Leña Restaurante evokes the film’s cafésociety setting. Indeed, the designers state that they were paying homage to the chef’s Argentinian mother-in-law. The location, a corner of Saks Fifth Avenue at Hudson’s Bay Queen Street in Toronto, a heritage-listed property, had wonderful Deco details that were retained. The pièce de résistance among the dining areas is the Octagonal Bar. An existing backlit etchedglass pillar was the starting point, the drama heightened with a cascading fixture of teardrop glass pendants modelled after the cup made of a hollow calabash gourd from which Argentinians drink their traditional coffee-like mate. A bar made of olivewood and marble wraps around the base of the pillar. Original chrome staircases and creamy marble walls with oxidized copper cornices complement turquoise leather upholstery, traditional Spanish floor tiles, potted trees and a picture wall of oil paintings.

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hospitality

Gray Olive Cafeteria

Burnaby, B.C.

Cutler

When T

hey Fin

d Us

Vancouver

CANADIAN INTERIORS 11/12 2017

50

The diner in the greenhouse is the branding theme at Gray Olive Cafeteria in Burnaby, B.C. A large metal grid structure filled with coffee and olive plants in terracotta pots divides the dining area from the open kitchen while keeping sightlines open. Laser-cut brass icons guide guests to the self-serve water station and the washrooms. The limited menu, spelled out in retro changeable sans-serif black letters on a glass sign board, offers yuppie-tweaked comfort food such as the “G.O. Breaky” sandwich. This combines marbled egg (a fried egg with firm yolk) chives, tomatoes and smoked shallot aioli on a bun. If the profusion of dangling leafy tendrils and stalks threatens untidiness, there’s a counterbalancing design discipline in the shared oval, Vienna Fingers forms: the long dining banquette of butter-toned pleated leather, the planter bar in the middle of the dark-stained wood floor with the tiled insert below, and the acid-washed wall mirrors.

hospitality

Hoogan & Beaufort Restaurant

Montréal

Appareil Architecture

Alison S

lattery

Montréal

At Montréal’s Hoogan & Beaufort Restaurant, it’s not just chestnuts — to cite a seasonal favourite Nat King Cole tune — that are roasting on the open fire, but almost the entire menu. So the biggest wood-fired fireplace this side of a pizzeria or Argentinian steakhouse, and an open kitchen to show it off and dazzle the customers, were high on the design priorities list. The restaurant’s name commemorates the two farmers who sold their land to CP Rail in the late 1800s to make place for the Angus Yards in east-end Rosemont. The shops, including the former train factory where Hoogan & Beaufort occupies a vast, 2,700-sq.-ft., 28-ft-high space, employed 12,000 before the railway shuttered them in 1992. With the soil since remediated, the area has become a thriving, gentrified redevelopment. Don’t be lulled by the roughedged industrial aesthetic of the custom furniture and the rustic board-and-batten cladding on the central bar surrounding the chef’s workspace: this eatery sells $40 Hill Farmstead Brewery’s “Dorothy” pale ale, imported from Vermont. But that’s no surprise, given the presence of a glassed-in wine cellar.

11/12 2017 CANADIAN INTERIORS

hospitality

August 8 restaurant

Brampton, Ont.

Dialogue 38

Kerun Ip

Toronto

CANADIAN INTERIORS 11/12 2017

52

The assignment at August 8, in a shopping mall in the Toronto suburb of Brampton, included a new dining space, renovation of the entrance bar, signage and a new façade design. The Hamilton-based restaurant chain is known for its fusion of Cantonese-style dim sum and traditional Japanese cuisine. The goal for Dialogue 38 was “to capture traditional Asian elements such as Chinese watercolor paintings and simple Japanese aesthetic with a retro twist.” The result attains a level of sophistication and serenity that one does not expect from a casual-dining mall restaurant. Much of the effect is attributable to the lighting, which washes up the exquisite artwork from sources concealed behind banquette backs, and down from pin spots above the table tops to ensure that the food sparkles, all without emitting glare or raising the ambient brightness. In the area with small-booth seating, cove lighting and custom booth arm lights enhance the feeling of warmth and intimacy.

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single detail/design element Cha Le Teahouse

Vancouver

Leckie Studio Architecture + Design

Ema Pe

ter

Vancouver

Vancouver’s Cha Le Teahouse provides a Modernist backdrop for the ancient Chinese tea ritual. A plywood matrix unfurls up the walls to form display shelving, and across the ceiling, where its deep coffers inhibit glare from the LED downlights.

The play of depth and shadow across the grid enlivens the space. The minimalist mass of the tea bar, the main seating and beveragepreparation area, was inspired by the reductionist boxy sculptures of Donald Judd. The relentless repetitive rhythmic uniformity of the grid, with its receding orthogonals that converge in perspective, combined with the bland blond-wood monotony of the humble materials palette, has a cumulative hypnotic calming effect that suggests the sense of order and serenity associated with the tea ceremony.

Montréal Symphony Orchestra: Musique aux enfants conservatory

Montréal

Lemay Michaud Architecture Design

R Thibo

deau

Montréal

CANADIAN INTERIORS 11/12 2017

54

With the dumbing-down of arts education and the consequent orphaning of classical music — CBC Radio Two being the poster child — it’s incumbent on symphony orchestras to cultivate their next generation of concert-goers. The Music aux enfants conservatory, created by the Montréal Symphony Orchestra and its music director Kent Nagano to give intensive music training to preschool children, should put bums in seats for years to come. The acoustician, who consulted on the MSO’s gleaming new concert hall, and the designers worked pro bono.

They devised three areas: for individual learning, ensemble learning, and performance. In plan, the fronts of the eight enclosed practice rooms are placed helter-skelter. This was deliberate; the odd room shapes enhance acoustics by breaking up standing waves that would otherwise produce boomy bass. The group area has childsized instruments, tables, chairs, colourful soft seating and playful murals by Montréal street artists Zema and Astro.

exhibit

Story Pod

Newmarket, Ont.

Atelier Kastelic Buffey

Shai Gil

/Bob Gu

ndu

Toronto

55

In an age when fewer people are reading books, Story Pod “reads” like a ray of hope. The Town of Newmarket and local business HollisWealth conceived a partnership for a compact lending library that would stand on the edge of the recently completed public square. Scholastic Canada and the Newmarket Public Library provided an initial supply of books; HollisWealth covered construction costs and Atelier Kastelic Buffey worked pro bono. The design was based on the project guidelines for compactness, energy efficiency, ease of construction and transportability (a forklift hauls it to winter storage). As users move around the box, the rhythm of its vertical exterior slats changes. The tightest spacing articulates opaque walls; the larger gaps, backed by transparent polycarbonate, allow light and views to filter through; and the widest openings showcase the book stacks. During the day, two walls pivot open, encouraging people to come inside or to gather ‘round for readings. At night, recessed LED lights, powered by concealed rooftop solar panels, glow through the exterior battens, transforming Story Pod into a civic beacon.

11/12 2017 CANADIAN INTERIORS

exhibit

Augustinian Sisters exhibit

Québec City

Bisson Castonguay

Steve T sai

Québec City

CANADIAN INTERIORS 11/12 2017

56

Québec City’s Augustinian monastery opened nearly 400 years ago and is among the three oldest religious communities in North America. One of the order’s undertakings was to heal the sick. Accordingly, one of the highlights of the new museum in the recently rehabilitated monastery is a display of surgical instruments and anatomical models selected from among the 40,000 artifacts drawn from the Augustinian Sisters’ 12 monastery hospitals. The imaginative, sensitive display poignantly conveys how painful life could be before modern anesthetics. The message is made the more powerful by the unprettified, preserved as-is architectural fabric, with its Shaker-like purity and simplicity.

Bisson Castonguay’s art direction and exhibition design extended to heritage elements of the monastery including the museum space, refectory, vaults and the gallery of relics in the Augustine chapel.

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Sometimes, showboating gets the best results. This has a wild and expressive form. It’s impactful and innovative. It’s everything that I love about design: it starts with a study and becomes an extremely flexible end product. There’s no denying the excellent use of an inexpensive material, rendered in a luxurious way. There are limitations with its scalability and that’s my only critique.

Otherwise, it’s a grand slam.

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It’s novel. It’s a showstopper. It’s a sculpture. It has wow factor. We’ve all seen backlit acrylic a million times before, but never rendered this way. It’s such a leap that it qualifies as a total re-imagination.

Forrest:

Gweilo lamp Partisans

Toronto

59

Instead of drapery with lighting, here’s drapery that is lighting. Not since Karim Rashid’s Garbo waste basket for Umbra has there been a Canadian-designed product so destined to be ubiquitously successful, showing up everywhere. Anyone seeing it will start free-associating images such as Anish Kapoor’s Mountain in Toronto’s Simcoe Park, Isamu Noguchi’s sets made of luminous scrim for Martha Graham ballets, and Frei Otto’s cablenet structures for the Munich Olympics. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Gweilo is a new collection of custom ambient lights. Each one bears the look of the hand, not surprisingly, since it is handmade using thermoforming, a technique allowing etched acrylic sheets to be custom-shaped while in a hot plastic state. The concept grew out of an investigation into how light can be distorted and focused. As their brief states, the designers asked themselves, “Is it possible to make light pool, bend, drip and drape?

What materials and fabrication techniques would allow us to achieve these effects?” - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -They developed a process to heat acrylic sheets to just under 400 degrees Celsius. When they become malleable, they are removed from the heaters and sculpted into an endless variety of folds and curves. They had also designed a metal extrusion with an embedded LED strip that fastens on to the cooled sheet’s edge. When the Gweilo is turned on, warm light diffuses across the sheet’s CNC-routed pattern. A small Gweilo is an accent or conversation piece; a large one can act as a room divider and illuminate an entire room.

11/12 2017 CANADIAN INTERIORS

product Expansion Cityline furniture system Teknion

Toronto

Quality and quantity were the factors that won Teknion’s Expansion Cityline furniture system a Best of Canada award. The beam infrastructure serves as the structural spine. It also acts as the avenue for data and power, which can be accessed via receptacles, grommets or power doors in the beam.

The broad, imaginative range of accessories includes the Functional Screen, a low privacy screen folded in on itself so that it does double duty as a storage pocket. Then there’s Elevated Slim Cabinets with Display, a pair of pigeonhole, open or closed short cabinets flanking an angled display or book holder, evoking the music holder on a piano that reclines slightly to keep the sheet music from falling forward. Speaking of nostalgic childhood images, Expansion Cityline’s splayed leg pairs come in wide- and narrow-spaced versions that when topped with a work surface evoke, respectively, a school-room desk and sawhorse. Whether typical users make such fanciful associations is beside the point; they’ll appreciate the system’s light, airy, friendly look.

Ware lamp MSDS Studio

Toronto

CANADIAN INTERIORS 11/12 2017

60

The Ware lamp is a sculptural, seamless piece of stoneware made with the economical slipware process, in which liquid clay or slip is poured into a plaster mould. When switched on, the interior of the reflector showcases the subtle texture of the stoneware surface. The lamp was inspired by appreciation for the building code regarding lighting in Scandinavian countries.

In response to their low yearly average level of daylight, governments in the European Nordic countries have developed regulations calling for lighting that is indirect; warm, or low in colour temperature; and low in luminance or intensity. Glare is verboten.

The Ware lamp meets these parameters. The small bollard in front conceals the light source, a humble low-wattage incandescent bulb, which is plenty warm to begin with. The bulb aims backward toward the main body of the lamp and reflects outward after being further warmed by the stoneware’s hue.

product Perplex bench Fig40

Toronto

Here’s seating with a rich inner life.

According to the designers; “Perplex is an impossibly long and impossibly thin” cast-concrete bench for outdoor and indoor use in residential, hospitality and corporate spaces. At 14 feet long, two feet wide and 1½ feet high, and supported by skinny cast-aluminum legs at either end, Perspex is seating stretched like Turkish taffy. So, what gives? The apparent suspension of the law of gravity is made possible by Grip Metal, a patented stamping process developed in Toronto that modifies sheet metal by applying an array of microformed hooks that adhere like Velcro to other materials. The new technology enables the bench to be hollow and weigh a mere 550 lbs. A bench of conventional concrete and similar size and configuration would weigh 2,200 lbs., never mind that it would collapse instantly. You’ll find the Perplex bench featured prominently on Grip Metal’s home page, and for good reason.

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1-800-268-7744

www.lumitone.ca

the goods Volentis GmbH | LABONI Dog Feeder Rocky Winner of a Gold International Design Award, this Finnish soapstone dog dish is handcrafted and characterized by a classic Nordic design. The bowl’s dense weight keeps it in place (unlike most plastic or stainless steel pet bowls), while the low-porosity soapstone keeps drinking water bacteria-free and consistently cool. www.laboni.ch

Alessi | Bark for Christmas Alessi has certainly sipped the egg nog and is in full festive spirit with the release of several holiday ornament lines. Bark for Christmas, and extension of 2015’s Bark line by Michel Boucquillon and Donia Maaoui, is a compact tree whose branches, weighed down by snow, can be decorated using seven magnetic decorations: a gold guiding star and six baubles in three different colors: gold, silver and red. www.alessi.com Alessi | Blue Christmas Designed by Antonio Aricò – LPWK, this collection includes mugs and tree ornaments that pay “tribute to the archetypes of Christmas and the dreamlike figurines from the last century in Western culture.” www.alessi.com

Benjamin Miller | Bobcat Carbon Fiber Snowshoes Embrace the Canadian outdoors this winter with Benjamin Miller’s Bobcat Snowshoes, winner of a 2017 European Product Design Award. Inspired by the lightweight and sturdy structure of a tennis racket, the shoes combine wooden tubes of carbon fiber with rubber and aluminum in an asymmetrical frame to encourage an easy, natural stride. www.behance.net

Mice Weekend | Carton Backpacks Mice Weekend’s Carton Backpacks make self-expression stylish and unique. The waterproof, eco-friendly backpacks are made of recycled paper, and are intended to be drawn upon using a marker at home. Users can alternatively request specific designs when ordering the backpack online, resulting in endless possibilities for individualized style. www.miceweekend.com

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Caesarstone | Wall Clock Collection Caesarstone’s new limited edition quartz wall clocks are modern and minimal. Available in a variety of styles, the clocks have foregone traditional numbered displays to let the beauty of the material shine through. www.caesarstone.ca

‘Tis the Season

A round-up of stylish gifts worth giving this holiday season.

By Shannon Moore

Trigger Design | The Endangered These jewelry boxes by Singapore-based studio Trigger Design take the form of endangered animals to emphasize the impact and importance of human action. Available in four designs — a white ceramic and rose gold elephant, wood and chromed gold tiger, black chrome and cracked cement rhino, and chromed gold deer — the jewelry boxes also contain different wind-key music themes and refillable fragrance cartridges. www.triggerdesignstudio.com

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the goods

Thade Precht Playful Design | DOCKLETS Reinventing traditional Lego toys, these award-winning wooden building blocks use a unique hook-and-loop system for intuitive and interactive play. Available in seven themed sets — starter, maxi, dinosaurs, robots, horses, creepy crawlies, and architecture — DOCKLETS blocks are suitable for both children and children-at-heart. www.docklets.de

Hasselblad | X10-50C Winner of a 2017 Red Dot: Best of the Best Award, Hasselblad’s new X10-50C camera is the world’s first mirrorless digital medium format camera with CMOS sensor technology. Handmade in Sweden and admired for its Scandinavian sensibility, the camera is ergonomic and compact, and half the weight of a conventional camera of comparable size. www.hasselblad.com

Shiyu Guo | Sprout Intended to teach children the process of photosynthesis, this plywood planter designed by Shiyu Guo uses an elastic thin-film solar panel to absorb air and release freshener.

Powered by the sun during the day and retracting into itself at night, the lifelike planter improves air quality in a stylish and inventive way. www.behance.net

LEFF Amsterdam | Tube Watch Elegant and glitzy, this classic gift combines an industrial-style brass face with a mineral glass lens and leather strap designed by Piet Hein Eek for LEFF Amsterdam. www.leffamsterdam.com

Keilhauer |Designer Dictionary Keilhauer has brought its Designer Dictionary back, and this time, the collection of satirical commentary and custom illustrations are not afraid to throw down – down pillows that is. For this new linen cushions series, illustrations are printed on the front and the tongue-in-cheek definitions are screen-printed on a silk ribbon on the back. www.keilhauer.com

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Merchant Sons | Winter Capsule Collection Merchant Sons’ first holiday collection gives traditional sweatshirts a new life. From robes to blankets and cushions, each product is made entirely of sweatshirt fabric knit, dyed, and sewn in Canada, and are available in black or grey. www.merchantsons.com

LG | IPS Gaming Monitor The new 34” UltraWide IPS Monitor by LG was designed with gamers in mind.

A curved screen gives players the best view no matter where they are sitting, while the monitor’s millisecond count ensures zero lag when playing online.

De’Longhi | Capsule SafeHeat Compact Ceramic Heater This space heater by De’Longhi is portable and compact, making it ideal for dorm rooms, offices, and small apartments. The heater automatically shuts off after extended use and signals an alarm if knocked on its side. The 1,500-watt heater provides comparable power to larger models. www.delonghi.com

www.lg.com

Luzli | Roller MK01 Headphones Handmade in Switzerland, Luzli’s new Red Dot Award-winning headphones are machine-made from stainless steel and pure aluminum.

An inventive, patented rolling design allows them to fold up neatly in your pocket, offering crisp sound in a compact size.

Lowe’s | Opuluxe Lowe’s Opuluxe palette has inspired us to ditch traditional reds and greens for golds, blacks, and blues. Ornaments, stockings, tree toppers, candle lanterns, and pillows glimmer in metallics and cobalt blue, bringing a touch of art deco to the most wonderful time of the year. www.lowes.ca

www.luzli.com

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Hofer Studio | E1 Multi 8 Screwdriver Produced in collaboration with Grappleworks for the “Screw Cancer” global cause campaign, the E1 Multi 8 Screwdriver by Hofer Studio aims to offer a modern update to a familiar tool.

Made of stainless steel and polymer in a compact design, the screwdriver is a practical gift that gives back. A significant portion of all sales goes directly to cancer charities to help fund critical care. www.hoferstudio.com 11/12 2017 CANADIAN INTERIORS

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RAIC revels In the Clipper Room of the Carlu, the special-events venue on the restored seventh floor of the 1930s Art Moderne Eaton’s College Street store, the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada (RAIC) announced the four shortlisted projects for the $100,000 Moriyama RAIC International Prize, and the Canada Council for the Arts announced the 2018 Venice Biennale in Architecture Canadian presenter. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

1—The four Moriyama RAIC International Prize finalists: Kai-Uwe Bergmann, partner, BIG (Bjarke Ingels Group), Copenhagen, for 8 House, Copenhagen; Katherine Faulkner, founding principal, NADAAA, Boston, for Melbourne School of Design, University Of Melbourne, Australia (in collaboration with John Wardle Architects, Collingwood, Victoria, Australia); Brian MacKay-Lyons, partner, MacKay-Lyons Sweetapple Architects, Halifax, for the Village Architect, Shobac Campus, Upper Kingsburg, N.S.; and—the winner— Takaharu Tezuka, co-founder, Tokyo-based Tezuka Architects, for Fuji Kindergarten, Tokyo. 2—Gord Grice, senior creative advisor at landscape architecture and theme-park firm Forrec. He’s also editor of the just-launched e-journal, The Rightangle, which aims to be more accessible to non-specialist readers than typical architecture websites; and Talbot Sweetapple, partner, MacKay-Lyons Sweetapple Architects. 3—Gerald McMaster, Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in indigenous visual culture and curatorial practice at OCAD University; Douglas Cardinal, the Ottawa-based architect whose works include the Canadian Museum of History in Hull, Que., and the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C.; and Patrick Reid Stewart, architect and associate professor at McEwen School of Architecture in Sudbury and first indigenous president of the Architectural Institute of British Columbia. Cardinal will lead the indigenous Canadian exhibition, UNCEDED, at the 2018 Venice Architecture Biennale, along with co-curators McMaster and Stewart and Anishnawbe elders. 4—The RAIC’s marketing director, A.J. Colbourne, and Maria Cook, manager, communications and advocacy; and Adele Weder, Canadian Architect editor 2017-2018. The Vancouver-based architectural journalist took over from Elsa Lam, who is on maternity leave. 5—Simon Brault, chairman and CEO, Canada Council for the Arts; and Michael Cox, first VP and President-Elect, RAIC. His namesake firm in Brandon is the only RAIC practice in Manitoba outside Winnipeg.

Photography by William Suarez

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The Plant Retail Vernissage

The last food-themed event in The Plant Presentation Centre before the wrecking ball swings and construction begins this fall on the condo project featured a farm-to-table performative dinner with small plates by Actinolite paired with random performance art routines by Hit & Run Dance Productions.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------1—Tara Post, yoga instructor; Rachelle Wintzen, owner of Chi-Junker; and Lauren Finkelstein, certified “essentrics” instructor and nutritionist. 2—The Plant developers: Gary Eisen, Curated Properties; Alex Speigel, Windmill Development Group; Adam Oschorn, Curated Properties; and Jonathan Westeinde, Windmill Development Group. 3—Jonathan Bowman, principal at JRB Group; Rebecca Rosenberg, lawyer. 4—Real Food for Real Kids, Lulu Cohen Farnell, founder and Chief Brand & Food Innovation Officer and David Farnell, Chief Executive Officer.

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CTI at Early Mercy Furniture dealer CTI Working Environments celebrated the 10th anniversary of its CTI Signatures Ceramic Painting and Auction, whose proceeds fund ARIDO scholarships, by inviting members of the A&D community to paint ceramic plates. The two painting nights at the Haworth showroom, and another at Tayco’s showroom, drew 140 designers. Then the plates were auctioned at a party at Early Mercy nightclub on King Street West. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - ---------------------------------------------------------------------

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1—Dawn Davis, supervisor, Boys and Girls Club of East Scarborough; Suzette Robinson, accounts receivable supervisor at Bayshore Home Health; Kimona Lim, owner, Rave Noir Salon; and Janice McRae, executive assistant, CTI Working Environments. 2—Jason Henderson, principal at furniture dealer Henderson Resource Group; Tyler Finders, new business development manager, CTI; Blair Henderson, principal, Henderson; Brooke Anderson, designer at NORR; Naji Mourani, interior designer, 2K1M, and project co-ordinator, A&D, planning department, St. Michael’s Hospital. 3—Comley van Brussel Design and Management designer Maria Gvozdeva; and principal Kathy van Brussel; CTI president Warren Somers; Carol Syrnyk, partner, Designstream; Dave Turner, VP business development, CTI; and Anna Lenardich, designer, Designstream. 4—Heather Fancy, North American sales director at furniture dealer Nuans Design; and Steve Keilhauer, VP product development at his family’s seating company. 5—Haworth’s Lina Martinez, senior business development manager, Canada for the Haworth Collection; Olivia Palenstein and Leilei Sun Kendrew, design market managers; Loraine Calleja, account executive; Jody Goodenough, design market manager; Kate Fincham, area admin; and Sheryl Piedad, showroom manager. 6—Physiotherapist Faina Khan; and Comley Van Brussel Design’s Masham Khan, admin; designers Heather Varty and Nicole Czachor; and project manager Danial Ali.

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HNI Hullabaloo Founded by architectural product designer Eberhard Von Huene, NUA Office Inc. sells office furniture products by HNI (including Allsteel, HBF, Hon and Gunlocke), Humanscale and several Canadian manufacturers across Canada. Team members were on hand at the launch of the new Toronto showroom on Adelaide Street East. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------1—Mike Kull, VP sales, Gunlocke; and Allsteel’s A.J. Paron-Wildes, national A&D manager; and Lisa Miller, workplace advisory. 2—Robert Hill, principal at NUA’s Ottawa office; and Dan Chong, president, HBF. 3—Ryan Moreland, strategic account executive, Humanscale; Momentum Group’s Marsha Robb, sales rep, Ontario; Margarita Ocampo, Canadian sales manager, Ontario; and Kim Huynh, sales rep, Ontario. 4—Ryan Myers, national sales manager, HNI Canada; and IBI Group’s Anibal Pinguelo, architectural technologist/project management; Jaymie Cooper, interior designer; and Alan Chakota, technician/project manager. 5—Three generations of von Huenes: NUA Office’s Eberhard, president and CEO; Beate, executive VP; and Natascha Schillinger, social media; with Tessa Cole, A&D manager, HNI Canada. 6—Victoria Horobin, principal, KBH Interior Design; and Deborah Rutherford, director, strategic workplace solutions, Brookfield Global Integrated Solutions (which, she says, is the world’s largest real estate company). 7—Donna Wood, president, Bullock+Wood Design; Fay Paterson, A&D rep, Humanscale; Anthony Scarfone and Angela Kisielewski, project designers, Bullock+Wood Design; and Nicole Powell, account development rep, Humanscale

Roche Bobois Art Project Roche Bobois celebrated the Canada 150 Art Project, an exhibition featuring the Mah Jong cushion, part of the modular sofa system of that name created by German designer Hans Hopfer for the high-end furniture company in 1971. It’s been Roche Bobois’s best-selling sofa design since 1990. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - ------------------------------------------------------------------•

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1—Roche Bobois’s Cindy Susilo, digital marketing manager; Ishak-Kristòf Fernandez, area manager, North America; Anthony Ghanem, Toronto commercial manager; Maxime Bidaud, VP finance and admin; and Lili Krnic, design consultant. 2—Barrett Architect’s Matthew Chong, project designer; and principal and architect Wayne Barrett, whose hospitality projects include the Globe Bistro on the Danforth and Landings restaurants in Ontario. 3—Featured artist Patric Cruz, whose Stepmother Tongue painting on a Mah Jong cushion was auctioned to support the Canadian Art Foundation, with bidding starting at $5,000; singer and DJ Stefana Fratila; and Nicholas Brown, manager of programing at Canadian Art, Roche Bobois’s partner for the party. 4—Monique Wood, design consultant, Roche Bobois; and Stephen Bowe, owner, Designers Transport & Services. 5—Leyla Mortazavi, gemologist, Noorah Design; Andrew Baker, design consultant, Roche Bobois; and Yalda Niknam, VP at custom-home builder DBM Homes. 6—Cambria’s Camille Hines, gallery co-ordinator; Janet Crawford, gallery manager; Andrea Perez Leon, gallery co-ordinator; and Emily Vallevand, assistant gallery manager. 7—Katie Telford, special projects co-ordinator, Interior Design Show (IDS); Olivier Fuller, principal at Erbe Fuller Art Advisory, and director of international programming and gallery relations at Art Toronto; Karl Lohnes, who commutes to Montréal to be decorating expert on TV’s Global News Morning; Catia Varricchio, strategic partnerships, and Patti Stewart, executive VP, at Informa Canada, which manages IDS and IIDEXCanada; and Emily-Jean Alexander, gallery and sponsor relations, Art Toronto.

8—George Stroumboulopoulos, TV and radio talk-show host, including CFRB’s The Strombo Show; interior designer Tracy Ternan, principal, TNT Design; Scott Lewis, executive VP at biodiesel fuel supplier Bioxcorp; and personal chef Marilou Roth.

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Sweet chair-ity

Toronto’s Fig40 turns a simple seat into a social enterprise

How would you change the world for the better? Lee Fletcher and Terence Woodside of the Toronto industrial design firm Fig40 decided it should be one Allen key at a time. The pair started with conceptualizing a simple-yet-durable chair for the city’s homeless shelters: a style that would look good, feel comfortable, be easy to clean and stack and, most important, last far longer than the less-than-a-year lifespan of regular institutional seats. Affordability was an important factor too.

--------------------------------------------------Thus was born the Community Chair, coupling an 11mm-thick shell made from moulded plywood and clear-coated beech veneer with a frame of powder-coated, 3/4”-diameter steel tubing. With an Allen key in hand, anybody can assemble the chair in a matter of minutes. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - And that’s more to the point. The chairs have been designed to be put together by teams of homeless people from Street Soccer Canada (streetsoccercanada.org), a non-profit that organizes friendly community games, peer mentorship and employment opportunities. Every Community Chair purchased is built, packed and shipped by SSC participants. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - “When you’re in a shelter, you figure no one will ever hire you,” says Steve McGrath, mentor and logistics liaison with Street

Soccer Canada. “Even a little bit of work can be both a stepping-stone and a great encouragement. Sometimes, all it takes to get the ball rolling for those in dire circumstances is the encouragement to embrace the opportunity to do something positive.” - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Community’s pilot run of a dozen chairs went to Toronto’s Salvation Army Gateway drop-in centre. According to one of the program’s participants: “The chairs are really comfortable. They’re designed so that your posture is good, yet it feels nice to sit in them for a long time. They feel really solid and they look sharp, too.” - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - There is, of course, a life beyond for these seats in a variety of settings, from institutions and companies to individual users.

Purchasers will be helping change the world for the better even more, since for every five Community Chairs ordered at communityforopportunity.org , one will be donated to a local drop-in centre. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Fig40’s social enterprise is not only laudable in intent, it provides a real win-win for all concerned. Shelters get free, aesthetically pleasing chairs to relax in, and the homeless who use them can take pride in their creation. As Lee Fletcher puts it: “Community is designed to be more than just a chair. It offers people who are homeless a seat at the table.” - - - - - - - •

by Leslie C. Smith

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Photo by Jim Ryce

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