Canadian Interiors March/April 2014 by IQ Business Media

March/April 2014

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In his element The fundamental Johnson Chou A world of flooring Best of the Interior Design Show 3 sharp small shops

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March/April 2014

Official publication of the Interior Designers of Canada

COVER — 25 Designer Johnson Chou in his Toronto studio. Portrait by Stacey Brandford 42

CONTENTS FEATURES FIVE EASY PIECES — 25 A handful of his projects illustrate Johnson Chou’s elemental design. By John Bentley Mays

DEPARTMENTS INSIDE — 10

HIT PARADE — 33 Top trends and triumphs at the 2014 Interior Design Show. By Leslie C. Smith LEMON AID — 37 With a little help from the Brothers Dressler, Quadrangle Architects creates a one-of-a-kind Lululemon in Toronto. By Leslie C. Smith FLORAL ARRANGEMENT — 41 Vancouver-based architect Michelle Biggar provides an elegant solution to the puzzle of the petite boutique. By Leslie C. Smith GOING THE DISTANCE — 42 Urban Toronto athletes hotfoot it to +Tongtong’s Black Toe Running store. By Michael Totzke

WHAT’S UP — 12 IN THREES — 14 Above all Three store-ceiling treatments. By Michael Totzke THE GOODS — 16 Floor patterns The best of Domotex, plus a few from our flooring files. By Peter Sobchak

WHO’S WHO — 46 THAT WAS THEN — 50 Bears repeating The very first editorial by the very first editor in the very first issue (April 1964) of CI.

MARCH/APRIL 2014 CANADIAN INTERIORS 7

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March/April 2014 VOL.51 NO.2

Canadian Interiors magazine is published by BIG Magazines LP, a division of Glacier BIG Holdings Company Ltd. Tel: 416-442-5600, Fax: 416-510-6875 e-mail: info@canadianinteriors.com website: www.canadianinteriors.com Canadian Interiors publishes six issues, plus a source guide, per year. Printed in Canada. The content of this publication is the property of Canadian Interiors and cannot be reproduced without permission from the publisher. Subscription rates Canada $38.95 per year; plastic wrapped $41.95 per year (plus taxes) U.S.A. $71.95 US per year, Overseas $98.95 US per year. Back issues Back copies are available for $10 for delivery in Canada, $15 US for delivery in U.S.A. and $20 overseas. Please send payment to Canadian Interiors, 80 Valley brook Drive, Toronto, ON M3B 2S9 or order online www.canadianinteriors.com For subscription and back issues inquiries please call 416-442-5600 ext.3543, e-mail: circulation@canadianinteriors.com, or go to our website at: www.canadianinteriors.com Newsstands For information on Canadian Interiors on newsstands in Canada, call 905-619-6565 Canadian Interiors is indexed in the Canadian Magazine Index by Micromedia ProQuest Company, Toronto (www.micromedia.com) and National Archive Publishing Company, Ann Arbor, Michigan (www.napubco.com).

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On track “While we are not setting up ourselves as arbiters of good taste, and we intend to take a catholic attitude, we hope the magazine may help improve interior design, from a practical and functional, but above all aesthetic viewpoint. I see this as a prime need of our readers. To do this we shall display work by Canada’s leading interior designers in many fields in as appealing, graphic and newsworthy a manner as possible. We will show new products and sources of supply, print news of what is happening in the interior design world and review new literature.” So writes David Piper, the fi rst editor of Canadian Interiors, in the fi rst issue of the magazine, dated April 1964. (You’ll fi nd his fi rst editor’s column, reprinted in its entirety, on page 50). Here we are 50 years later, pleased to assure Piper that CI remains on track, doing all of the above. Displaying the work of Canada’s leading interior designers in many fields? In this issue we feature Toronto-based Johnson Chou, profiled and championed for his work by John Bentley Mays (“Five easy pieces,” page 25); Quadrangle Architects, who designed a one-of-a-kind Lululemon store for Toronto’s Yorkdale mall (”Lemon aid,” page 37); architect Michelle Biggar, who created the spacesaving Granville Island Florist in Vancouver’s Fairmount Pacific Rim Hotel (“Floral arrangement,” page 41); and John Tong, principal of +TongTong, who fashioned a funky shoe store in Toronto called Black Toe Running (“Going the distance,” page 42). New products and sources of supplies? In this issue, as always in March/April, we feature a flooring roundup, including the best of Domotex, held this past January in Hannover, Germany (“Floor patterns,” page 16), and a report on the Interior Design Show, also held in January, in Toronto (“Hit parade,” page 33). Those of you who have followed CI over the years may have noticed a first for the magazine. We‘ve never presented a profile subject on the cover until now, and we couldn’t be happier that the person is Johnson Chou. A special thank you to the designer, and another to photographer Stacey Brandford, who captured in his portrait Chou’s warmth, style and intelligence. I’d also like to acknowledge the always-astonishing work of the Brothers Dressler, those masters in wood, who introduced two new products at the Interior Design Show (page 34) and whose installations at Yorkdale’s Lululemon sweeten up the place considerably. c I Michael Totzke mtotzke@canadianinteriors.com

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What’s Up

Clockwise from top left Ron Thom drawing (c. 1962); untitled watercolour rendering of Trent University by the architect (c. 1967); Champlain College, Trent University; Massey College, courtyard with belltower; Dodek House, view from foyer to living room.

Mar./Apr. Let us now praise Ron Thom “Ron Thom (1923–1986) first made his name in British Columbia as an architect of dramatic, award-winning houses, and then in Ontario as the architect of Massey College and Trent University. Thom embraced a comprehensive design philosophy, wherein ‘architecture’ comprises not only the plans and construction but also the furniture, fittings, textiles, art and ceramics. This approach informed a career that spanned almost four decades, during which time Thom and his associates designed landmark projects across the country.” So writes Vancouver-based

12 CANADIAN INTERIORS March/April 2014

architectural writer and critic Adele Weder, curator of the travelling exhibition “Ron Thom and the Allied Arts,” which opened in Vancouver last summer and continues at Toronto’s Gardiner Museum until Apr. 27. Organized by the West Vancouver Museum in conjunction with Trent University and Massey College, it explores Thom’s architecture in the context of his total aesthetic. Says Weder, “One of Canada’s greatest architects, he believed in creating not just a building, but a gesamtkunstwerk, a total work of art.” The exhibition’s dramatic plywoodbased design was created by

Vancouver-based Public, the multi-disciplinary design firm formerly known as Public: Architecture + Communication. Originally slated to become a concert pianist, Thom changed his mind in his late teens and attended the Vancouver School of Art from 1942 to 1947, where he was persuaded to change career paths again from art to architecture. Without formal architectural training, he apprenticed at one of Vancouver’s leading firms, Thompson, Berwick and Pratt, where he emerged as a rising star and the company’s top draftsman. Thom subsequently became famous for the many West Coast homes he designed, several of which were completed as “midnight

specials”: small modernist houses that he and his cohorts completed long after their regular workday ended. His international renown was established when he was commissioned to design Massey College in Toronto and Trent University in Peterborough, Ont. “It’s now a half-century after they were built,” says Weder, “and these structures continue to shelter their inhabitants and delight the eye – a testament to the enduring art of architecture.” Rather than a retrospective of his entire career, the exhibition focuses on Thom’s most creatively fertile period, 1947 to 1972. It features landmark projects – the Copp, Carmichael, Dodek, Forrest and Case houses of the Vancouver region, and Ontario’s Massey College and Trent University – that all show how the architect embraced the comprehensive design philosophy. Every element, right down to the lamp bases, bowls and ashtrays, was an important component of his architectural masterpieces. Says Weder, “His architecture embodied his love of organic building enriched by art, craft, and landscape – rather than what he saw as the machine-inspired rationalism championed elsewhere.”

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The show explores the architectural evolution of Thom through original paintings, prototypes for furniture and fittings, architectural drawings and sketches, archival and architectural photography, the original hand-rendered 1960 Massey College presentation boards, and the ceramics he commissioned. The show is divided into three stages: his formative years as an artist and house architect in Vancouver; the competition and completion of Massey College; and the master plan and four key colleges of Trent University. Drawing on the private holdings of family members, colleagues, and institutional archives, the

exhibition contextualizes the role of ceramics and other allied arts through an exploration of Massey College, Trent University and the five West Coast houses. “Through Massey College and Trent University, Ron Thom was gaining international recognition by the early 1970s as one of North America’s great architects,” says Weder. “But his brilliance and accomplishments have been underreported since his early death at age 63 in 1986. Partly because we lost him too soon, and also because he was never particularly focused on courting the media or cultural establishment, his work has not yet received the recognition it so richly deserves.” Thanks to the efforts of Weder and company, Ron Thom is getting his due. Traveling to Trent University and the Beaverbrook Art Gallery later this year, “Ron Thom and the Allied Arts” runs at the Gardiner Museum to Apr. 27.

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Clockwise from above Copp House club chair, Ron Thom with Joseph Pliss (c. 1963); Champlain College, Trent University, dining-hall ceiling; front door, Carmichael House.

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In Threes

Above all Three store-ceiling treatments. —By Michael Totzke

Clockwise from left Solara Shoes branch in Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, designed by Ruscio Studio, topped by a “shoe cloud” made of 6,500+ discontinued women’s shoes; Joe Fresh flagship store in Manhattan, designed by Burdifilek, featuring a 1950s Cloud sculpture by Harry Bertoia; Simons in West Edmonton Mall, designed by Figure3, showcasing Aurora, an art installation by Philip Beesley, inspired by the Aurora Borealis.

Often overlooked or underappreciated, the ceiling deserves a starring role – as remarkable recent projects in Quebec, Manitoba and New York illustrate. To design the first branch of Simons department store outside its home province of Quebec – in the West Edmonton Mall – CEO Peter Simons turned to award-winning Figure3. The result is a cutting-edge environment (recently recognized by the EuroShop RetailDesign Awards as the one of the world’s top-three best retail stores of 2013) whose finishing touch is a permanent installation by Canadian artist and architect Philip Beesley. Titled Aurora, the sculpture is composed of laser-cut stainless steel, glass vessels, acrylic and Mylar, along with computer-controlled circuitry. It creates an ethereal overhead canopy, which swells and ripples in an ocean of intelligent LED lights 14 CANADIAN INTERIORS March/April 2014

that respond to viewers gathering directly below. When Joe Fresh, the Canadian fashion brand, decided to take Manhattan and create a flagship store, it made the wisest of moves – into the iconic Crystal Lantern building, a Skidmore, Owings and Merrill modernist landmark at the corner of 5th Avenue and 43rd Street. Burdifilek’s design for the store is characteristically confident and serene, complementing the landmark’s “weightless” architecture. Dangling from a glowing ceiling, one of Harry Bertoia’s delicate Cloud sculptures from the ’50s – made of melt-coated brass over steel – provides a ravishing point of reference for the shopper. The owner of Quebec-based Solara Shoes decided to expand into prime locations in

Type-A malls, but was turned down because the store had little mall appeal. Time to up the design ante, he realized, turning to Ruscio Studio. The first store, in SaintJean-sur-Richelieu, introduces a smart colour palette of white, black and gold. The pièce de résistance is a whimsical “shoe cloud” comprised of 6,500+ discontinued women’s shoes sprayed white and randomly mounted to the ceiling one by one. c I

Photos: left by Leeza Studio; centre and right by Ben Rahn / A-Frame Studio

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GOOD WOOD

The Goods 1—Following nature’s path Curvy planks aren’t exactly new, but Bolefloor thinks its new Curv8 edge wood flooring is the closest match to a tree’s natural growth. According to the Amsterdam-based firm, the eight patterns derived from its scan data of more than 100,000 trees preserve the forms most true to the way they grow in nature. For every Curv8 floor, raw boards (never cut from straight boards) are selected to fit one of these eight forms, and match perfectly with every other Curv8 module, making an endless pattern possible without noticeable repetition. bolefloor.com

2—Bamboo’s new future

An ecological and long-lasting alternative to floorboards made of ever-scarcer tropical woods is offered by Moso with its Bamboo X-treme. Moso treats bamboo stalks with a patented process that gives both indoor and outdoor floorboards a level of hardness, shape stability and resistance that exceeds that of even the best tropical hardwoods. But like other tropical woods, these boards still change colour over time to acquire a typical silver-grey weathered appearance. moso-bambus.de

Floor patterns The best of Domotex, plus a few from our flooring files. —By Peter Sobchak

16 CANADIAN INTERIORS MARCH/APRIL 2014

Admit it: the floor is not typically thought of as a hotbed of innovation. But a trip to Domotex, the preeminent European carpet and floor coverings fair, is a sure-fire way to change those perceptions. In January at the Hannover Exhibition Centre, 1,350 companies from 57 nations showcased products and collections in a dizzying variety: natural materials and look is always big, but so is sophisticated minimalism and even sensuous opulence; and of course resilience, ease of installation and maintenance; and environmental sensitivity is key, proving that holistic interior concepts go beyond just picking a pretty carpet.

BOLYU’s Glimmer & Silhouette are all about color and light. The products and colors are inspired by the Chicago’s World Fair of 1933; “A Century of Progress” exhibition. This event marked the first use of color as an architectural medium. Color had its own laws of balance and power, just as form and proportion have theirs. This dramatic harmony of color & light are found in these styles. Within Glimmer & Silhouette, there are eight coordinating color ways in each style, each named after the architecture and icons of the Fair and crafted for corporate interiors, public spaces and higher education.

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LAMINATE 2.0

The Goods

1—A new way Classen has combined the advantages of design and laminate flooring in its Neo line. This new generation of flooring is completely free of PVC and softeners, contains no chlorine or phthalates, and is 100-per-cent recyclable. The foundation for the new floor covering is composite solid fibreboard, a homogeneous wood-fibre base in which the natural fibres are bound together with a polymer. classen.de 2—From porcelain to flooring Most people are familiar with the name Villeroy & Boch when it comes to fine dishes or bath fixtures; but for floor coverings, not so much. Nevertheless, the company presented its first premium flooring line at Domotex, developed in collaboration with Swiss Krono Group, which includes 22 interpretations of oak divided into four collections: Contemporary (shown) Cosmopolitan, Country and Heritage. These range from designs evocative of nature to more urban motifs. floors.villeroy-boch.com

3—Getting in step A particularly effective approach to conserving resources is evident in PURstep Eco Balance by Parador. PURstep Eco Balance has a similar structure to conventional laminate flooring, but its particularly thin, 0.5mm top layer of high-quality polyurethane means that 75 per cent less material is needed compared to vinyl. Additionally, PURstep has excellent acoustic properties and is so durable that the manufacturer can offer a 15-year guarantee for domestic use. parador.de

18 CANADIAN INTERIORS MARCH/APRIL 2014

4—Keep it simple The German company Objectflor used the floor of its booth at the show as the place to debut its new SimpleLay Design Vinyl system. It’s designed with a new honeycombed support structure on the back; tiles and strips stay in position thanks to their own weight, making them ideal for heavily trafficked surfaces like shops, hotels and trade-show stands. objectflor.de

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1—Flooring that calls for help Many seniors face a similar fear: that a fall could leave them lying alone and helpless in their home. The Dutch group Edel has a solution for this with its new ESP detection floor. Special tiles that generate a weak electrical field are laid under the floor covering – whether carpet, vinyl or wood – and sensors detect movement in the room and transmit this data to a control system for interpretation. Regular walking elicits no reaction, but if someone trips or falls motionless to the floor the system, which integrates into existing security systems, sets off an alarm. edel.nl 2—It’s a party! The Toronto-based custom-rug design house Creative Matters launched a fair-trade hand-woven rug collection called XXV at Domotex to mark the firm’s 25th anniversary. Designed by Ana Cunningham, the collection is dominated by gold and silver hues inspired by the roaring ‘20s and F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby. creativemattersinc.com

3—New spin for old yarns Nothing is set in stone: not even tried-and-tested classics are immune to experimentation. This applies to art, architecture and fashion, so why not to hand-knotted carpets? Jan Kath, self-professed couturier for floors, is an enthusiastic proponent of this approach. His new Riot collection breaks from the classic rectangular format in favour of gentle curves, frayed edges, and shapes that appear to have grown organically, akin to handmade paper. jan-kath.de 4—Carpeting that clicks Parador offers professionals and DIYers new possibilities for creative floor design with its new ClickTex, which premiered at Domotex. Now carpeting can be brought on site in the form of boards and laid with a familiar click mechanism used for laminate, and different designs from the range can be combined to make an individual flooring pattern. For this new product, Parador combined the properties of textile surfaces with the benefits of a dimensionally stable core board. parador.de 4

5—A floor in serene motion Inspired by the purity and chaos in nature, India-based Jaipur’s latest collection Chaos Theory, designed by Kavi, traces the beauty in nature’s seemingly cluttered patterns. Natural forms in transition were studied for inspiration, then recreated on unexplored mediums with the help of batik to create unrestrained artwork. Every Chaos Theory rug comes with nearly 100,000 Persian knots of hand-processed wool and bamboo silk in every square metre. jaipurrugs.com

20 CANADIAN INTERIORS MARCH/APRIL 2014

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NOT FROM DOMOTEX: BUT STILL GOOD ON FLOORS

The Goods 1

1—Looking out their back door All the New Hampshire–based Carlisle Wide Plank Floors had to do was look at its own surroundings to find inspiration for new flooring lines. Oyster Bay (shown) and Sunapee Lake, named after nearby lakes, are designed to both imitate and induce the tranquility of nature, and represent the company’s first luxuryflooring collections for consumers. Both collections use minimal sheen and finishes that allow the natural grains of the wood to come through. wideplankflooring.com 2—Shabby chic Porcelain tiles are always trying to replicate the look of ancient stones, beaten wood and terra cotta, and the ones that have figured out how can truly impress. In terms of the shabby-wood look, the Old Wood series by Italian porcelain stoneware firm Fioranese is full of character and colour variation, with rustic-wood looks in three plank sizes and 3D mosaics in an unusual brick pattern. fioranese.it 3—Sincerest flattery Reclamation is Crossville’s first digitally produced line. Employing an “industrial chic” look featuring 16 different facings – which mimic wood (shown), concrete and steel – the collection comes in four colour ranges with names straight out of a country & western song: Whiskey Lullaby, Cotton Exchange, Steel City and Tobacco Road. crossvilleinc.com 4—Takes a lickin’ Nora Systems has released a flooring system ideal for highly impacted and trafficked workspaces. The 3.5mm tiles of Norament XP are ultra-durable with enhanced stain and slip resistance thanks to a hammered surface in a confetti design, so expect to see it in healthcare settings and other places where floors often come into contact with heavy equipment (Nora showed off the system’s resilience by installing 61,000 square feet of it throughout many of Sochi’s Olympic venues). nora.com/us

22 CANADIAN INTERIORS MARCH/APRIL 2014

5—The meaning of… Coming this spring, a new stoneware tile series called Life by Montreal-based Céragrès draws inspiration from nature and brings soft, neutral tones into the home by recreating the veins and warm colours of authentic wood floors. ceragres.ca

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Five easy pieces A handful of his projects illustrate Johnson Chou’s elemental design. —By John Bentley Mays

Portrait by Stacey Brandford

This page Johnson Chou’s Yolles Residence interprets simplicity with hard edges and stretched horizontal planes. Opposite top In collaboration with AyA Kitchens and Baths, Chou created the super-efficient residential unit know as Base. Opposite bottom His sales centre for the downtown T.O. condo Sixty Colborne is everything this fusty Victorian corner of the city is not but presumably will become: sleek, savvy, smartly postmodern.

Le Corbusier’s dramatically sculptural chapel of Notre Dame du Haut, in Ronchamp, France, has again and again ignited the imaginations of people who have seen it. But few visitors, I suspect, have been more decisively affected by the place than Johnson Chou. Now, at 51 an award-winning Canadian designer, he went there as a student of architecture in 1987. “I had been to other European churches, but had seen nothing like this,” Chou recently recalled. “Ronchamp synthesized all my thoughts about the plasticity of 26 CANADIAN INTERIORS MARCH/APRIL 2014

forms, the story of forms. It is a narrative of the Bible at one level, and, at another, it has emotion, motive power. It’s telling a story with spatial juxtapositions that even now I try to experiment with. Architecture should be like this, a search for the elemental.” In the 15 years since he founded his independent multidisciplinary design ofﬁce, Chou has done luxury apartment interiors, smart and punchy corporate headquarters, sleek retail shops and restaurants and condo presentation

centres, pop-up modular living units intended for mass production, and even a food bank. The visual ideas at work throughout this various output, however, are wisely limited in number, and nearly all spring from his admiration for the art of Le Corbusier and of other high-modernist artists and architects. Take the clean-lined austerity that Chou typically brings to his interiors and their appointments. During the discussions that led up to the design of his highly successful Yolles Residence (2000), for example, Chou

was told by his single male client (who had grown up in a house cluttered with art, and didn’t want his own digs to be) to “think penitentiary.” Which Chou did, producing a loft that interprets simplicity with hard edges and stretched horizontal planes, and with unadorned surfaces washed by focused light. But into this serious, impersonal plainness, however, the designer infused distinct chic and complexity appropriate for the nest of a sophisticated young urbanite. Sightlines are long and uninterrupted, as

they would be in jail – sitting in the tub, one can visually take in the whole apartment – but materials and ﬁnishes are luxuriously elemental. Le Corbusier similarly enriched the concrete bulk of the church in Ronchamp with many civilized and civilizing touches. “There is nothing worse than austerity that is simply mute,” Chou believes. “There has to be some transformational poetics, some programmatic invention, an intensiﬁcation of the program, of the existing story that I am rewriting.” Transformation is, in fact, often the back

story in the tales Chou wants to tell. High-rise living in Canada, for one thing, has changed in recent decades, becoming a matter of kitting out and dwelling in spaces smaller than those widely available in times past. To address this contemporary trend toward compactness, Chou created (in collaboration with AyA Kitchens and Baths) the super-efﬁcient modular residential unit known as Base for Toronto’s 2013 Interior Design Show. This expandable and contractible prototype features a kitchen, dining table,

Photos: opposite by Isaac Applebaum; top courtesy AyA Kitchens and Baths; above by Ben Rahn / A-Frame Studio

Johnson Chou gets a Grip For Grip Limited, the cutting-edge ad agency, the designer created a mostly white work environment accented by swatches of vivid orange (borrowed from the corporate logo). A sleek steel cascade of steps and bleacher seating provides vertical circulation, as does a big orange playground slide and fireman’s pole. In a cheeky move, Chou installed a meeting room in the form of a sunken orange-lined hot tub.

bed, bath and storage, all ﬁtted together, says the designer, with the precision of “a Swiss Army knife.” Base reﬂects Chou’s Corbusian preference for dealing with “architecture as apparatus” and as a “stage set for the performance of everyday life” – though here, as in the Yolles Residence and elsewhere, his urgent minimalism is tempered by urbane styling. Base is certainly spiffy, but it’s also suave. Less literally than it does in Base, in a more richly developed symbolic way, “transformational poetics” plays a key role 28 CANADIAN INTERIORS MARCH/APRIL 2014

in Chou’s most fully elaborated works. The exquisitely spare sales centre for the downtown Toronto condo development called Sixty Colborne, for one – Chou’s scheme was named 2012 Project of the Year by ARIDO – is everything this fusty Victorian corner of the city is not, but will presumably become – sleek, savvy, achingly stylish, smartly postmodern – when the condos’ mostly young, afﬂuent and kid-free occupants move in. The centre is an artistically effective and intelligent invitation pitched to very new

men and women, the proletarians of the information age, the core population of the downtown towers. These people – “I have a gut feeling about who will come,” Chou says – pursue fast-paced lives, and they pace their lives according to the pulse of mass and digital media. It’s hardly surprising, then, to ﬁnd that ﬁrms catering to this briskly consuming clientele – I am thinking of Grip Limited, the cutting-edge advertising agency, and Red Bull Canada, the local franchise of the Austrian-based high-potenPhotography by Tom Arban

cy soft-drink manufacturer – have turned to Johnson Chou Inc. when in need of strong identities for their head ofﬁces. For its part, Grip wanted something that communicated what Chou describes as the “minimalist, witty and clever sensibilities” of its creative team. Among the slogans informing the company’s culture is this one: “The journey must be enjoyable.” The designer played off these ideas, crafting (in 2004 and 2006) a bright, mostly white work environment accented by swatches of vivid orange (borrowed from the corporate logo)

and by various architectural gestures intended to delight and surprise. Vertical circulation between two levels in Grip’s three-storey downtown Toronto studio, for example, is offered by a handsome steel cascade of steps and bleacher seating – but also (for employees and clients unconcerned about dignity) by a big orange playground slide and a ﬁreman’s pole. In another move meant to discourage taking everything too seriously, Chou installed a meeting area in the form of a large, sunken, orange-lined hot tub.

Viewed as a total composition, the office is a collection of such sharply focused moments – bridges; a pumpkin-shaped, fabric-walled waiting room with a humourous rococo chandelier; the hot tub; and so on – that add up to a flexible, continually interesting site. The ensemble that Chou fashioned speaks, as it was intended to do, of high-energy exchanges, of the collision of bright ideas in Grip’s crucible and the outflow of persuasion, the company’s principal product. Change is a central element, yet again, in MARCH/APRIL 2014 CANADIAN INTERIORS 29

Johnson Chou gives Red Bull zing The visitor to the Chou-designed office of Red Bull Canada enters via a tunnel-like corridor flooded by tinted light, emerging into the reception area that points beyond itself. In one direction is the lounge, taking the form of a rustic cottage’s living room; in another is a freestanding spiral stair wrapped in metallic gauze, winding its way up to the pod-like meeting rooms on the second level.

the work Chou has done for Red Bull Canada (2010, 2011). In this case, the management wanted its Toronto ofﬁces to celebrate both the boost provided by the very popular drink it makes and its corporate encouragement for pop-cultural endeavours ranging from extreme sports to hip-hop. Chou’s intervention took “vessels for transformation” as its theme – a wide-angled reference to bodies galvanized by strenuous activity and pepper-uppers such as the soft drink, of course, as well as (more prosaically) the cans Red Bull comes 30 CANADIAN INTERIORS MARCH/APRIL 2014

in, and the intimate, container-like architectural spaces (such as meeting rooms) necessary for carrying on the company’s business and cultural sponsorships. The design freely interprets the idea of transformative vessels in several ways. The visitor to the office, for instance, comes off Queen Street West, out of the city, and enters Red Bull’s territory, not abruptly, but via a tunnel-like corridor flooded by tinted light. Emerging from this mysterious transition, he finds himself in an open reception

area that, like the corridor, points beyond itself. In one direction lies the lounge, outﬁtted in the anti-chic style of a rustic cottage’s living room – perhaps Canada’s most familiar icon of being away from it all, re-creating oneself, exchanging artiﬁcial city identity for one that’s more “natural.” In a different direction, there is yet another “vessel of transformation”: a freestanding spiral stair, wrapped in metallic gauze so that it resembles a Red Bull can, winding its way up toward the meeting rooms on the second level. Photography by Tom Arban

Each of these glassed-in, curved-walled meeting places (originally set up by Chou to be recording studios) is different. One is lined with blonde wood that sweeps up from the ﬂoor and arches overhead; another, this time surfaced with red fabric, is more like a sunken living room. Despite the variety, the atmospheres Chou has devised for all these rooms are comfortable, but not cozy; relaxed, but serious. These are pod-like spots, the designs tell us, where important matters are talked over, where decisions are made, and where Red Bull

encounters the leaders in sport, music and the other activities it backs. Where, that is, the dynamic transformations that ﬁgure powerfully in the company’s image of itself are developed and set in motion. “There is an old saying that design has to improve life,” Chou says. “But for me, it articulates life. It makes us reﬂect on what we are, what we do, and design describes the person using it. Which is why I am obsessed with metaphor and movement, with creating narratives that resonate with those who use the spaces. It’s the challenge

of making something, not just beautiful, but also multivalent in both form and function. I’ve always loved the James Bond movies from the early ’60s, in which cars change into submarines. Watching things change, move, transform. Those are the things that engage me in other people’s work, and that engage me in my own.” c I

MARCH/APRIL 2014 CANADIAN INTERIORS 31

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Hit parade Top trends and triumphs at the 2014 Interior Design Show. —By Leslie C. Smith

This past January, the Interior Design Show treated its approximately 51,000 visitors to a now well-established round of parties, international guest speakers and 300-plus exhibits. The latter displays at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre were the big draw, of course, consisting mainly of exhibitors from across North America, with a sprinkling of global

suppliers. While not all of the products on view could be termed cutting edge, let alone unique (just how many nearidentical kitchen faucets and bathroom sinks can you look at without reaching the tipping point?), several helped serve up a smorgasbord of directions in contemporary design.

Retro no mo’ Nothing shouts “poolside” louder than basket chairs rendered in such vivid Miami Heat shades as turquoise, orchid, cactus and hot pink. And, thanks to Toronto’s Innit Design, we once again have available a sturdy collection of ’60s-style vinyl-cord chairs, stools and tables to lounge around with – fabricated for the new millennium to be phthalate-free, rust- and UV-resistant. innit.com

1—LED-ing the way IDS’s special See the Light section offered surprisingly little in the way of inspirational illumination, yet AM Studio’s stand-alone booth more than made up for this lack. The Toronto gallery’s custom LED lighting fixtures featured a clutch of eye-catching designs, from the flat, brushed-steel optics of its Flying Lines chandelier and Flashlight grouping to the each-pieceis-unique Moonlight pendants (shown) – a staggered array of hand-blown glass bubbles in frosty white, silver, amber and bronze finishes. AM Studio’s combination of art, artisanship and G-4 LED technology really illustrates how lighting can be lifted to the next level. amstudio.ca 2—The hidden kitchen Modern urban homes (read “compact condos”)

34 CANADIAN INTERIORS March/April 2014

employ an open concept to disguise the fact that they’re really quite small. The effect of this is that the galley-style kitchen, with its obligatory floating island counter-bar, is visible from all angles of the main living space. Mississauga’s AyA Kitchen’s new Avani line, created in consultation with white-hot, New York–based Israeli designer Dror Benshetrit, aims to minimize this visual impact by keeping all utilitarian objects out of sight. No intrusive hardware interrupts the blank wall of pull-to-open cupboards and drawers. The fridge and dishwasher are disguised by doors of matching veneer, and even the range hood over the flat-surface stove can be swung out and back into the surrounding cabinetry. Benshetrit’s “Arc,” a fixed Corian island counter with a pull-out, nesting-table bar, is situated front and centre. Narrow in both width and profile, easily

expanded and diminished, the Arc acts as a sleek, minimalist framing device for the kitchen you hardly realize is there. avanikitchens.com 3—Oh, beehive! The original modular unit is arguably the beehive – a handy all-in-one home for workers, the queen’s nursery and, of course, delicious honey. Carleton University Industrial Design graduates Scott Bodaly and Heather Lam, working under the Toronto-based title The National Design Collective, have crafted a water-tower-like hive out of pieces of bent, raw cedar, whose round segments can be lifted out for individual maintenance. Designed with rooftop beekeepers in mind, the City Hive was ecologically motivated, meant to help reverse the depressing downward spiral of the world’s bee population. The fact that it looks

pretty cool in the bargain is a sweet surprise. thenationaldesigncollective.ca 4—Saving grace If there is an upside to the current North American infestation of Emerald Ash Borers, it would be the way enterprising craftspeople have rediscovered the beauty of ash wood’s deep grain and flexible nature. Toronto’s Brothers Dressler, design leaders in salvaged-wood products, have come up with dozens of uses for an admitted fraction of the 860,000 ash trees that will be destroyed in their city alone over the next five years. We loved Lars and Jason D’s one-off Rad Desk (above), made from ash slabs and recycled lengths of radiator tubing, as well as the sinewy look of ash-wood fingers spreading out to support their new Branch Shelving series (below). brothersdressler.com

5—Instahome What could be a more natural progression of Facebook’s and Instagram’s “social” self-involvement than a truly personalized home? That’s the theory, at any rate, behind PicturePerfect Carpets. Toronto’s W Studio obtained the Canadian licensing rights for this European technology just one week prior to IDS. Clients simply provide their own high-res image and ink-jet printing does the rest – right down to a durable depth of three-quarter-inch in wooland-nylon carpet pile. wstudio.ca 6—The modular wall In a similar vein, the Italian firm Design You Edit (by way of U.S. supplier Ronda Design) offers a metallic wall covering that can also be insta-printed with your choice of artwork.

Magnet-backed shelving units – available in a wide variety of shapes, from Ys to circular tubing to cabinets – simply click onto the wall and can be reconfigured whenever whimsy strikes. commercialdesigninteriors.com 7—New-old news Thoreaux, a new wallpaper line out of Toronto, is doing its own bit of recycling. Partners Benjamin Leszcz and Witney Geller source classic ornamentation images – Chinese porcelains, Turkish mosaics, John James Audubon copperplates – and then rework the scale and colouring to create contemporary flair. After years of being banished to decor limbo, wallpaper is back on top again. It couldn’t have better champions than the Thoreaux team. thoreaux.com

March/April 2014 CANADIAN INTERIORS 35

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The maple leaf forever To stand out in the crowd, Lululemon covered its Yorkdale mall storefront with a pixilated wooden image created by the Brothers Dressler. The painstakingly crafted mosaic recently earned an Interior Design Award from Ontario Wood Works.

Lemon aid With a little help from the Brothers Dressler, Quadrangle Architects creates a one-of-a-kind Lululemon in Toronto. â&#x20AC;&#x201D;By Leslie C. Smith Photography by Bob Gundu

Jeff Hardy, principal and retail team leader for Toronto’s Quadrangle Architects, knew Yorkdale’s 3,000-square-foot Lululemon store was going to be a bit different from the rest of the 30 to 40 North American projects his company oversees yearly for the mammoth yoga-wear retailer. “You could tell that it was going to come out quite special,” he says. “Part of it was the sense of importance. Yorkdale is one of the busiest shopping centres on the continent.” Then, too, Lululemon wanted to experiment – much to mall-management chagrin – with the avant-garde concept of completely covering up its storefront. Lululemon’s staff store designer, Emily Robin, liked the idea of an exterior veiled in wood and, being a fan of Toronto furniture designers the Brothers Dressler, commissioned them to create the installation. Jason Dressler picks up the story from there: “We’ve always wanted to pixilate an image with wood colours. When we started thinking about an image connected to nature and Ontario, we sent Lululemon a reference shot of this maple leaf with a 38 CANADIAN INTERIORS March/April 2014

slug crawling on it that Lars took in fall eight years ago up at the family cottage at Parry Sound. Its tonal range matched the wood tones we wanted to use. Emily loved the image as much as we did, and asked for a mosaic of it not only for the facade but also leading into the store.” While Quadrangle worked on the actual store structure and layout, the Dresslers, together with a dozen specially hired craftspeople, spent weeks constructing the 23-by-25-foot front cladding and contiguous 12-by-6-foot doorway made from 35,788 one-and-three-quarter-inch pieces, representative of more than 20 different species of wood. “It was very labour intensive,” Dressler says. “All these people working a non-stop, 45-foot-long assembly line: laying down, gluing, ﬁnishing. Except for a few pieces, the mosaic was entirely made from scrap materials, leftovers from our furniture making. The amount of history within this mosaic is tremendous: parts of doorways, churches, Queen’s Wharf piers, barrels. That’s what we thought was so great, just

how many layers of Ontario history there was to it.” Public response to this most Canadian of icons has been very positive since the store’s 2012 opening. Inside, the Dresslers’ theme carries through in the chakra-inspired reconstituted tree that hangs behind the cash desk; the walnut “wooden waterfall” drinking station; and the dressing-room chandelier made from reclaimed walnut veneer, steamed green and combined with beaver-chewed sticks, then icicled over with Swarovski crystals. Connectivity to nature’s calm and a healthy lifestyle, sensitivity to the ecology, a deep respect for a community’s shared history – for Jeff hardy, these things relate directly to his client’s design mandate. The fact that through their crew’s collaborative expertise it turned into something quite extraordinary, well that’s just karma. c I

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■ Wood is good inside the shop, the Dresslers’ nature theme is carried through in the reconstituted tree hanging behind the cash desk (opposite top); the “wooden waterfall” drinking station (opposite bottom); and the dressing-room chandelier of reclaimed walnut veneer and beaver-chewed sticks (rescued by the brothers from Lake Manitouwabing), icicled over with Swarovski crystals (this page).

MArCh/APrIL 2014 CANADIAN INTERIORS 39

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Floral arrangement Vancouver architect Michelle Biggar provides an elegant solution to the puzzle of the petite boutique. —By Leslie C. Smith

Open-and-shut case Michelle Biggar turned the boutique's central display plinth into a series of 3-d jigsaw pieces that can come together and break apart in seemingly infinite variety. a neutral palette lends refinement and intensifies focus on the cut flowers and arrangements.

Photography by Office of McFarlane Biggar

For whatever reason, creativity seems to thrive under restrictions. The puzzle for Michelle Biggar, principal at the time of McFarlane Green Biggar Architecture + Design (now principal of Office of McFarlane Biggar) was to design an upscale florist’s shop in Vancouver’s newly built Fairmont Pacific Rim Hotel. The budget was miniscule; the retail space, all 180 square feet of it, even smaller. Since Biggar had been responsible for designing the shell of the base building, as well as the hotel’s restaurant, café, and parts of the lobby, she understood the milieu in which the shop would be situated, and knew too that it should complement the hotel environs while still establishing its own unique space. Its tiny size dictated “just one strong mood with not too many finishes,” Biggar says. So the cubed interior of polished sandstone floor with matching walls forms “an intentionally quiet backdrop that allows the product to stand out,” rather like a jewellery store which lets its glitzy wares do the talking. In the case of the Granville Island Florist, the focus is on floral arrangements. Their display area therefore sits centre stage, on an ingenious, white-laminated plinth comprised of segments that can be easily pulled apart, in Jenga Cube–fashion, and shifted into a multiplicity of options. The concept, says Biggar, stemmed from the owners’ wish to showcase different themes each week: all black and white flowers, all roses, and so on. Driven by function, the jigsaw-like pieces provide a flexible and refreshing variety of in-store levels and presentations. At times, they can even push out into the lobby for added effect. The rest of the shop – two vertical display niches, a white-laminated sink/potting stand and back cash desk – recedes intentionally into the background, punctuated solely by the ruddy relief of a teak half-wall emblazoned with the store’s logo. As small and quiet as it is, one would find it hard to walk by this little jewel of a retail space without doing a double take. Certainly, the design world appears to have taken notice: Biggar’s simply elegant solution to the puzzle of the petite boutique earned MGB an IDIBC Award of Excellence Gold. c I MARCH/APRIL 2014 CANADIAN INTERIORS 41

▷▷▷▷ Going the distance Urban T.O. athletes hotfoot it to +Tongtong’s high-end Black Toe Running store. —By Michael Totzke

When I first heard the name, I thought it was a mordant take on “dead man walking.” It’s actually a wink and nod to the store’s core clientele, an elite group to which I don’t belong: the hardcore long-distance runner. Black Toenail is a condition where a nail turns black (duh) and eventually falls off from constant 42 CANADIAN INTERIORS MARCH/APRIL 2014

Photography by Colin Faulkner

The human race At the centre of the clean and compact Black Toe Running store - tucked into the base of a condo on King Street West - a striking black-steel monolith displays the shoe selection. Topped with concrete, it features the footprints of runners from the community.

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running – a memorable rite of passage. If the name is authentic, the store feels so as well, starting with the location: in the base of a condo on Toronto’s King Street West, which is a major artery for condo development (stuck in hyperdrive in this city) and a common route for urban runners. Then there’s the image on

the back feature wall, carefully chosen by +Tongtong principal John Tong: spectators wearing “GoPre” T-shirts at a race Steve Prefontaine – the legendary American long-distance runner who helped inspire the 1970s running boom – was competing in. Finally, the materials used mirror the environment where the urban

runner (in T.O. and elsewhere) trains. Concrete, slate, wood and chain link summon up the waterfront and city streets, alleyways and city parks, ravines and paths beside railway tracks. “It’s an interesting location,” says Tong. “You might expect a café or a corner store, but Black Toe offers something that a lot of MARCH/APRIL 2014 CANADIAN INTERIORS 43

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▷ Born to run The materials used mirror the environment where the urban runner (in T.0. and elsewhere) trains. Concrete, slate, wood and chain link summon up the waterfront and city streets, alleyways and parks, ravines and paths beside railroad tracks.

people who live and work in the neighbourhood actually engage with.” At the centre of the store, occupying a mere 900 square feet, a striking blacksteel monolith displays Black Toe Running’s shoe selection; topped with concrete, it features the footprints of runners from the community. One side of the unit ramps up subtly to a raised platform area, where a few shallow steps then lead down to the other side. To accentuate the clean lines and the dynamic shift in elevation, Tong split the case down the middle. Oak planks were 44 CANADIAN INTERIORS MARCH/APRIL 2014

chosen for the path, riffing on the look of a boardwalk, lit by small exterior lights usually found outside on walking paths. Says Tong, “We tried to create a terrain that is tactile yet urban and man-made.” Flanking the ends of the store are large sculptural elements made of chain-link fencing and geometric wooden structures cantilevering forward. On one side of the store, Tong positioned multi-purpose bleachers. “Visually, bleachers signal social gathering, anticipating a sense of spectacle,” he says, “but they are also purely function-

al: a place to try on shoes and display products.” The bleachers will also be used as a hub to host seminars and events, as well as the meeting place for group runs store plans to organize. The glass countertop toward the back of Black Toe Running performs double duty as a place for the cash register as well as a consultation bar with stools. In a final bid for authenticity, a drinking fountain is located nearby – for runners to stop in and fill up their water bottles, of course. c I

▷

Who’s Who

The winter’s tales 5

—Text and photos by David Lasker

IDS OPENING-NIGHT PARTY

46 CANADIAN INTERIORS March/April 2014

The weather was more Winnipeg than Toronto, but inside the Metro Toronto Convention Centre, the hearts of 5,500 design aficionados warmed as they converged for the customary opening-night party of local food, drinks and entertainment, and an auction benefitting the ONEXONE children’s foundation. 1—At the Smoothies truck: Eurolite sales associate Traian Saidro; interior designer Johnson Chou and Silke Stadtmüller, senior associate at Chou’s eponymous firm; with Eurolite’s Leonardo Orozco, showroom sales, and Mike Nooreini, showroom manager. 2—Chilling out on Ron Arad’s Misfits sofa at the Moroso booth, in front of an abstract canvas by Senegalese painter Salam Gaye: Rami Riad, Moroso interior architect and sales manager Canada and Southeast; University of Alberta third-year industrial-design students Mark LaFond and Chris Brodt; and Moroso executive VP Mirko van den Winkel. 3—At Miele’s very big booth: residential designer Karen Palmer; Susan Langdon, executive director, Toronto Fashion Incubator, wearing a jacket by Montreal’s Marie St. Pierre and jewelry by Toronto’s Shay Lowe; and Toronto Fashion Week founder Laverne Belzac, senior advisor, fashion/apparel and design, Economic Development and Culture, City of Toronto, wearing a tweed skirt by Lida Biday.

4—A Canaroma extravaganza! Daniele Mancini, design and sales rep; Roy Mancini, co-owner; Robyn Ross, design and sales rep; Amanda Zucchet, design consultant; Nino di Lallo, design and sales rep; Anna Piacentini, office admin; Frank Piacentini, co-owner; Daniela Agostini, receptionist; Simonetta Gazzea, design and sales rep; Vanessa Piacentini, interior decorator and tile co-ordinator; Anthony Piacentini, custom home design and sales specialist; Patricia Ee, sales and marketing director; and Andrew Piacentini, general manager, Canaroma Outlet. 5—At Brenlo: Mike Chalut, host, Proud FM (103.9), with boyfriend Terrence Freeman, publicist, EG PR; Tim Steward, nurse practitioner, University Health Network; and Doug Wallace of Wallace Media. 6—Alain Courchesne and Anna Abbruzzo, principal designers at Montreal’s Igloodgn; with Daniel Bain, CEO, Thornmark Asset Management. 7—At custom curtain maker Studio LaBeaute in Studio North: model Miegan Gougeon, wearing a wavy sheer curtain; company head and artist Camal Pirbhai; and furniture maker Philip Brown.

AYA KITCHENS FOR DINNER ’Twas the night before the Interior Design Show and AyA Kitchens and Baths held a press dinner at the Design Exchange to preview its new upmarket Avani kitchen brand. 2

1—AyA Kitchens’ Dave Marcus, president, and Hugh Wahab, VP sales, flank Dror Benshetrit, founder of New York–based Dror Design and the new Avani kitchen brand’s designer. 2—Barbara Milner, design and decor producer, Steven and Chris, CBC TV; and Michelle Mawby, founder of Lucid Interior Design and host of Cottage Life TV’s Weekend Reno. 3—Radha Chaddah, wife of AyA pres Dave Marcus, a molecular biologist and an artist using stem cells as her media; with AyA marketing supervisor Nelson Costa and design chief Frank Turco.

1 3

DISTILLING SUB-ZERO/WOLF Sub-Zero and Wolf, makers of high-status, customizable refrigerators and stoves, launched its New Generation lineup in the guise of art installations in the Distillery District’s Fermenting Cellar. Hospitality designer Mahmood Popal of Craft Studio and six local artists transformed the kitchen appliances into art installations. 1—Paul Pinto, sales director, KWA Appliances; with Union 31 creative principals Neil Jonsohn and Alex Chapman. 2—Andu Cramer, project manager at sustainable-housing firm Qual; Cecconi Simone staffers Karen Smith, designer, and Rashad Richards, designer’s assistant; and Simon Steer, second-year graphic-design student at OCAD University. 3—Andrew Campbell, decoration details assistant, Lori Morris Design; Andy Gering, designer at interior designers Tomas Pearce; photographer Tony Koukos, who offers his travel photography as wall coverings or lighting; and Codi Shewan, owner, Focus Partners customer-service consultants. 4—Maroline Distributing, Sub-Zero and Wolf distributor for central and eastern Canada, hosted the party. Strauss Water marketing associate Nicole Amiel (at right) stands with Maroline members Anna Manca, director of business development; Reggie Berrigan, showroom consultant; Grace Peron, specifier consultant; and Alexandria Stanley, showroom consultant.

March/April 2014 CANADIAN INTERIORS 47

EMERGING YOUNG DESIGNERS AT DX The Design Exchange celebrated its first Emerging Designer Competition with the opening of an exhibition of works by the winning young designers. 1—Fashion Award-winning couple McCauley Wanner and ryan palibroda, co-founders of the Alleles (which designs cool prosthetic covers for leg amputees); with Ottobock sales and marketing director Tom Brown and market manager, technical orthopedics, Jennifer Duke (Ottobock makes the covers). 2—Marketing manager Annie Zeni and project co-ordinator Bruna Barbosa at Caesarstone, the quartz solid-surfacing material (and event sponsor), flank Treaty production director and designer Matthew Cherkas and creative director and marketing manager Vincent Joseph Monastero. The Treaty pair won the Caesarstone people’s Choice award. 3—Industrial Design award winner Guillaume Noiseux, based in Montreal; with Karen Eastwood, community manager at event sponsor rBC royal Bank. 4—Matt Davis, founder of Vancouver-based Andlight; Vancouver-based art photographer Jennilee Marigomen, girlfriend of overall Competition Winner lukas peet; peet, of lukas/peet design and a partner in Andlight; with his father, rudi peet, a silversmith based in Canmore, Alberta. 5—Graphic Design award winner Emery Norton, a freelance designer; with Interior Design Award winner Mason Studio partners Ashley rumsey and Stanley Sun.

RON THOM OPENS AT THE GARDINER Architect ron Thom, best remembered for Massey College at U of T, Trent University in peterborough, and the Shaw Festival Theatre at Niagara-on-the-lake, liked to design the landscaping and furnishings as well. The traveling exhibition “ron Thom and the Allied Arts,” now at the Gardiner Museum, showcases the architect as master builder, in total control.

1—W. Kenneth McCarter, partner at Bay Street law firm Torys llp and chair of the Quadrangle Society at Massey College, promoting town-and-gown exchange; the exhibition’s Vancouver-based curator, Adele Weder; and John Fraser, master of Massey College. 2—Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Sport’s Steven Davidson; Deputy Minister and senior policy planner Natalie papoutsis; and John Dalrymple, director, strategic initiatives, Canada’s National Ballet School. 3—Gardiner staff: richard Tang, IT manager; Sarah Chate, exhibitions manager; rachel Gotlieb, chief curator; and patricia robinson, development co-ordinator.

48 CANADIAN INTERIORS MArCh/AprIl 2014

That Was Then

Bears repeating The very first editorial by the very first editor in the very first issue (April 1964) of CI.

50 CANADIAN INTERIORS MARCH/APRIL 2014

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