AZURE_2014_06.pdf

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Contents 

june 2014 

Features 

office drama 

Three brilliant interiors reinvent the nine-to-five 

64 

focus 

44 Roll Play 

Eight options 

for gliding 

through your 

workspace on 

sporty wheels. 

By David 

Dick-Agnew 

Q+A: Lateral office 

Bean Counters Williamson Chong Architects turns a warehouse into an all-in-one micro-roastery 

replete with a tasting bar, a cupping lab and storage units. By Alison Garwood-Jones 

54 60 

82 Mason White and Lola Sheppard discuss their 

Venice Biennale installation and the challenges 

of building in the Far North. By David Dick-Agnew 

architecture 

How Mobile R U? Steelcase practises what 

it preaches with a showroom designed for 

endless flexibility. By Pamela Young 

Raising the Stakes The Pullman Hotel in 

London offers up a conference room with 

executive appeal. By Giovanna Dunmall 

profile 

70 New York’s 

New Makers 

François Cham bard 

is one of four rising 

designers who 

are taking the city 

by storm. 

By Tim McKeough 

76 Black Beauty Alain Carle’s L’Écran House 

cuts a dramatic profile in the Laurentian 

Moun tains. By Hans Ibelings 

june 2014 23

Contents 


Departments 

show report 

86 Stockholm Furniture Fair Highlights from Sweden’s biggest designshow, including soft 

sofas, hard benches, and TAF’s poster-inspired lights for Zero. By Daniel Golling 

identikit 

FIELD TRIP 

38 Groundbreaker Morphosis engineers a brilliant 

home for a showbiz college in Hollywood 

40 Fresh Take Eindhoven’s Studio Mieke Meijer 

reimagines the home office 

42 Just In Announcing the 48 finalists of the 

2014 AZ Awards 

44 Focus The best office furnishings on casters 

46 Fresh Take The FIFA 

World Cup’s superhigh-tech 

soccer gear 

48 Et Cetera A shirt in 

flight; Arik Levy’s lights 

for Lasvit; and more 

52 Taylor McKenzie-Veal The American 

design er harnesses local industry 

Design File 

90 Cabins in the Pines Luís Rebelo de 

Andrade’s soaring Eco Houses in Portugal 

Material World 

also 

36 Contributors 

50 Calendar NeoCon in Chicago; the Serpentine 

Pavilion in London; the Design and 

Health conference in Toronto; and more 

100 Media Shelf Books, films and websites: what 

we’re reading, watching and downloading 

103 Boldface Movers, shakers, winners and 

green do-gooders 

103 Advertiser Index 

106 Trailer Blow Up 

94 Bathroom Furniture All of the essential 

elements for your personal Zenlike retreat 

98 Acoustic and Thermal Insulation From nononsense 

spray foams to striking wall panels 

on our cover 

To capture the nocturnal 

drama of architect Alain Carle’s 

Screen House, photographer 

Adrien Williams emphasized 

the hard shadows cast by the 

sun, to accent the structure’s 

origami-like angles. 

24 june 2014

CUSTOM 

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2014 AZ Awards 

celebrate with architects 

and designers from around the 

world as we announce the 

winners of the 2014 AZ Awards 

friday, June 20th 

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Vol. 30 – No. 232 june 2014 

Editorial Director 

Nelda Rodger 

Editor 

Catherine Osborne 

Creative Director 

Karen Simpson 

Senior Editor 

Elizabeth Pagliacolo 

Managing Editor 

Diane Chan 

Associate Editors 

David Dick-Agnew, Erin Donnelly 

Copy Chief 

Pamela Capraru 

Contributing Editors 

Andrew Braithwaite, Tim McKeough, Rachel Pulfer, 

David Theodore, Adele Weder 

Contributors 

Ricardo Oliveira Alves, Iwan Baan, Chris Chapman, 

Giovanna Dunmall, Gregory Furgala, Matthew Furtado, 

Alison Garwood-Jones, Shai Gil, Daniel Golling, 

Bob Gundu, Todd Harrison, Hans Ibelings, Paige Magarrey, 

Josephine Minutillo, Corinna Reeves, Katya Tylevich, 

Regina Winkle-Bryan, Pamela Young 

Associate Art Director 

Vicky Lee 

Junior Designer 

Taylor Kristan 

Website 

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contributors 

→ we asked: What design 

object IS ESSENTIAL TO YOUR 

Workday TOOL KIT? 

PARIS / SEPTEMBER 5-9, 2014 / 

JANUARY 23-27, 2015 

PARIS NORD VILLEPINTE 

RENDEZ-VOUS 

IN PARIS… 

WITH 

A TRAY 

“An m0851 backpack, where I keep 

my laptop, recorder, notebooks 

and pens. In an emergency, I can 

assist my laptop before assisting 

myself, and evacuate any danger 

zone with my work intact.” 

Writer Katya Tylevich spoke with 

Aaron Ragan of Morphosis Architects 

about the kinetic residence at 

Emerson College Los Angeles, for 

“Big Mayne On Campus.” → Page 38 

“A good pen and notebook are 

important. I’m currently using the 

Lamy AL-star, and I jot and scribble 

with it for hours every day. I want 

something thoughtfully designed, 

rather than a disposable stick.” 

New York writer Tim McKeough 

met with four emerging firms that 

are poised to take NYCxDesign by 

storm, for “New York’s New Makers.” 

→ Page 70 

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“My work spot offers me a view 

of my other desk and chair, by 

Konstantin Achkov of Bulgaria. 

I used them until I realized that 

I had buried their beauty under 

mountains of paper.” 

For “Black Beauty,” writer Hans 

Ibelings toured L’Écran House, and 

its sloping site in the Laurentians, 

with architect Alain Carle. → Page 76 

“Herman Miller’s Celle, the perfect 

task chair for my home office. 

It’s very comfortable, and because 

it has no upholstery my cats can’t 

destroy it.” 

On location for “How Mobile R U?,” 

writer Pamela Young took in the 

expansive views from Steelcase’s 

gleaming Toronto showroom, an 

interior by local architecture firm 

Superkül. → Page 54 

Clarifications On page 54 of our March ⁄ April issue, Caesarstone’s quartz 

surfacing was shown in Pietra Grey. On page 91 of our May issue, Loïc Bard’s 

Andy Stool was identified incorrectly. Azure regrets the errors. 


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Master of Architecture Candidate Jamie Schwadel, Architectural Designer at BAC Practice employer Cambridge Seven Associates, Inc. (C7A) 

THE-BAC.EDU

groundbreaker 

big mayne 

on campus 

Thom Mayne’s Morphosis rocks the 

Sunset Strip with an awe-inspiring 

school for students of show business 

BY katya tylevich 

PHOTO BY LOREM IPSUM DOLORE 


↙ The frame incorporates student residences into the vertical towers, 

while the tiered telescopic volumes in the centre contain classrooms. 

↓ A shimmering metal scrim spans all 10 storeys on the interior 

facades, as a passive cooling device that provides shade and texture. 

↓↓ Bridges connect the various volumes to one another, and the 

private sphere to the academic. 

PHOTO BY LOREM IPSUM DOLORE 

HOllywood’s sunset striP is hardly the Cambridge 

of California – more of a rock club, strip mall, striptease 

kind of place. In designing Emerson College 

Los An gel es, an awe-inspiring academic facility with 

two telescopic structures jutting out from an enormous 

picture frame, Morphosis Architects needed to 

figure out how to integrate an intimate campus into 

this eclectic urban environment. 

Emerson, a Boston-based communications and 

arts school, runs a semester program in L.A. for undergraduates 

and graduates interning in show business. 

These exchange students resided in temporary housing 

until Emerson approached Thom Mayne for a permanent 

home in L.A.; what they got is an 11,148-squaremetre 

icon in aluminum and glass. Accommodating up 

to 217 students, the building is a visual endorphin rush, 

as much at ease with its fast-paced locale as with 

students’ unique artistic needs. 

The two residential towers, facing east and west, 

compose a frame for the “abstract artwork” within: the 

school’s tiered, cantilevered communal spaces, which 

give the sense of a structure in motion. Navigating the 

interior delivers an equally fluid experience. Enclosed 

classrooms double as screening and communal forums, 

and they transition seamlessly into generous indooroutdoor 

spaces that adapt to functions as varied as live 

performances, screenings, gatherings, and even 

photo and movie shoots. The design creates effortless 

portals between public and private student life. “You 

never feel disconnected,” says project architect Aaron 

Ragan. “Walking through campus is almost like walking 

through an Italian hill town.” 

Emerson L.A.’s grey material palette is relatively 

simple, accentuating “all that’s going on spatially, with 

geometry, patterns, textures and light,” says Ragan. 

The architects achieved complex geometries by way 

of extensive 3‐D modelling, with the central volumes 

coming together like puzzles made up of different 

prefabricated parts. An undulating metal scrim spans 

all 10 storeys of the towers’ interior facades, providing 

shade and texture; and an active exterior skin scales 

the towers’ street side, responding to weather conditions 

with an automated sunshade system. The 

seemingly animate building continually shape-shifts 

to better serve its environment and its users. “I very 

much see it as a prototype for how to organize a 

community in an urban setting,” says Ragan. 

With classrooms open to Sunset Boulevard via fullheight 

windows, and views of the city from the dorms 

and classrooms, the design feels antithetical to any 

ivory tower. From the outside, the complex “reads like 

a cross-section of the school,” embodying an open, 

active place. “We weren’t about to compete with the 

billboards and flashing signs on Sunset,” Ragan says, 

“but we did design a building that embraces its intense 

and amplified surroundings.” morphosis.com 

photos by iwan baan 


fresh take 

stair 

master 

Dutch studio Mieke Meijer maximizes 

a small space with a multi-tasking stair 

that doubles as a home office 

BY Gregory furgala 

STURDY 

FRAMEWORK 

The studio hand-cut 

and welded the 

steel tubing. 

WORKABLE 

SURFACES 

The designers 

incorporated a desk 

into the overall 

scheme. 

DYNAMIC DISPLAY 

Open compartments 

in the steel 

frame show off 

curiosities. 

SAMBA RISERS 

The solid French 

oak planks are 

hand-shaped. 

A renovated 1930s residence in Wassenaar, 

a suburb of The Hague, desperately needed 

an upgrade. The second-floor office and 

attic were haphazardly connected with an 

aluminum ladder, and the homeowner, an 

interior designer, sought out Studio Mieke 

Meijer for help. He was inspired by the 

burgeoning Eindhoven firm’s Industrial 

Archeology series. “He appreciated the 

graphical industrial aesthetics,” says studio 

founder Mieke Meijer, “and the unorthodox 

way it considers function and shape.” So he 

commissioned Meijer to mimic that style in 

what would become the Objet Élevé stair, a 

daring system that might send shudders up 

the spine of a climacophobic. 

Rather than a standard flight of stairs, 

the cramped interior called for a compact 

Samba arrangement that could be installed 

in pieces, enabling Meijer and her team to 

haul it up to the second floor. After seeing 

her initial design, the homeowner – who 

desired multi-functionality – suggested 

adding a desk, which fit perfectly. Meijer 

and her partner, Roy Letterlé, constructed 

the ensemble over three weeks, welding 

together a frame of black powder-coated 

steel tubing, then affixing handcrafted 

French oak planks finished with hard wax. 

Half-width steps alternate up the skeletal 

structure (which also accommodates display 

space for knickknacks), and they skip the 

sheer gap up to the conspicuously suspended 

top unit. The break, needed to haul 

everything upstairs, also emphasizes Objet 

Élevé’s apparent weightlessness. Neatly 

integrated alongside, the desk reasserts the 

workspace around the gallery-worthy 

sculpture. Ultimately, Élevé is a perfectly 

engineered object: add anything, and it 

would be too much; take anything away, and 

it would fall apart. miekemeijer. nl 

MANY STRENGTHS 

The desk and the 

stairs double as 

storage and display 

units. 

40 june 2014 

azuremagazine.com

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Just iN 

the 

finalists 

Congratulations to the firms, designers 

and students shortlisted for Azure’s fourth 

annual AZ Awards 

residential architecture 

residential interiors 

The grand jury 

Alain Carle Architecte: Les Marais, Wentworth-Nord, 

Quebec, Canada 

MacKay-Lyons Sweetapple Architects: Cliff House, 

Nova Scotia, Canada 

Marte.Marte Architects: Maiden Tower, Vorarlberg, 

Austria 

StudioMK27: Redux House, São Paulo, Brazil 

commercial ⁄ institutional 

architecture over 1,000 square metres 

Israel Alba: Valencia Waste Treatment Plant, 

Valencia, Spain 

Anmahian Winton Architects: Community Rowing 

Inc., Boston, U.S. 

Arquitectura 911sc, Fernanda Canales: Elena Garro 

Cultural Center, Mexico City, Mexico 

KPMB Architects: Joseph L. Rotman School of 

Management, Toronto, Canada 

MacLennan Jaunkalns Miller Architects: Regent 

Park Aquatic Centre, Toronto, Canada 

Marlon Blackwell Architect: Vol Walker Hall and 

the Steven L. Anderson Design Center, Fayetteville, 

Arkansas, U.S. 

Studio Gang Architects: WMS Boathouse at Clark 

Park, Chicago, U.S. 

Drew Mandel Architects: Moore Park Residence, 


Dubbeldam Architecture + Design: Through House, 


i29 Interior Architects: Home 09, Bloemendaal, 

The Netherlands 

Project A01 Architects: Residence Freundorf, 

Freundorf, Austria 

commercial ⁄ institutional interiors 

Buero Wagner, Andreas Kreft: Gamsei cocktail bar, 

Munich, Germany 

Moment Factory: LAX – Immersive Multimedia 

Architecture, Los Angeles, U.S. 

Sanjay Puri Architects: Auriga Restaurant and 

Lounge, Mumbai, India 

Studio MK27: Cultura bookstore, São Paulo, Brazil 

furniture design 

Bensen: U Turn Chair, by Niels Bendtsen 

Dystil: Kona Chair, by Miles Keller 

Esrawe Studio: Stack Buffet, by Héctor Esrawe 

Moroso: Bikini Island, by Werner Aisslinger 

Rimadesio: Cover, by Giuseppe Bavuso 

Sedia Systems: JumpSeat Wall, by Ziba Design 

Presiding over a tough yet exhilarating contest, 

our five jurors faced the daunting assignment of 

weighing in on the 652 entries that poured in from 

36 countries. They accomplished this task with 

aplomb when they convened in Toronto in March. 

We are elated to present the finalists that 

impressed the discerning jury with their vision, 

creativity and talent. From these, the winners in 

each category will be announced – and receive 

their trophies – during a ceremony at the Evergreen 

Brick Works in Toronto on June 20. To read about 

all the finalists, look for our July ⁄ August issue, on 

newsstands in mid-June. 

commercial ⁄ institutional 

architecture under 1,000 square metres 

Li Xiaodong Atelier: Screen of Bricks, Dichen Valley, 

China 

Peter Sampson Architecture Studio: Assiniboine 

Park Washrooms, Winnipeg, Canada 

Studio 804, University of Kansas: EcoHawks, 

Lawrence, Kansas, U.S. 

Kikuma Watanabe: School Floating in the Sky, 

Sangkhlaburi, Thailand 

lighting 

3M: Lightfalls, by Todd Bracher 

Castor Design: Coil Lamp, by Brian Richer and Kei Ng 

Pensar: Halo Light 

interior products 

Herman Miller: Formwork, by Kim Colin and 

Sam Hecht 

Interface: Net Effect carpet tile, by David Oakey 

landscape architecture 

unbuilt competition entries 

A24 Landschaft: Mangfallpark Rosenheim, 

Rosenheim, Germany 

Stoss Landscape Urbanism: CityDeck, Green Bay, 

Wisconsin, U.S. 

Straub Thurmayr Landscape Architects: Folly 

Forest, Winnipeg, Canada 

temporary ⁄ demonstration 

architecture 

D’Ambrosio Architecture + Urbanism: Art in Public 

projects, Victoria, Canada 

Davidson Rafailidis: MirrorMirror Tents, New York, U.S. 

Matthew Mazzotta: Open House, York, Alabama, U.S. 

Form4 Architecture: Luminous Moon-Gate 

Platform for Architecture + Research: Taichung 

Cultural Center 

REX Architecture: Media Headquarters Buildings 

concepts ⁄ prototypes 

Line to Line Design: Tangent Clock, by Scott Sullivan 

MZ Architects: Meditation House 

MZ Architects: Ring House 

student a + award 

Design/BuildLAB (Virginia Tech): Smith Creek Park, 

Virginia, U.S. 

Safira Lakhani (University of Waterloo): 

Revitalizing Bamyan, Waterloo, Canada 

Rowan Liivamägi (Emily Carr University of 

Art + Design): Väärtus Jewellery, Vancouver, Canada 

The jury: Diego Burdi 

of Burdifilek and 

London designer Ron 

Arad; Patricia Patkau 

of Vancouver’s 

Patkau Architects 

and Jamie Gray of 

Matter, New York; and 

professor Charles 

Waldheim of the 

Harvard Graduate 

School of Design. 

PHOTOs BY matthew furtado 


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Ceragres Tile Shop Partners 

Throughout Ontario, Quebec and the Maritimes. 

ceragres.ca to find our locations.

Focus 

Roll 

Play 

The mobile office has been around since 

the invention of casters. Here are eight ways 

to fly around the workspace with grace 

BY David Dick-Agnew 

BRAINSTORMING 

THE NEXT 

BIG IDEA 

ORGANIZING 

WITH AN EYE 

FOR DETAIL 

THE CHAIR Part task chair and part casual 

seat, Ciel!, by Noé Duchaufour-Lawrance, 

combines flexibility and elegant comfort. 

Available in seven base types, including this 

five-branch version with casters. $1,430, 

tabisso. com 

THE WHITEBOARD Stefan Borselius 

designed Sense, for Sweden’s Abstracta, 

with a white glass upper. Markers stow 

discreetly behind the moulded wooden 

base on two wheels, which sits flat for 

better stability. $3,330, abstracta.se 

THE CHAIR Keilhauer’s Juxta collection 

fits perfectly into any contemporary office 

with its twin-wheel casters and an attached 

table that swivels freely on a petite base, 

for ultimate hot-spot manoeuvrability. 

From $700, keilhauer. com 

THE STORAGE UNIT The bench-like 

structure of Gispen’s Duobox is wrapped 

in veneered plywood and goes right where 

you need it. The upper shelving section, 

made from powder-coated metal, houses 

files. $2,770, gispen.com 

COLLABORATING 

VIA TECHNOLOGY 

FINDING TIMELESS 

INSPIRATION 

THE CHAIR Gispen’s Triennial makes a 

statement with its sporty white rollers, 

designed to move effortlessly on hard or 

soft floors. The adjustable-height seat 

and back cushion can be upholstered in 

individual fabrics. $720, gispen.com 

THE STORAGE UNIT With its bigger-thanaverage 

casters, Abstracta’s Mobi Tech 

is ideal for moving monitors and large TVs 

around the office, and for storing tech 

gear in the cabinet underneath. $7,165, 

abstracta. se 

THE STORAGE UNIT Kartell’s Mobil still 

looks fresh, 20 years after Antonio Citterio 

and Glen Oliver Löw designed it, partly due 

to its elevating swivel wheels. The chromeplated 

frame holds one to six drawers. 

From $800, kartell. it 

THE CHAIR With Lotus De Luxe, Jasper 

Morrison expands his ergonomic 2007 line, 

adding a model in walnut or natural oak. 

The latest update to Cappellini’s stately 

task chair will be released in North America 

in early fall. cappellini. it 


A.D. Graph.x 

Venezia 

Murano glass 

design M. Thun and a. Rodriguez 

water at its best 

Fantini USA 

A&D BUILDING 

150 East 58 St. 8th Floor 

New York, NY 10155 

Ph. 212 308 8833 

fantini@fantiniusa.com 

www.fantiniusa.com

fresh take 

all 

geared up 

The FIFA World Cup in Brazil 

kicks it up with über-high-tech 

soccer apparel 

BY Elizabeth Pagliacolo 

BRAZUCA by Adidas 

What: The official ball of FIFA 2014 

Technology: Six-panel assembly 

The promise: Improved stability, aerodynamics 

Story: Thanks to Adidas R&D, the official FIFA 

soccer ball represents a significant improvement 

over the classic 32-panel Buckminster model. 

Brazuca, the latest iteration, boasts a surface of 

six thermally bonded, windmill-shaped modules. 

The fewer the panels, the more curved the orb’s 

arc. Four years ago, players griped that Brazuca’s 

predecessor, the eight-panel Jabulani, had poor 

aerodynamics and was difficult to control. Yet 

Brazuca, tested by 600 players over two and a 

half years, features more dimples and deeper 

seams, giving it lower drag and making it more 

stable. As a promotion leading up to the tournament, 

Adidas has also released the Brazucam, 

with six built-in cameras; to view such players as 

Spain’s Cristian Tello and Germany’s Manuel 

Neuer knocking it about during friendlies, check 

out the ball’s Twitter feed. twitter.com / brazuca 

NIKE MAGISTA BOOT 

What: All-knit cleat 

Technology: Flyknit 

The promise: Exceptional fit, feel and control 

Story: If it looks like a high-tech sock, that’s 

essentially what it is. The Magista makes the 

most of Flyknit, used on the shoe’s entire upper. 

Nike designed the boot to feel like an extension 

of the body and free up players to perform more 

“creatively.” Contributing to its seamless comfort 

are the Dynamic Fit Collar, which hugs the ankle; 

Brio cables, which knit a web between the eyelets 

and the outsole; and NikeSkin, a 0.1-millimetre 

coating that insulates against water and cold air. 

On the sole, conical studs and a Pebax and nylon 

plate provide 360‐degree rotational traction. To 

see if the shoe lives up to its hype at FIFA, watch 

France central defender Mamadou Sakho. Among 

those sporting the neon footwear, he says “it’s a 

true revolution.” nike. com 

PUma soccer kit 

What: Jerseys, shorts and more 

Technology: PWR ACTV 

The promise: Muscle performance 

Story: Lately, various athletes, including Serena 

Williams, have shown up at matches sporting strips 

of kinesiology tape on bare skin. Some scientists 

suggest these adhesives deliver nothing more than a 

placebo effect, while physical therapists believe 

taping can help alleviate muscle pain, relax muscles 

and offer a whole host of other benefits. Now Puma 

has integrated compression materials and athletic 

taping directly into soccer apparel. In its slim-fit shirts, 

shorts and socks for such FIFA competitors as Chile, 

Ivory Coast and Algeria, it incorporates ACTV tape in 

strategic spots. The segments provide micro-massages 

and improve energy supply to active muscles. Italy’s 

captain, Gianluigi Buffon, whose teammate Mario 

Balotelli is shown here rocking the ensemble, says, 

“The technology will ensure that we are physically 

equipped to perform at our best.” puma. com 


skinny planks 

Now for the fun part. 

Our 25cm x 1m skinny planks bring new proportion and scale to carpet tile, enabling a host of spectacular 

installation options unachievable with squares alone. And, since our planks and squares have dimensions that 

work together, you can use them by themselves or in combination. The design possibilities are truly endless. 

Want to see more? Explore the possibilities at Interface.com/planks.

et cetera 

→ MUYBRIDGE PART 2 

The T-Shirt Issue, a 

Berlin-based collective, 

has created a 3-D 

representation of a bird 

in flight with this jersey 

garment. Three shirts, 

created as a conceptual 

installation, represent 

different stages of motion. 

the-t-shirt-issue.com 

← CARLO PAZOLINI 

Giorgio Borruso was 

presented with an unusual 

architectural challenge: 

a retail space for Carlo 

Pazolini in Venice that must 

withstand the city’s floods. 

Borruso responded with 

a porous wall that allows 

for drainage and is lined 

with serpentine shelving. 

borrusodesign.com 

↑ CRYstal ROCK 

Arik Levy has recently 

produced several works 

with Lasvit. This time 

the team has crafted 

an LED light source that 

intensifies the beauty 

of the hand-blown glass 

pendants, sculpted to give 

a rough-cut appearance. 

lasvit.com 

↑ V SPEAKER 

Oliver Staiano’s freestanding 

speaker prototype is as 

much a beautiful piece of 

furniture as it is high-end 

audio equipment. Ash legs 

support a wool felt–covered 

Corian cabinet with a top 

surface that incorporates 

a wireless charge station. 

oliverstaiano.com 

← MATALI CRASSET 

WARDROBE 

Part of Ikea’s PS 2014 line, 

this light-weight wardrobe 

comes with 160 “pixels” 

that create patterns on 

the powder-coated steel 

frame, using templates or 

by forming your own compositions. 

$179, ikea.com 

↑ FIELD TENT 

From the Wilderness 

Collection by Kalon Studios 

and Nico Nico Clothing, 

these rugged play spaces 

are beautifully crafted in 

natural wood, leather and 

three canvas options: 

railroad, natural and denim. 

kalonstudios.com 

← BIRDS IN A ROW 

German team Christine 

Herold and Katharina Ganz 

modelled the clean lines 

of this CNC-milled birch and 

aluminum coatrack after 

the image of birds sitting 

in a row and lifting their 

beaks to the sky. 

birds-in-a-row.tumblr.com 

compiled by erin donnelly 


azuremagazine.com

creating better environments 

44 colors. 3 coordinated sizes. 

endless possibilities. 

beautiful. durable. sustainable. hygienic. 

www.forboflooringNA.com/marmoleum

BRIE DE MEAUX BURGER 

PEI ground sirloin, porcini mushrooms, artisanal lettuce, 

truffle oil, and creamy Brie de Meaux prepared to 

perfection on the Jenn-Air gas cooktop. 

Created by Chef Mark McEwan 

Visit jennair.ca/mcewan for the recipe.

A finely crafted burger created in a Jenn-Air kitchen 

is Mark McEwan’s idea of luxury. 

Like Mark, we believe in being exceptional at everything we do. The Jenn-Air cooktop is the most powerful in 

the industry, giving you complete control over everything you do, from high-heat for searing to precision for 

gentle simmering, so even the ordinary will come out extraordinary. That’s the unprecedented luxury of Jenn-Air. 

Visit jennair.ca/mcewan for the recipe.

® 

Registered trade-mark/Trade-mark of Jenn-Air U.S.A. Used under license in Canada. ©2014 All rights reserved.

Calendar 

JUNE 9 TO 11 

Neocon 

chicago 

← Teknion’s Variable guest 

chair, by Ales sandro Piretti. 

← ← Versteel’s Eliga 

col lec tion, a collaboration 

with Dan Grabowski. 

NeoCon is the best and largest contract furniture fair, and this year it 

will be easier than before to navigate the 92,000-plus square metres 

of Chicago’s Merchandise Mart, which will host over 700 exhibitors. 

The new NeoCon iPhone app, featuring floor plans, enables showgoers 

to custom-tailor their MyNeoCon guide with personal itin eraries and 

scan products of interest. On the show floor, levels 7 and 8 have been 

revamped to focus fully on the specifier market; and wayfinding will 

be improved, with more on-site signage. Not to leave out the end user, 

increased programming for those outside the A&D community will be 

featured. Keynote speakers include designer Todd Bracher, cognitive 

psychologist Scott Barry Kaufman and Tom Eich of global design 

agency IDEO. neocon. com 

JULY 9 TO 13 

DESIGN & HEALTH WORLD CONGRESS 

TORONTO 

Health care represents big business for the design community. 

This international event brings together key professionals 

to exchange research and experiences surrounding the 

salutogenic design approach, as evidenced in Montgomery 

Sisam’s Ronald McDonald House in Toronto (shown). Among 

the highlights is the symposium, Healthy Cities 2030: 

Reshaping the Supply Chain to Improve Health and Quality 

of Life. The congress also hosts an exhibition and a global 

cross-section of speakers, and it wraps up with the Design 

and Health Awards gala dinner. designandhealth. com 

upcoming fairs 

JUNE 1 TO 5 

LIGHTFAIR INTERNATIONAL 

Design and technological innovation 

in lighting. lightfair. com 

JUNE 17 TO 22 

DESIGN MIAMI ⁄ BASEL 

Swiss edition of the global design 

marketplace. designmiami. com 

AUGUST 30 TO SEPTEMBER 2 

TENDENCE, FRANKFURT 

Halls of tabletop accessories, home 

furnishings and seasonal decor. 

tendence. messefrankfurt. com 

PLASTICITY COMPETITION 

SUBMISSION DEADLINE: JUNE 29 

Tex-Fab Digital Fabrication Alliance is seeking an architectural 

proposal that frames the concept of plasticity as it extends 

beyond design disciplines and into biologics, where similar 

organisms vary according to their environment. Entries will be 

judged by such heavy hitters as Benjamin Ball of Ball-Nogues 

Studio and Snøhetta’s Craig Dykers. The winner’s concept will 

be displayed at the University of Houston College of Architecture 

(shown). tex-fab.net 

JUNE 26 TO OCTOBER 19 

SERPENTINE PAVILION 

LONDON 

Always an anticipated experience, the Serpentine Pavilion 

for 2014 is by the relatively unknown Smiljan Radic. Meant 

to resemble a shell, the rounded structure demonstrates 

the Chilean architect’s penchant for primitive shapes and 

materials. Resting on massive quarry stones, the volume 

is composed of translucent fibreglass walls, which at night 

create the appearance of a floating lantern. 

serpentinegalleries. org 

SEPTEMBER 5 TO 9 

MAISON&OBJET, PARIS 

Fine furniture, ceramics and more. 

maison-objet.com 


HOMI MILANO, MILAN 

Concepts for experiencing the home, 

indoors and out. homimilano. com 


LONDON DESIGN FESTIVAL 

Annual event that includes 100% 

Design. londondesignfestival.com, 

100percentdesign.co.uk 


CERSAIE, BOLOGNA, italy 

Aisles of tiles and bath fittings. 

cersaie.it 


ABITARE IL TEMPO, VERONA 

Luxury contemporary furniture and 

lighting from across Italy. 

abitareiltempo.com 


IDS WEST, VANCOUVER 

Interior design for the West Coast. 

idswest.com 


THE SPIRIT OF PROJECT 

VELARIA SLIDING PANELS, SELF CONTAINERS, EOS SHELVES, MANTA TABLE DESIGN G.BAVUSO 

RIMADESIO.COM 

SHOWROOM: MILANO ROMA WIEN NICE MADRID BARCELONA 

BILBAO BRUXELLES MÜNCHEN ABIDJAN ISTANBUL BEIRUT TEL AVIV 

WARSZAWA BEIJING TAIPEI BANGKOK AHMEDABAD NEW YORK 

CHICAGO MIAMI MÉXICO D.F. BRASILIA BELO HORIZONTE SÃO PAULO 

RESIDENT MANAGER NORTH AMERICA 

ANDREA ROMANO 

ANDREA@RIMADESIO.IT

Identikit 

Taylor 

McKenzie-Veal 

→ The silicone Dot candle 

holder, distributed through 

online retailer Hatch Hub, 

will be released this spring. 

↘ The Granoff Stool 

was manufactured from 

powder-coated steel in a 

limited run of 15. 

↓ Rotating the triangular 

struts by 90 degrees 

converts Flint from dining 

table to coffee table in 

about a minute. 

Born Indianapolis, 1988 

Location Providence, Rhode Island 

Education Bachelor of fine arts in art and 

design, University of Michigan; master of 

fine arts in furniture design, Rhode Island 

School of Design 

Occupation Industrial designer 

Selected awards 2014 Finalist in IMM 

Cologne’s D3 Contest; 2011 Best in Show, 

American Design Club’s Use Me Exhibit 

Selected exhibits 

2013 Risk and Certainty in Uncertain 

Times, Milan and New York; 2013 4 Years: 

an AmDC Retrospective, Museum of 

Arts and Design, New York; 2012 Raw + 

Unfiltered, American Design Club, New 

York; 2012 Super Design Gallery, London; 

Selected clients Room 68, Brown 

University, Hatch Hub, Fab.com 

Object Lesson Growing up, I was convinced I 

wanted to go into fine art, and I studied sculpture 

and graphic design. After a couple of graphics 

internships, I figured out I didn’t want to spend my 

career in front of a computer. I had an “aha” moment 

when I saw a 60 Minutes piece on the company 

IDEO. That was when I realized I could combine my 

interests in three-dimensional work and design. 

I spent a summer in Denmark during college, 

studying furniture design and touring manufacturing 

sites, such as the production facilities for the 

Series 7 chair by Arne Jacobsen and the bent 

plywood furniture of Alvar Aalto. That sealed the 

deal. Exposure to that process and culture really 

cemented my fascination with object design. From 

there on out, I knew what I wanted to do for the 

rest of my life. 

Turning the Table If I had to name one project 

more formative than any other, it would probably be 

the Flint Table. It addresses space issues by being 

adaptable and flexible, transforming in about a 

minute from a dining table to a coffee table. I showed 

it for the first time in 2011 with the American Design 

Club in New York, in an exhibition called Use Me, 

about unapologetically functional design. It won 

Best in Show, and that exposure has done more for 

me than anything else. It was this first satisfying 

project where I had an idea, completed it, got it in 

front of the right people, and felt like I had done 

everything right. 

Since then, I’ve naturally gone toward flat packing, 

to enrich self-assembly from a task that most people 

find frustrating to something more elegant that 

celebrates the process. In much of my furniture, the 

process of assembly and distinct parts is exposed. 

Team Sport Brown University was looking to fill 

certain spaces at its new Granoff Center, designed 

by Diller Scofidio + Renfro, with furniture wed to 

the new language of the building, which is different 

from any other on campus. The point person for 

that project, Richard Fishman, just happened to be 

a guest for an MFA critique in the department of 

furniture design at RISD. He responded to some of 

our work, and saw an opportunity to incorporate a 

local narrative as a part of the building and this new 

interdisciplinary story they were creating at Brown 

University. Scot Bailey, Ian Stell, Yumi Yoshida and 

I extended this narrative by including local industry; 

Portrait by Irene Casillas 


An affinity for forthright assembly and 

local industry shines through the American 

designer’s furniture and objects. 

↓ The Granoff Sofa’s 

fibreglass shell was 

crafted by local yacht 

makers. 

BY Josephine Minutillo 

The three units of Motus 

can be used alone or 

combined into versatile 

arrangements. 

↓ Made from tempered 

glass and a carefully 

constructed lattice, the 

one-off Reed bench is 

deceptively strong. 

← Broach coasters, in 

brass or steel with a cork 

backing, incorporate a 

bottle opener. 

↓ The Truss coat rack 

was inspired by the transmission 

towers common 

throughout the designer’s 

native Indiana. 

for example, Rhode Island has a rich boat building 

history, represented in the composite shell of the 

sofa, which we produced with local yacht builders 

Goetz Composites. Everything for this project 

was sourced within an 80‐kilometre radius. Brown 

University hired me as a product developer and 

sourcing manager. Over about a year and a half, we 

produced five sets of contract-quality sofas, five 

lounge chairs and 15 stools. 

Off Colour Much of the colour sensibility in the 

Granoff Furniture Project came from the other 

designers. I like to exhibit the beauty of the material 

I’m working with, but I also want to push my comfort 

zone, so lately I’ve been trying to work more with 

new finishes, surfaces and colours. My Truss coat 

rack uses this vibrant red that alludes to an industrial 

red from civil engineering projects, but you can still 

see the natural tones and textures of the wood 

coming through. 

to full-fledged companies that produce furniture 

for high-end stores and galleries in New York. Rhode 

Island and Massachusetts are where the Industrial 

Revolution got started in the U.S., and there are still 

tons of resources here. 

I do see myself eventually moving back to the 

Midwest, where there’s a lot of opportunity, especially 

in Detroit. You have this potential with dormant 

industry, people with vast knowledge about making 

things, and the affordability for creative people to 

take advantage of that situation. I hope to reach out 

to companies such as Shinola and TechShop Detroit, 

as they have a much better understanding of this 

potential than I do. 

Next Up I’m working with an online retailer called 

Hatch Hub, a relatively new company; I have a 

silicone candle holder coming out this spring. I’m 

also working on some projects with Fab.com. 

mckenzie-veal. com 

Working from Home RISD exposed me to a great 

network of resources, whether other designers to 

bounce ideas off, or a fantastic network of manufacturers, 

from wood turning and metal fabrication 

53

WORKSPACE #1 

The showroom office 

project: worklife centre 

location: toronto 

architect: SuperKül / Steelcase 

size: 1,022 Square metres 

employees: 30 

how mobile R u? 

Steelcase invited Toronto firm Superkül to design a showroom that doubles as 

a drop-in office, a learning centre and a teleconferencing hub. The only tool staffers 

need is a laptop By Pamela Young / Photography by Ben Rahn 


Geometric pods 

throughout the showroom 

give the open 

space a more dramatic 

flow while delineating 

various workstations. 


↑↗ Multiple work environments 

have been established, 

from lounge areas to enclosed 

conference rooms. 

← Impromptu meetings often 

take place in lounge areas 

rather than boardrooms, 

with small groups gathering 

in breakout areas where the 

seating is casual. 

PHOTO, bottom left, courtesy of Steelcase 


azuremagazine.com

In architecture, as in a burlesque show, you command attention when 

you open with a little tease and keep things moving. Frank Lloyd Wright 

often designed houses with tight, low-ceilinged vestibules, to make everything 

beyond these entry points look more impressive. In the ’30s, dancer 

Sally Rand became a household name by keeping two ostrich feather 

fans in graceful motion over her (ostensibly) nude body. Both Wright and 

Rand, one suspects, would have appreciated the moves Superkül made in 

Steelcase’s new Toronto showroom. The local architecture firm, in collaboration 

with the office furniture manufacturer’s team, designed three angular 

forms made from an MDF product called sustainable design fibreboard; 

these frame views, force perspectives, and draw visitors through the space 

in endlessly pleasing, teasing ways. 

Even before Superkül arrived on the scene, the irregular space had 

a great deal going for it. Sharing the top floor of an ’80s office tower with 

the building’s mechanical rooms, it offers amazing city views, shown off 

to great advantage by 7.3-metre ceilings. For Steelcase, the relocation 

represented a big move to much smaller premises; it previously had a 

manufacturing facility with a sprawling showroom in Markham, Ontario, 

just northeast of Toronto. In 2011, the American company restructured 

and moved its sales offices closer to its urban customers. At a time when 

many of its customers must do more with less real estate, it opted to do the 

same with a downtown showroom that measures just 1,022 square metres. 

3 

4 

floor plan 

5 

1 Entrance 

2 Business centre 

3 Learning centre 

4 Co-working space 

5 Hospitality zone 

2 

6 

1 

7 

7 7 8 

9 

10 

6 Project team space 

7 Private office 

8 Focus booth 

9 Resident and nomadic 

work stations 

10 Visual presenter 


The virtual presenter allows 

employees in different offices 

to communicate as though 

they are in the same room. 

↑ Throughout the day, staffers can 

shift to the workspace that best suits 

their needs, whether it’s an enclosed 

office space or a treadmill workstation. 

In this space, it’s important for each furniture installation to illustrate 

multiple talking points. Similarly, the design team’s three white, faceted 

architectural elements – Superkül principal Meg Graham calls them “pods” – 

perform different functions when seen from various angles. Together, 

they provide a flexible, unobtrusive stage set for scenes ran ging from daily 

showroom use to large-scale training sessions and industry parties. 

When visitors step out of the elevator, they encounter what Graham calls 

the “hardest-working” pod, which forms a wall that screens off sightlines 

into the showroom. Accented by LED cove lighting, a shaft slicing through 

the pod angles upward, framing an enticing rectangle of sky. With the 

“pod wall” on one side and white oak panelling on the opposite wall and in 

front of them, customers proceed a short distance along a corridor, travelling 

up a shallow ramp that negotiates the change in height between the floor 

slab and the showroom’s raised floor. 

This compressed entry sequence leads to the big triple-height reveal. 

Rather than a traditional reception area, they encounter a hospitality counter 

and coffee station. Looking around, they see that the entry pod doubles 

back on itself, forming a knife-edged canopy over a teleconferencing area. 

Near either end of the showroom are the smaller pods; one leads into a 

corner office boardroom, while the other frames a learning centre equipped 

for video conferencing. “The pods act as attractors, and they do change 

the proportions of the layout,” Graham says. “The space in plan is already 

faceted. We worked with that, and also confounded it with how we torqued 

the pods. All of them, especially the entry pod, went through many design 

iterations; they really had to fit together. It was about setting up views, but 

also about keeping an elegant rhythm.” 

Achieving LEED Gold, the showroom clearly pleases with the results: 

Superkül is now helping to redesign Steelcase’s New York showroom. 

When you make the right moves, you leave the audience wanting more. 

superkul.ca 

Until recently, video conferencing has been an unfortunate 

combination of bad lighting and tinny acoustics. 

Steelcase, however, has found various ways to make 

“tele-presence” a more effective and flattering tool. The 

most elegant option is the virtual presenter, a two-metrehigh 

backlit display embedded in a tinted glass wall 

whose reflective surface projects data from Steelcase’s 

ongoing posture survey. It also conceals a camera and 

speakers to create a two-way link between the Toronto 

showroom and a studio at the company’s headquarters 

in Grand Rapids, Michigan. During a presentation, the 

survey data switches off, and a life-sized projection of 

a staffer in Grand Rapids materializes like a hologram 

in Toronto. Conversing with this live projection feels as 

natural as talking to someone in the same room – but way 

cooler. It’s also a more cost effective tool: A designer in 

Grand Rapids can demonstrate how the levers on a task 

chair work, rather than fly to Toronto to do the same thing. 

“We are a global company, so distance is a challenge,” 

says design manager Cherie Johnson. “We are trying to 

figure out how to connect in more meaningful ways.” 

PHOTO, top right, courtesy of Steelcase 


Maiarelli Studio 

Visit www.arborite.com and discover the expressive and 

exciting range of Arborite’s new collections. Made in Montreal.

WORKSPACE #2 

The jet-setter’s office 

project: Business Playground 

designer: mathieu lehanneur 

client: pullman hotels and 

resorts 

First Location: london 

capacity: 12 

raising 

the stakes 

A conference room for Pullman Hotels and Resorts, by Mathieu Lehanneur, 

elevates the meeting and makes it as engrossing as a poker game 

By Giovanna Dunmall / Photography by Didier Delmas 



← On the coffee nook wall, 

Curiosity Boxes display 

custom knick-knacks. 

↖ Corian ToolBoxes 

on the conference table 

provide visual interest 

and conceal clutter. 

↑ Canopy Break caps the 

intimate lounge area and 

animates it with a projection 

of rustling trees. 

Meetings can be boring, because conference rooms are often dull. When 

Paris designer Mathieu Lehanneur conceived the Business Playground for 

Pullman Hotels and Resorts, he asked himself, “How can I design a space 

that helps people have new ideas and behaviours, as well as smart, efficient 

meetings?” His first move: make the boardroom table more like a poker 

table at a luxury casino in Las Vegas or Macau. By edging the Corian top 

with leather-clad foam armrests, he managed to transform the participants’ 

posture and, he believes, their psychological dispositions. “It makes you 

lean forward rather than sit back in your chair and mentally check out.” 

The leather carries on beneath the table, adding an invisible layer of detail 

that Lehanneur says “is fundamental to the overall mood.” 

This heightened ambience reflects French hotel group Accor’s desire 

to reposition its upscale Pullman brand, and make it more appealing to a 

new generation of tech-savvy travellers. The first conference room opened 

on the 15th floor of the London St Pancras location last November, and 

more will be rolled out in 2014 and beyond. “The frontier between business 

and pleas ure is disappearing,” explains Xavier Louyot, Accor’s senior vicepresident 

of global marketing. The group conducted an Ipsos survey, which 

found that many respondents attend to personal tasks during work hours, 

and the majority take their professional devices with them on holiday. 

In choosing Lehanneur, Pullman opted for a designer known for 

combining technology, psychology and nature to change a room’s atmosphere. 

In his Paris office for the global advertising agency JWT, the meeting 

rooms resemble caves, with plants that play music whenever someone 

brushes against them; and his products – including the soothing weather 

station Tomorrow Is Another Day – have been known to affect users’ 

emotions. This sensibility shines through in his faceted light canopy for 

Pullman, which integrates a white screen that projects an animated video 

of rustling trees. The canopy caps a more intimate lounge area, set against 

the backdrop of London’s skyline and furnished with Jaime Hayon’s 

loungers for BD Barcelona Design and a custom leather table. It takes you 

far away, if only for a moment. 

Curated details throughout the space – including faceted Corian 

ToolBoxes on the table that conceal clutter, and mirrored Curiosity Boxes 

on the wall that can be filled with fruit, books or decorative objects – break 

up the conventional monotony of the boardroom landscape, and allow 

people to engage with the space and one another in new ways. “Often what 

they say before and afterwards, or during the breaks, is more interesting 

than what they say during the meeting itself,” observes Lehanneur. 

Defying the soulless nature of most hotel conference rooms, the Business 

Playground enhances every aspect of the meeting experience, including 

those vital in‐between moments. mathieulehanneur.fr 


Metris ® 

Comfort at all levels. 

With five distinct faucet heights, Metris is as versatile as the ways we use water. Varied faucet heights empower the user with a range of 

possibilities. Metris allows you to find the faucet height that suits your individual needs — from washing your hands to washing your hair. 

Hansgrohe has a name for this extra personal space: ComfortZone. Discover Metris at hansgrohe.ca. 

© 2014 Hansgrohe, Inc.

WORKSPACE #3 

The all-in-one factory 

bean 

counters 

64 june 2014

project: Pilot coffee Roasters 

LOCATION: toronto 

architect: WILLIAMSON CHONG 

ARCHITECTS 

size: 650 Square metres 

employees: 10 

From roasting to cupping, Pilot’s micro-roastery offers coffee 

aficionados and baristas a one-stop shop for mastering their brew 

By Alison Garwood-Jones / Photography by Shai Gil and Bob Gundu 


Last December, Pilot Coffee Roasters, co-founded in Toronto by Jessie 

Wilkin and her husband, Andy, was crowned 2014 Micro Roaster of the Year 

by Roast magazine. For the first time, Toronto stands with the likes of Seattle, 

Melbourne and Reykjavik, among others, as a coffee house hot spot. 

It has been a caffeinated ride for the Wilkins: in less than five years, they 

have sourced direct farming partners in Central and South America, opened 

two bustling cafés (Te Aro on Queen Street East and Crafted on Ossington 

Avenue), and doubled their roasting output each year. With regular orders 

now rolling in from 60 wholesale clients, expanding their operation was 

essential. But they wanted a work environment that also invited the public 

in for a first-hand artisanal experience at a tasting bar, and a teaching lab 

where baristas and coffee aficionados could hone their skills. 

Hitting upon a 650-square-metre concrete warehouse located down 

a laneway, they turned to Donald Chong, a principal at Williamson Chong 

Architects, to reimagine the interior. He shadowed Andy Wilkin for two 

days to learn the narrative of the beans, from their arrival freshly picked in 

jute sacks to their roasting and final pickup for delivery via Pilot’s full-time 

bicycle courier. To keep the full production cycle transparent, Chong left 

most of the one-room building intact, including exposed air ducts, yellow 

gas lines, and a sloping concrete floor at the truck bay. He then delineated 

smaller spaces to contain an open bar near the entrance, and a partially 

enclosed cupping room and lab where small groups could gather. An office 

tucked at the back provides the only fully enclosed space, though it still 

has sightlines through a large window to the activity on the floor. To avoid 

↑↑ From the tasting bar, 

visitors can see stock 

coming and going. Chong 

aimed to make every stage 

of production visible. 

↑ Architect Donald Chong 

left many of the original 

warehouse features intact, 

including the delivery bay 

with its concrete floor. 


azuremagazine.com

PHOTOs, previous and final page, by bob gundu; photos, this page and opposite, shai gil 

The tasting bar in white oak 

is equipped with a Modbar 

espresso machine that sits 

beneath the counter, leaving 

just the heads exposed. 


↑ The cupping room and 

tasting lab can be completely 

enclosed to enhance aromas 

and flavours. 

→ A small office at the 

back is set at an angle and 

overlooks the Diedrich IR-24 

roaster and the packing 

and storage areas. 

making staff feel as though they are being monitored, he discreetly angled 

the window toward the storage area. 

While the shell remains rough hewn, Chong’s obsession with detail – a 

trait he picked up from years working at Shim-Sutcliffe Architects – shines 

through. The cupping room and coffee lab, the tasting bar and the office are 

each cloaked in rift-sawn white oak with corners with tapered edges. The 

gentle angles are picked up again in the shape of the bar, which Chong likens 

to an unfolded paper clip. The only interruptions to the concrete-topped 

tasting bar’s grey surface are the Modbar espresso heads. A first in Canada, 

the Modbar conceals its boiler inside a cupboard below the countertop, so 

baristas can engage with customers with no physical barriers. 

In the adjacent cupping room and coffee lab, used for tasting and scenting 

various blends with scientific precision, Chong created an oasis with 

2.4‐metre coffered ceilings, a double-paned window overlooking the 

roastery’s production area, and a glass pocket door for soundproofing and 

scent containment. “This isn’t just a place to socialize over coffee,” says 

Chong of the multi-purpose space. “It’s for people who want to learn about 

the nuances of brewing. It’s about you and your pour-over.” 

Sitting at the tasting bar gives visitors a full view of the whole production 

cycle. “I love this moment,” says Chong, “when you’re standing at the bar 

top and you can see the barista doing his Modbar, and the trainer with a 

class at the cupping table. Then you cut across to the roaster, where they 

are bagging beans, and then all the way to the back office. It’s a visual slice 

right through the whole operation.” williamsonchong.com 


azuremagazine.com

Introducing 

Turn any desk into 

an active workspace 

Elevate your space at NeoCon 

Showroom #351 

www.humanscale.com/neocon

New 

York’s 

New 

Makers 

Just in time for NYCxDesign, we shine 

a light on four inventive New York studios 

that are showing their latest projects at 

ICFF and the myriad events around town. 

Fort Standard, Anna Karlin, Bec Brittain 

and François Chambard focus on both 

designing and making, working their 

distinct aesthetic and formal signatures 

into brilliant furniture, lighting and 

interiors. We find out what inspires them, 

where they’ll be during design week 

and what’s coming up By Tim McKeough 

↑↑ Fort Standard 

designed the Tenon 

Coffee Table for SCP, with 

a clear glass surface 

resting on two solid oak 

vertical members. 

↑ The shelves of the 

flat-pack Pin Series are 

supported by traditional 

wedge and tenon joinery. 

meticulous craftsmanship lies at the core of the 

handsome furniture, tabletop objects, lighting – 

even a jewellery line under the Clermont 

brand – designed by Gregory Buntain, 30, and 

Ian Collings, 28, in their Brooklyn studio. 

The Pratt Institute industrial design alumni 

celebrate simple forms. “When we started, we 

were interested in a more reductive design 

process,” says Collings, “the simplicity of utility 

and the elegance that can be found in basic 

Photos by Brian Ferry 


fort standard 

tailoring classics 

Cast in bronze, the Sprue 

Candelabra sits atop the 

oak Column Coffee Table, 

which is topped in white 

Carrara marble. 

In the studio’s debut 

lighting line, for Roll & Hill, 

the Counterweight Dining 

Light utilizes a stone weight 

and a diffuser frame in 

steam-bent white oak. 

The ultra-simple Range 

Bench comes in various 

woods and finishes and in 

custom sizes. 

functions.” Their bronze Sprue Candelabra, for 

instance, exploits a rudimentary metal casting 

process to create rough, almost primitive forms 

with a textured finish; and their Column Coffee 

Table features thick cylindrical wooden legs that 

puncture a marble slab top, picking up the weight 

with a change in diameter. 

It didn’t take long for the pair to attract the 

attention of manufacturers, including Roll & Hill 

lighting, Areaware, SCP, and 1882 ceramics. Their 

latest licensed piece is the Tenon Coffee Table for 

SCP, which the British brand launched in April 

2014 at the Salone Internazionale del Mobile. As 

the piece’s name suggests, the legs are essentially 

supersize wooden joints that support a shelf 

and a glass top. 

Still, the duo continues to spend just as much 

time developing and producing pieces in-house. 

Participating in the International Contemporary 

Furniture Fair for the first time this year, they 

are launching their own range of lighting made 

from wooden frames and flat glass planes. In 

March, during New York’s Architectural Digest 

Home Show, they introduced the Range dining 

table, which features dowel-like legs and generously 

rounded corners and edges. “We were 

trying to conceive of the simplest possible form 

for a large dining table,” says Buntain. “But we 

also wanted to make the entire piece soft, warm 

and inviting to touch.” fortstandard. com 


anna karlin 

drama queen 

Showcasing perfume 

bottles, this mirrored 

display unit for the 

Tsvetnoy department 

store in Moscow is 

topped with a faceted 

enclosure in mirrored 

polished steel. 

↑ An evolution of the 

Chess Stools, covered in 

parchment. 

→ The Screw Top Stool, 

which adjusts to a 

minimum height of 

48 centi metres, features 

a hand-turned spindle, 

and tops inlaid with 

brass symbols. 

→→ Exuding old-world 

charm, Beauty Bar, made 

of ash, unfolds to reveal 

drawers in various sizes 

and multiple mirrors. 

Anna Karlin sees no barriers between design disciplines, 

which is what makes her so prolific. In the four 

short years since she established her studio on 

Manhattan’s Lower East Side, she has conceptualized 

print materials for Thompson Hotels, 

installations at Maison Kitsuné New York, and 

crystalline display cabinets for the launch of 

Sorellina jewellery. “I just don’t understand not 

wanting to do it all,” says Karlin, 29. “It doesn’t 

matter what the outcome is – a website, a chair, 

a pot – it’s all the same process. It’s also what 

keeps me interested and excited.” 

Born in London, she studied visual communication 

at the Glasgow School of Art, and has 

returned to Europe to complete a few key commissions. 

Most recently, she redesigned the 

women’s accessories floor at Moscow’s chic 

Tsvetnoy department store, along with a series 

of sculptural display pieces throughout the 

store, and photography sets that appeared in its 

marketing materials. 


← Fit for a queen, the 

Chess Arm Chair, in black 

powder-coated steel, 

incorporates a seat liner 

in black pony skin. 

↑ These Bar Tools in solid 

brass are as minimal as 

Karlin gets, yet they pack 

a big punch. 

↓ The Hoop + Stick Lamp, 

balanced with a brass 

bar, encloses an LED strip 

within an ash wood ring. 

It comes in custom sizes 

and finishes. 

Also for Tsvetnoy in 

Moscow, Karlin turned the 

fourth floor into an Alice 

in Wonderland experience 

anchored by a stone, 

wood and marble palette. 

Her aesthetic shines through most brightly 

in her self-produced furniture and accessories, 

which reinvent traditional forms: a hearty ash 

wood dining table embellished with inlaid brass 

numbers, and chunky metal stools that resemble 

supersize chess pieces from a Bauhaus-esque set. 

She continues to play with these basic shapes – 

her latest additions to the line include parchment-covered 

versions of the Chess Stools and 

Armchair – but a whole new range is in the 

works. She doesn’t feel the least bit pressured 

to introduce them during a design fair; she will 

release them whenever they’re truly ready. 

“I love designing events and spaces,” she says, 

“so I’ll just launch them in my own way.” She 

will, however, show a whole new textile line at 

NYCxDesign, in a collaborative project with 

Hosoo weavers of Kyoto, Japan. Presented by 

Atelier Courbet, the fabrics feature patterns 

with “slightly imperfect geometries,” she says. 

annakarlin. com 


ec brittain 

lights fantastic 

Helix is made up of 

custom brass hardware 

and LED tubes; stone 

pendants act as 

counter weights and 

add embellishment. 

← Echo’s mirrored fins 

radiate from a central 

axis and reflect beams 

of light from LED tubes. 

↑ Designed for 

Roll & Hill, Maxhedron is 

made of two-way mirror 

and brass. The pendant 

comes in various forms, 

including a new tessellated 

version. 

in her strikingly faceted lighting, Bec Brittain 

showcases her key source of inspiration. “I’ve 

had a fascination with crystals for years,” says 

the 33-year-old designer. “They’re these nonliving 

growing things that at times feel almost 

sentient. They begin from a strict, rigid, simple 

unit structure, but you can use that to create 

seemingly infinite complexity.” 

After studying product design at Parsons 

the New School for Design, then philosophy at 

New York University, then architecture at the 

Architectural Association School of Architecture 

in London, she finally fell for lighting while working 

for New York designer Lindsey Adel man. 

The bespoke quality of the work helped to resolve 

her mixed feelings about the disposability of 

mass-produced goods. Since 2011, she has been 

turning out her own range of jewel-like fixtures 

with meticulously machined metal parts, such 

as her Shy series of suspension lamps, with LED 

tubes that draw lines in space; and her Echo 

pendants, whose bronze or grey mirrored fins 

reflect and multiply light. 

Meanwhile, 2014 is shaping up to be her 

breakout year. Participating in the International 

Contemporary Furniture Fair for the first time, 

she is pushing many of her light fixtures to new 

creative heights, producing the monumental Shy 

Lamp and water jet–cut Echo pendants. At the 

same time, the Manhattan design store Matter 

is hosting an exhibition of pieces she developed 

in collaboration with Swedish designer 

Hilda Hellström, including lamps punctuated 

by colourful, stonelike pieces made from 

Jesmonite. As well, with lighting manufacturer 

Roll & Hill, she is introducing the Seed suspension 

lamps, which aim to capture the moment 

when new crystals begin to form. The lamps 

feature an assortment of angular glass modules 

that all attach at slightly different angles to a 

metal frame. “They’re asymmetrical,” Brittain 

says, “because I want them to reflect the natural, 

spontaneous moment of a seed crystal starting.” 

becbrittain. com 


François Chambard 

play master 

↙ The cast of characters 

from the Craft System 

sports knobs, planters 

and musical elements. 

Two of Chambard’s 

musical theremins, 

part of the touring Odd 

Harmonics project. 

UM Project and BAGGU 

designed the BUM 

camping stool to raise 

funds for the Hurricane 

Sandy relief effort. 

Odd Harmonics photos by Francis Dzikowski/ Esto 

Last fall, françois Chambard brought into orbit his 

Odd Harmonics, a family of 12 alien-looking 

theremins, electronic musical instruments that 

change pitch based on the user’s proximity. 

Created for the launch of Butterscotch Records 

at Judith Charles Gallery in Manhattan, the 

pieces were an immediate hit. They appeared at 

the Moogfest music festival in North Carolina 

in April, and they will be exhibited at Industry 

City during NYCxDesign in May before taking 

up residence this summer at New York’s Museum 

of Arts and Design. Fittingly, the 46-year-old 

French designer-maker’s UM Project studio in 

New York has also attracted the attention of 

independent musicians; he has even produced 

a collapsible keyboard stand for the American 

alt-rock group Wilco to deploy on tour. 

His whimsical range of projects – from simple 

wooden Milking Stools that look as if they’ve 

been dipped in paint, to the Craft System LED 

lamps, a group of Memphis-meets-steampunk 

characters with various quirky knobs, diffusers 

and other components – exude playfulness and 

delight. Yet Chambard is serious about working 

with his hands, citing Isamu Noguchi and Jean 

Prouvé as influences. He believes that making 

products himself gives them an appealing edge. 

“I realized that consumers were tired of the 

abstract promises of big brands,” he says, speaking 

from experience; he worked in branding for 

multinational corporations before switching 

gears to focus on product design 10 years ago. 

“People want a connection with quality they can 

touch and feel. Being a designer-maker is one 

way to provide that, and to help the consumer 

appreciate the way things are made.” 

At NYCxDesign, he will also present his 

Maypole installation in Carte Blanche, an exhibit 

hosted by the Hurricane Sandy relief organization 

Reclaim NYC. Updates of his Craft System 

lamps, tethered by cords to a towering maypole, 

will display a shifting animated light show 

(with programming assistance from Parallel 

Development). “I enjoy exploring, inventing and 

tinkering,” he says. umproject. com 


BLACK 


Beauty 

Contemporary form meets rustic brick in a cottage designed by Montreal architect Alain Carle 

By Hans Ibelings / Photography by Adrien Williams 

The exterior’s most striking 

feature is the provocative 

cladding, made from cedar 

with bricks painted black. 


EASTERN CANADA IS REPLETE with stunning landscapes overlooking 

the lush St. Lawrence Lowlands and the vast Appalachian 

Mountains. Yet these settings, no matter how impressive, are 

often saddled with weekend prefabs that sport no-nonsense 

A-frames, which appear more imposed on the landscape than part of it. 

Any meaningful relationship between interior and exterior spaces is more 

or less left to fate. 

L’Écran House, by Montreal architect Alain Carle, is an inspired exception. 

Nestled on a sloping site in Morin-Heights, an hour’s drive north of 

Montreal, the asymmetric structure is dug into the terrain between a dirt 

road to the north and a small lake to the south. The exterior, outfitted in 

black-painted recycled brick on the north wall and red cedar planks and 

glass on the south, gives the architecture a rather unassuming yet sophisticated 

presence. 

Carle is no stranger to the surrounding topography. In the past decade, 

he has built a half-dozen houses in the mountainous area – both weekend 

retreats and permanent homes – with two more currently underway. All 

of them merge the demands of unique building sites with the needs and 

wishes of the clients. 

With L’Écran, the brief was straightforward. The owners wanted to have 

the most important functions accessible on one level; hence the living room, 

the kitchen, the master bedroom and a screened-in porch are arrayed on 

the main floor. A central spiral staircase connects these spaces to a cinema 

room on the lower level, along with three bedrooms that have access to a 

south-facing terrace. A series of white “space objects,” as the architect terms 

them, are arranged throughout the interior to offer such built-in furnishings 

as a kitchen island made of lacquered MDF and a protective rail around 

the stair, while creating routes and pathways that situate the owners at 

different vantage points from which to enjoy the views through the predominantly 

transparent south elevation. 

What truly sets the house apart, literally and architecturally, is a series 

of five walls that screens off the domestic life (écran is French for “screen”) 

78 JUNE 2014 AZUREMAGAZINE.COM

Cedar panels cover the ceilings. 

To connect the main 

floor to the lower level, the 

architect inserted a circular 

staircase. 

← Both levels face the lake, 

with bedrooms occupying the 

lower floor, and a screened-in 

porch above. 

2 

1 

9 

3 

10 

8 

10 

7 

6 

4 

5 

14 

11 

13 

12 

2 

11 

1 

11 

MAIN FLOOR 

LOWER FLOOR 

1 Garage 

2 Exterior access 

3 Courtyard 

4 Kitchen 

5 Screened porch 

6 Living area 

7 Fireplace 

8 Master bedroom 

9 Storage 

10 Bathroom 

11 Bedroom 

12 Cinema room 

13 Terrace 

14 Mechanical room 

JUNE 2014 79

In the living room, 

glazed walls overlook 

the trees and lawn. 

A stepped opening, lined in 

cedar, is located between the 

main floor and an adjacent 

storage area. 

← Throughout the house, 

Carle used stained ash on 

the floors. 

without totally blocking it off from the road, and an asymmetrical inner 

courtyard that opens up the facade to the road that circles the lake. The 

five-part screen rises to the height of the north elevation, and it affords the 

residents the physical and psychological comfort of not being completely 

exposed, to the landscape or the gaze of occasional passersby. 

The walls follow the topography’s irregular contours, anchoring the 

structure and generating the jagged, narrow footprint of the building, which 

municipal limitations determined should be set back a certain distance 

from the road and the waterfront. The architect was also tasked with 

ensuring that a babbling stream running through the property remained 

untouched, for ecological reasons – an added bonus amid the already beautiful 

natural surroundings. In this respect, L’Écran embodies what cottage 

life should be all about: the feeling of being at home in the outdoors. 


Design with 

a vision— 

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your unique vision. Introducing the new 

KOHLER® Tailored Vanity Collection. 

Choose from a wide variety of styles and 

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View the collection at 

KOHLER.ca/tailored-vanities 

© 2014 Kohler Co.


← Mason White and Lola Sheppard 

stand among fabricated discs that 

make up a portion of their installation 

on view this summer at the 

Venice Biennale of Architecture. 

↖↑Each disc maps out the 

streets and buildings of Nuna vut’s 

25 communities, while houses 

carved from soapstone show the 

area’s architectural typologies. 

↑↑ The installation includes 

panoramic images by Northern 

photographers, including Billy 

Aakavak’s photo of Kimmirut, 

which is located 2,200 

kilometres north of Toronto. 

Q+A 

Lateral 

Office 

Interview by David Dick-Agnew 

Portrait by Chris Chapman 

Nunavut represents over one-fifth of Canada’s land mass, 

yet just 0.1 percent of the country’s population lives in the 

northern territory. With temperatures regularly plum met ing 

to minus 50 degrees Celsius in winter, the vast scale and 

extreme conditions make it beyond comprehension for most 

of us. To build there seems equally unfathomable. 

Nonetheless, Lateral Office finds these challenges end less ly 

fascinating. Founded in 2003 by Lola Sheppard and Mason 

White, the Toronto firm is representing Canada at the Venice 

Biennale of Architecture with an exhibit entitled Arctic 

Adaptations. In part, it features miniature topo graphic maps 

of the region’s 25 communities, each crafted out of Corian, 

with every building depicted individually. Their goal: to start 

the conversation about how architects can work in the North, 

by first demystifying its unique geography and culture. 


← Following detailed maps, 

the Arctic Adaptations 

team painstakingly adds 

to each disc tiny models 

of every structure found 

in Nunavut’s remote 

communities. 

↓ In a warehouse outside 

of Toronto, Lateral Office 

staff make final adjustments 

before crating the 

show for Venice. 

arctic adaptations 

To present a picture of Canada’s youngest territory at 

this year’s Venice Biennale, Lateral Office worked with 

Inuit artists to create soapstone models of traditional 

Arctic building types and photographs of present-day life. 

Matthew Spremulli, an associate partner with the firm, 

was instrumental in delivering the models that underpin the 

exhibition: all 25 communities in Nunavut are represented 

by miniaturized maps CNC milled from Corian. Other models 

allow viewers to peer into possible futures. Lateral matched 

architecture schools with practices working in the North, 

along with various community organizations. The teams then 

developed new approaches to address the Arctic’s particular 

needs in education, health, housing, recreation and the arts. 

Presented as animated maquettes, the models bring the 

schemes to life. 

You’ve worked on various Arctic projects, including a 

master plan for a former airport site in Reykjavik, and an 

infrastructure concept to support a food sharing network. 

What fascinates you about the North? 

Mason White: Its reality is more fantastic than 

fiction. It’s above the treeline, above the road 

line; and in Nunavut specifically, communities 

are spread out and thriving in a dual state between 

the traditional way of life and the modern one. 

Most people don’t realize that the region also has 

the fastest-growing population in Canada. When 

it was officially renamed Nunavut in 1999, more 

than half of the current population was not 

yet born. It keeps revealing something more 

pow er ful than any prejudice or assump tion. The 

knowledge we have gained from the North is 

incredible. We can’t stop. 

How big is the gap between the public’s perception 

and the Arctic’s reality? 

M.W.: Pretty immense. 

Lola Sheppard: For one, seasonality is huge 

there, from when you can hunt to when you can 

buy a new sofa; there is even a season for that. 

Elsewhere in Canada, if you want to build an 

extension on your house you can do it whenever 

you want. That flexibility doesn’t exist in the 

North, which can be humbling. It’s the one place 

where you can’t control the environment. You 

have to collaborate with it, in all respects. 

M.W.: Northern cities are also compact, with a 

strong urban density, but as soon as you leave 

you are out on the tundra. 

L.S.: There are almost no sidewalks or paved 

roads. That seems like a small thing, but it’s 

striking, because it means buildings are on a kind 

of continuous plane. When everything is covered 

in snow, the difference between road and private 

property is erased. 

What is unique about the buildings in Iqaluit, one of the 

coldest cities in Canada? The lack of local materials 

must have an impact. 

L.S.: Surprisingly, buildings in the North aren’t 

so different from what you find anywhere else, 

which is part of why they fail. Some homes 

are completely snowed under every year, so you 

can’t get out the front door. There are some 

innovations: most structures are constructed on 

piles, because the ground is so topographically 

varied. In certain communities, such as Iqaluit, 

the building meets the land at one point and then 

the land falls away, so you’ll see these buildings 

that look as if they’re floating. 

M.W.: Materials have always been imported, 

because not much is available locally, and that 

has always been considered a tech no logical nut 

to crack: where is the magic material? In our 

view, form is just as important. 

L.S.: Prefab doesn’t offer a viable solution either. 

Most materials come by air or boat, so storage 

and transportation of such large cargo can be 

more expensive than building in slightly more 

traditional ways. The other challenge with 

prefabrication is that it has little tolerance; it has 

to come together pretty perfectly. If something 

goes wrong in the construction, prefabricated 

assembly doesn’t allow you to fill in the gaps 

easily. In an environment with a high level of 

contingency, that’s a challenge. 

Have other Arctic countries found solutions that we 

could import to Canada? 

L.S.: Scandinavia has a much longer history of 

settlement, and climatically it’s less harsh. It’s 

PHOTOs, top left and middle right, by Chris Chapman 


Nunavut lies above the treeline, which makes 

construction materials scarce. As this exhibition 

photo by Brad Wutke shows, igloo building 

remains a time-honoured practice. 

also far more dense, so you don’t have the same 

distances. You can get around by ship or rail, if 

not road, even to the most northerly areas. 

M.W.: Typically, ideas used in the North have 

been imported from southern Canada, just 

because it’s internal. We need more northern 

architects, and many people from the region 

would welcome a way to celebrate design as 

a form of cultural expression and sense of place. 

That opportunity has not happened yet. I can’t 

hide from the fact that economics is so critical, 

given the government’s narrow operating 

margins, but the potential exists to rethink 

whom you are serving and how. 

How can architecture successfully respond to 

the challenges of building in the North – cultural, 

economic and climatic? 

M.W.: The culture of sharing is integral to the 

North. There is constant movement back and 

forth, of sharing knowledge, food and stories – 

between a cousin’s house, an elder’s lodge and 

a sister’s house. Still, the idea has not yet 

trans lated into the architecture or the social 

infrastructure, or even how it can inform the 

placement of buildings. The ideal archi tec tur al 

model may be a constellation of programs, with 

facilities doing double duty. Schools, for instance, 

are often used for various other purposes. 

L.S.: Arctic College is a good example. It has a 

building in every community. Sometimes it’s just 

a basic room, but the college recognized that 

having a physical presence in the community 

is important, as a kind of anchor. It’s a more 

effective approach than the traditional campus, 

with one emblematic building in one city. We are 

also thinking about collective infrastructures as 

a network that can respond to the way people 

move around: being out on the land, trying to get 

an education. This sort of networking doesn’t 

exist right now. If you need a Caesarian section, 

for instance, you have to go to Montreal. Our 

previous projects, such as the Arctic Food 

Network, were partly about us coming to terms 

with the question of how architecture can adapt 

to local needs and encourage this type of 

movement. If you build something in one place, 

it doesn’t necessarily improve the conditions 

in another. The idea that things might work more 

as a network is quite evocative. 

How do these ideas inform your biennale exhibition? 

M.W.: We hope Arctic Adaptations inspires 

alternative approaches to problems that might 

seem as though they can’t be solved because 

somebody is always saying, “That’s too expen sive.” 

It actually costs more to follow the current path 

than to change it – not only in cash, but in the 

costs of social ills. 

L.S.: It’s not about designing more expensive 

buildings. Everyone should be willing to ex peri - 

ment, at least within a reasonable margin, so we 

don’t end up with some of the failures of the 

past. At the same time, we have to realize that the 

economic challenges of the North don’t need to 

be the only criteria. lateraloffice. com, 

arcticadaptations. ca 

The 14th Venice Biennale of Architecture runs 

from June 7 to November 23. 


stockholm d 

1 

2 

3 

show report 

classic moves 

Sweden’s biggest furniture brands look forward by taking 

a few well-considered steps back by daniel golling 

At the stockholm furniture fair, the most talked-about designs 

represented developments of products released in recent years, 

and even decades past. Fredrik Färg and Emma Marga Blanche 

evolved their Emma easy chair, launched last year, into the Emily 

dining chair; and Ingmar Relling’s Siesta armchair from the ’60s 

could be found at the stand of Norwegian producer L. K. Hjelle. 

Sweden’s furniture industry may be anticipating leaner times, but 

many saw the pared-back offerings as a sign of a healthier, more 

responsible attitude, and perhaps a vote of confidence in classics. 

Sweden’s knack for flat-pack furniture is making a significant 

impact on the industry, beyond Ikea. Last year, Finnish newcomer 

One Nordic Furniture Company showed how a high-design 

brand could sell online and ship directly to consumers. This year, 

the éminence grise of Swedish design, the now 82-year-old Åke 

Axelsson, presented his own take: Nomad, a collection of chairs 

and tables aesthetically based on his studies of antique furniture, 

can be purchased online and assembled without a manual. Form 

follows distribution. 

Conceptual exhibits also abounded at the fair and beyond. As the 

guest of honour, Copenhagen’s GamFratesi placed its entire portfolio 

on the show floor, creating a lounge defined by Calder-esque 

mobiles suspended from the ceiling. At the Örnsberg Auction, inside 

the Royal Swedish Academy of Fine Arts – a dramatic departure 

from this popular event’s original underground venue – the furniture, 

glassware and other objects on display felt more like exalted 

artworks than functional designs. Form also follows fancy. 

4 

1 rock bottom 

It looks like a soft upholstered sofa, but 

Mattias Stenberg’s Plymå is quite the 

opposite. Nola, a producer of mostly outdoor 

furniture, makes this indoor bench in 

a rugged mix of ash, steel and limestone. 

nola.se 

2 Soft light 

A stunning lamp can make a room. Korona, 

by Harri Koskinen for Finnish newcomer 

Valoarte (which specializes in LED fixtures), 

comes in four models and various colours, 

with a diffuser made of poly ethyl ene or 

hand-blown glass. valoarte.se 

3 Old to New 

Emma Olbers’ oak Hanna armchair, for 

Ire, follows in the fine tradition of the 

Scan di navian masters. It also shows that 

you don’t have to reinvent the wheel: 

sometimes it’s enough to throw a quilted 

fabric over back and armrest. iremobel. se 

4 auction-worthy 

The exciting finds at the off-site venue 

Örnsbergsauktionen included the hirsute 

Bamba Dining Chair, by Fredrik Paulsen; the 

mixed-media Nazca/Cocos table, by Hilda 

Hellström; and the Breaking New storage, by 

Uglycute. ornsbergsauktionen. se 


esign week 

6 

5 

5 IKEA to Åke 

The Round Table, featuring an FSC-certified 

beechwood base and a birch plywood top, 

is part of Åke Axelsson’s Nomad line of 

furnishings stamped with his initials. They 

are flat packed and shipped directly to 

customers. akeaxelsson.com 

7 

9 stack and store 

Injecting playfulness into office case 

goods, Horreds presented the modular, 

multi-unit Tetris, by Sweden’s Front. 

The wooden boxes with brass knobs come 

in many finishes, including felt, leather 

and plywood, for creating dynamic compositions. 

horreds. se 

8 

6 tube top 

TAF’s fascination with mundane objects 

continues to enrich the world of design. 

The Swedish duo’s Poster pendant, an 

LED fixture for Zero, is made of extruded 

aluminum and turned to mimic a poster 

tube’s recognizable spiral scoring. zero.se 

9 

7 table manners 

You can customize the extendable Strå 

(straw) as a low sofa table or a high pedestal. 

Designed by Matti Klenell for Sundling, 

the flat-packed product consists of a few 

turned oak parts – a top, a base and the 

pedestal – in bright colours. sundling. se 

8 top stitching 

Louise Hederström crafted her Tailor chair 

for Offecct as an ode to her grandmother’s 

coat and its oversized buttons. That retro 

touch surprised the crowds, since it’s not 

what people would expect from this manufacturer. 

offecct. se 

10 

10 pretty perch 

In an effort to revitalize itself, the sofa 

brand Fogia invited Note Design Studio 

to update the brand and contribute a new 

table and sofa. The Rise sofa is both: it 

comes in a model with an ash base that 

extends into a table. fogia. se 

11 

11 Turn on the light 

For Lightyears, guest of honour 

GamFratesi debuted Volume, a die-cast 

aluminum and acrylic table lamp named 

for and inspired by the buttons on oldfashioned 

stereos. The light is adjusted 

by simply turning the top. lightyears. se 


Wetstyle fOr azure 

The Tulip tub by 

Joël Dupras is a modern 

take on the classic 

slipper tub; the curved lip 

evokes its namesake. 

Hands On 

Quebec bathroom fixture maker Wetstyle stays ahead by 

focusing on design and craftsmanship 

In Wetstyle’s light-filled showroom in Old Montreal, owner Mark Wolinsky 

is looking at the edge of a medicine cabinet with a furrowed brow. 

“This is not flush. It needs to be fixed,” he says, running his hand along 

the elegantly slim wood side panel, the last of six prototypes of the 

Frame furniture collection before the perfected design launched earlier 

this year. Leave it to Wetstyle’s meticulousness to stress over an almost 

imperceptible blemish that had already been resolved. 

While its shapely, freestanding tubs could easily do double-duty as 

designer sculptures, (its Good Design Award–winning Couture tub by 

Patrick Messier is offered as a limited edition for that very reason), there’s 

more to this Montreal-based manufacturer, a go-to for luxury homeowners 

and premium hotels around the world: innovative materials, a passionate 

dedication to craftsmanship and, as Wolinsky exemplifies, a painstaking 

attention to detail. 

The brand’s signature sharp lines and velvety smooth-to-the-touch 

material are care of Wetmar Bio, the company’s proprietary recipe, a 

natural stone composite that replaces the petrochemical-based additives 

commonly used in the industry with soy and corn. “It’s very pure,” Wolinsky 

says. “People are bringing items into their homes and are mindful of the 

impact they may have on their personal environment.” An example of a 

company being eco-friendly long before the word even existed, Wetstyle is 

one of a handful of North American fixture manufacturers that still makes 

everything by hand and fabricates in Canada. 

At its recently expanded Wetmar Bio plant in Beloeil, about 45 minutes 

south east of Montreal, 20 or so dedicated craftsmen are busily cleaning 

and preparing moulds, and sanding and polishing tubs and sinks to 

deliver the day’s production. A Wetstyle soaking tub takes four to five 

hours of meticulous hand finishing to reach the company’s True High Gloss 

standards (a phrase they felt so strongly about, they trademarked it). 

Unlike many manufacturers, Wetstyle is a company where trades and 

skills are still passed down from generation to generation – the company’s 

current production lead hand, for example, was trained by his father, the 

now-retired master mould maker. There’s no quality control department. 

In fact, quality assurance is considered to be every worker’s responsibility, 

with revenue sharing bonuses tied to productivity and quality (that’s why 

it can take up to a year to train a finisher). 

At the furniture factory in Montreal, where Wetstyle’s bathroom vanities, 

medicine cabinets and bathroom furniture are produced, every worker is a 

certified woodworker and furniture maker and the only thing not completed 

by hand is the initial cutting of the raw wood, where modern technology 

is employed to minimize waste. Consistent with the company’s artisanal 

approach to fabrication, all wood parts are hand-sanded, assembled,

Wetstyle fOr azure 

neW 

brand, 

neW 

material 

Wetstyle’s goal for 2014: 

its signature style at a slightly 

more modest price point 

In the Wetmar Bio plant in 

Beloeil, a finisher spends four 

to five hours hand-working a tub 

to achieve the brand’s signature 

True High Gloss finish. 

At the furniture factory, a 

dedicated fabrication area for the 

company’s new Frame collection 

of vanities and medicine cabinets 

includes storage and assembly 

areas combined to maximize 

efficiency and minimize space. 

The Frame collection combines 

Canadian-made powder coated 

aluminum, natural hardwoods and 

lacquered glass to create a 

furniture system with over 4,000 

possible options, complete 

with flush-mounted electrical 

outlets, mirror defogger and LED 

ambient lighting. 

book-matched and finished to an AWI level 5 finish (the 

Architectural Woodwork Institute’s highest-grade finishing 

class) – a quality reminiscent of old-world European woodshops 

from centuries ago. 

Whether it’s in the factories or on the showroom floor, there’s 

not a corner, edge or detail that isn’t thoroughly thought-out. 

For example, the Be tub by Patrick Messier features a gentle 

curved shape and peaked ends that evoke a walnut, but 

with good reason: the line running through the centre gently 

cradles the spine to provide a more comfortable reclining 

position. “Every little thing, every little element of a product 

is a design decision,” says Wolinsky. “Everything has a purpose. 

Everything has a functional element. When you can achieve an 

elegant solution to a problem, that’s near perfect design.” 

The Wetstyle team isn’t a group to 

make changes just for the sake of it, 

so it’s no surprise that their latest 

endeavour is far more game-changing: 

W2 by Wetstyle, an entirely new brand 

due to launch next January. While 

they’re looking to create a collection at 

more accessible price, cutting back on 

quality isn’t an option. Instead, the 

company is in the process of formulating 

a new composite material and an 

entirely new production process for the 

new brand, to marry affordability 

and the incredibly detailed high quality 

design its known for. “We’ve gone 

through I don’t know how many iterations 

of prototypes to figure out how the 

rim is going to look,” says Wolinsky. We 

sweat those sort of details.”

field trip 

pedras salgadas, Portugal 

Cabins in 

the pines 

In a park where Portugal’s elite once 

came to take the waters, visitors can 

now sleep up in the trees 

BY Regina winkle-Bryan 

↑ The latest addition to the historical 

Pedras Salgadas Spa and Nature Park 

in northwest Portugal is a pair of 

Tree Houses, by architect Luís Rebelo 

de Andrade, raised among the boughs 

on steel supports. 

are they tree houses? Flying cobras? Or UFOs? 

These thoughts leap to mind with the first glimpse 

of architect Luís Rebelo de Andrade’s latest additions 

to Pedras Salgadas Spa and Nature Park. 

An hour and a half’s drive from Porto – in the 

Vila Real district of northern Portugal, renowned 

for its mineral springs – the park offers a getaway 

combo that features the natural environment, 

a thermal spa and a history lesson. Owned by 

beverage conglomerate Unicer, which now bottles 

the famous naturally carbonated Pedras Salgadas 

water, the park recently added some unique 

accommodations to its varied attractions. 

Nestled into 20 hectares of woodland, the 

newest cabins are referred to by the architect as 

Tree Snake Houses, although management has 

other ideas. “They want to call them Tree Houses, 

but they’re not. I couldn’t put them up in the trees, 

because the sensitive species won’t support the 

weight,” explains Rebelo de Andrade, whose firm 

has been involved in renovations and additions 

to the park since 2011. Whether Tree or Snake 

Houses, the two contemporary structures, completed 

in 2013, hover among the boughs, poised 

on five-metre-high steel supports. 

The cabins project off a knoll shaped from the 

rubble of an old hotel. From the man-made hillside, 

guests traverse suspended footbridges to enter 

the cabins, which are bright and womb-like inside. 

The open 22-square-metre spaces are panelled in 

local pine and fitted with a kitchenette, a table for 

two, a bathroom and a sofa bed. The focal point is 


← Inside the snug space, the focal point 

is a queen-size bed perched atop a pine 

platform – perfectly positioned for stargazing 

through the overhead skylight. 

↙ With their slate and wood scales, 

the Tree Houses are camouflaged in their 

surroundings. Developed with Modular 

System, a Portuguese company, the 

project showcases non-orthogonal 

prefabricated form. 

↓ To access the cabins, visitors 

traverse a suspended footbridge that 

connects to a man-made hill. 

a queen-size bed perched atop a pine platform – 

the perfect roost for meditating on the branches 

swaying outside an ample window, or for lying 

back and stargazing through an overhead skylight. 

Developed with the Portuguese company 

Mod ular System, the project showcases nonorthogonal 

form, contradicting standard notions of 

prefab construction. Like a snake gliding between 

the trees, the cabins blend in to their surroundings, 

their native slate and wood cladding the perfect 

forest camouflage. “My goal was that everything 

new in the park should be invisible,” says Rebelo 

de Andrade, adding, “The real jewels at Pedras 

Salgadas are the old buildings and the trees.” 

He applied the same principle to his 12 Eco 

Houses, which were finished in 2012, also using 

prefabricated units constructed by Modular 

System. They were arranged around the existing 

pines to minimize their impact on the forest; consequently, 

each Eco House has a different layout, 

though the modules remain the same: an entrance 

and bathroom unit, a living room and kitchen unit, 

a unit with one or two bedrooms, and a spacious 

deck. The larger houses have two bedrooms and 

sleep up to six, while the smaller ones accommodate 

four. Like the tree cabins, the Eco Houses 

sport a suit of pine and slate scales. 

While the Tree and Eco Houses are über-contemporary 

in appearance, Rebelo de Andrade has 

also been renovating neglected structures from the 

park’s heyday in the late 1800s and early 1900s. 

The most recently completed is the 1910 Casino, 

a pink palace with a lavish ballroom that was never 

used for gambling and now functions as an event 

space. “I wanted to take these historical buildings 

and make them shine, because they’re the identity 

of the park,” he explains. The Balneario (the thermal 

spa, the park’s focal point) occupies the original 

1875 art nouveau building renovated in 2010 

by Pritzker laureate Álvaro Siza Vieira. Around the 

park, several other early 20th-century constructions 

await Rebelo de Andrade’s paintbrush. 

Where medical-tourists of a century ago came 

for the benefits of the waters, today’s visitors to 

Pedras Salgadas Spa and Nature Park are just as 

likely to be drawn by the allure of the old and new 

architecture as well as the stress-relieving tonic of 

the pine forest. 

JUNE 2014 91

field trip 

pedras salgadas, portugal 

← ↙ Twelve Eco Houses – also 

designed by Rebelo de Andrade 

and constructed by Modular 

System – were added to the park 

in 2012. The modular units were 

arranged so as not to disturb the 

trees, making the configuration 

of each one unique. 

↓ The park dates back to the 

mid–19th century, and includes 

formal gardens, eight kilometres 

of paths and a pond. 

↓↓ Furnished with one or two 

bed rooms, the Eco Houses sleep 

four to six. 

If you go 

How to get there 

From Porto, it’s an easy hour-and-a-half drive 

northeast to the park. Well-maintained highways 

wind through countryside freckled with farms and 

braided with grape vines. 

Things to do 

In the late 19th century, the spa town of Pedras 

Salgadas was a holiday destination for the Portuguese 

upper crust and even royalty. They came 

to take the waters, which continue to bubble up 

throughout the park and can invariably be found 

along the eight kilometres of paths. Treatments 

featuring this spring water are still offered in the 

original Balneario, renovated by Álvaro Siza Vieira. 

Today’s cure seekers choose from remedies such 

as Vichy shower, Turkish bath, and full-body massage. 

An indoor heated pool with a waterworks 

section is open year-round, and an outdoor pool 

near the pond opens for the summer season. Just 

15 minutes from the park by car, golfers will find 

an 18‐hole course at the Vidago Palace Hotel. A 

30- minute drive brings you to the district’s capital, 

Vila Real, a gem for discovering Portuguese 

baroque architecture. 

Where to eat 

The sleepy village of Pedras Salgadas offers few 

restaurants, and the park’s eateries are limited 

to a café and a seasonal restaurant. A 15- minute 

drive takes you to the Vidago Palace Hotel – a 

palace built for King Charles I in 1910 that was 

turned into a five-star hotel in 2010 – where you 

can sample local fare fit for a king in the lavish 

ballroom restaurant. 

→ From $242 per night. pedrassalgadaspark. com 


PRESENTING SPONSOR 

PRESENTING PARTNERS 

14th International Architecture Exhibition - La Biennale di Venezia 

Organized + Curated by Lateral Office 

Canada Pavilion | Venice, Italy | June 7 - November 23, 2014 

Thank you to our Sponsors and Partners! 

GOLD 

SILVER BRONZE 10 

Gerald Sheff & 

Shanitha Kachan 

BRONZE 5 

Gretchen & 

Donald Ross 

MEDIA SPONSORS 

STRATEGIC PARTNERS 

INSTITUTIONAL PARTNERS 

www.arcticadaptations.ca

Design File 

Bathroom 

shelf 

life 

The bathroom becomes ever more 

functional, with storage in unexpected 

materials, colours and places 

by diane chan 

1 

3 

2 

4 

1 Kartell by Laufen 

Ludovica and Roberto Palomba’s bold 

bathroom system seamlessly connects 

wash basins, faucets, shower bases, 

infinity tubs, lights, storage and accessories. 

Made of lightweight yet durable 

SaphirKeramik (a patented porcelain) 

or Kartell’s iconic transparent polycarbonate, 

these modules come in such earth 

tones as orange sand, steel blue, and 

white with a hint of yellow. laufen. com 

2 Morphing by Zucchetti Kos 

The Consolle wash basin is now available 

in a red lacquer finish, in addition to the 

original white or black. Also new to the 

Morphing collection: a shorter, 1.5-metre 

version of the Cristalplant bathtub. 

zucchettikos. com 

3 36e8 by Lago 

Lago recently introduced this basin, for 

integration into its colourful collection of 

storage containers in polished glass. The 

wall-mounted boxes are based on a 36.8- 

centimetre-square module, for endless 

configurations. lago.it 

4 Mem by Dornbracht 

The German bath manufacturer updated 

its 2003 Mem collection, by Sieger 

Design, with a highly reflective, elegant 

18-karat finish called Cyprum, composed 

of gold and copper. Also available in 

chrome, platinum and matte platinum. 

dornbracht. com 

5 NotOnlyWhite for Hi-Macs 

The Amsterdam design brand collaborated 

on several modular bathroom collections 

that showcase Hi-Macs’ durable, hygienic 

and stain-resistant acrylic composite. 

Here, NOW combines yellow and brown trays 

atop the Flat countertop, which supports 

the Noon basin. himacs. eu 


5 

6 

7 

8 

9 

6 Bowl by Inbani 

When the Spanish manufacturer invited 

Arik Levy to conceive yet another bathroom 

collection, the Paris designer turned 

to jewellery as inspiration. Bowl takes on 

the shape of stand-alone storage, fixtures 

and accessories, in wire-thin metal with 

marble details. inbani. com 

7 Soho by Boffi 

Piero Lissoni’s meticulous system is 

defined by suspended, handle-free units 

in wood particleboard, with pullout doors 

fronted in frosted glass or aluminum. 

Finished in graphite-oak or silk-white 

resin, the cabinets are topped with glass, 

Cristalplant, stone, marble, granite or 

stone composite. Basins can be integrated 

into the top or mounted separately. 

boffi. com 

8 Amanpuri by Blu Bathworks 

To keep bathrooms free of clutter, this tub 

cleverly incorporates modular recessed 

shelving units, crafted from European oak 

and finished in textured stained wood, 

white matte or gloss lacquer. Amanpuri is 

available in two sizes, and the tub is made 

of Blu’s proprietary, eco-friendly Blustone 

quartzite. Coordinating vanities, mirrors 

and cabinets complete the ensemble. 

blubathworks. com 

9 Monolith by Duravit 

This system of MDF storage modules 

for over the toilet or bidet can be floor or 

wall mounted. It comes in natural teak, 

brown or dark oak, with doors made of 

acid-etched tempered glass, painted in 

white or grey. duravit. com 


Design File 

Bathroom 

Top 

taps 

Sleek faucets, tub fillers and shower 

heads with integrated technologies and 

water- saving aerators 

2 

3 

4 

1 

5 

6 

7 

8 

1 Odin X by Brizo 

In five finishes, including solid black, this 

bold fixture delivers a laminar flow, for 

a smooth, elegant stream. It also comes 

with an optional patented technology 

that activates it via hands-free or touch. 

brizo. com 

2 Terra by Graff 

A slim handle and a tubular spout define 

the faucets in Terra, available in polished 

chrome, polished nickel or olive bronze. 

The line includes towel bars, tissue hold ers, 

shower heads and body sprays. 

graff-faucets. com 

3 Bar by Cea 

This monolithic collection, in stainless steel 

with satin or polished finishes, includes 

dual-lever and hydro-progressive mixers 

with water-saving aerators, for a flow rate 

of seven litres per minute. ceadesign .it 

4 Milano Slim by Fantini 

Measuring a slim six centimetres wide, 

Fantini’s stainless steel water-saving 

shower system enhances any minimalist 

bathroom. fantini. it 

5 LampShower by Axor Hansgrohe 

Nendo’s Oki Sato puts a poetic twist on 

the shower head in his illuminated 

Water Dream line. The fixture, originally 

designed in the shape of a floor lamp, 

is now available as a ceiling or wall mount, 

in several finishes. hansgrohe‐usa. com 

6 Arris by Moen 

Right angles form the basis of the Arris 

collection, which also contains faucets, 

shower heads and rain showers. This 

tub filler comes with an innovative valve 

system for hassle-free installation. 

moen. com 

7 Lyndon by DXV 

Part of American Standard’s modern 

DXV collection, the Lyndon line includes 

a deck-mounted tub filler, and a hand 

shower with a 1.5‐metre metal hose 

in polished chrome or brushed nickel. 

dxv.com 

8 Moxie Rainshower by Kohler 

To deliver an aurally invigorating experience, 

Kohler has updated its Bluetoothenabled 

Moxie audio speaker/shower 

fixture with a rain head in white, polished 

chrome, brushed nickel or oiled bronze. 

kohler.com 


singular 

pieces 

Stand-alone and surface-mounted sinks 

and tubs in iconic and novel forms 

1 

3 

2 

5 

4 

6 

7 8 

1 Bolo by Antonio Lupi 

A top-mounted sink in Ceramilux, Bolo 

comes in four shapes with an integrated 

drain cover. antoniolupi. it 

2 Encore by Aria 

Made of high-gloss Lucite, which offers 

easy maintenance, the spacious Encore 

sits on adjustable legs and features a 

pre-installed drain, as well as a chrome 

slit to prevent overflow. Available in biscuit 

or white. fleurco. com 

3 Be Tub by Wetstyle 

The shelf that frames Wetstyle’s freestanding 

tub (in Wetmar Bio, gloss, matte 

or dual finish) offers a place for bathing 

accessories or a glass of wine. It comes in 

various shades of an oak or walnut finish, 

with an optional wooden bridge to place 

across the tub. wetstyle. ca 

4 DR by Agape 

“Friendly, sensual and charismatic” is how 

Brazilian architect Marcio Kogan describes 

his curvaceous tub for two. The shell is 

made of wood, and it comes with floor- or 

wall-mounted taps. agapedesign. it 

5 Bonola by Flaminia 

Jasper Morrison’s series of free-standing 

and furniture-mounted wash basins are 

defined by their perfectly rounded forms 

and smooth lines. They come in glossy or 

matte ceramic, in neutral shades plus pink 

and blue. ceramicaflaminia. it 

6 Modern Nomads by DuPont 

DuPont called on Grohe head of design 

Paul Flowers to devise a set of conceptual 

bathroom furnishings in black or white 

Corian. These include a tub, a sink, a storage 

cabinet, and a shower perched on thin 

wooden legs. dupont. com 

7 Nest by VitrA 

Helsinki’s Pentagon Design imbued this 

oblong sink for VitrA with its Scandinavian 

aesthetic. It forms part of a collection 

with cupboards, vanities and mirrors, 

in such finishes as natural grey oak and 

glossy anthracite. usa. vitra. com. tr 

8 Dogi by GD Cucine 

Enzo Berti married natural elements such 

as stone (in eight varieties) and wood (dark 

and light) in this spa-inspired bathroom 

line, where the basin integrates seamlessly 

into the countertop. gdcucine. com 


Material World 

TIGHT 

SPOT 

Innovative options for acoustic and thermal 

insulation boost aesthetics while keeping 

sound and heat in their place 

BY Paige Magarrey 

Project: 

Pop-up House 

What is the best way to reduce heating costs? 

Build a house out of insulation, of course. Multipod 

Studio of Marseilles, France, proposes just that 

in its 150-square-metre concept, which can be built 

in four days with a single screwdriver. The firm 

completed the first prototype earlier this year and 

nestled it into the Aix-en-Provence region, placing 

a mélange of wood and grey amid the surrounding 

trees. “Seeing the new way of constructing houses, 

with an external insulation, brought the idea of 

building one with insulation blocks and wood 

structure only,” says Multipod principal Corentin 

Thiercelin. “Our pur pose was to decrease the 

energy consumption, since heating represents 

close to 28 per cent of global energy use and a 

major household expense.” 

The framework incorporates recyclable blocks 

made of expanded polystyrene and graphite. 

These are separated by planks of laminated veneer 

lumber, a high-performance material built up of 

wood layers, which give the house a grid-like 

aesthetic. The resulting structure is airtight, with 

a heat transfer measure, or U-value, of 0.11 watts 

per metres squared kelvin (for comparison, 

Passivhaus-compliant projects must achieve 0.15 

watts per metres squared kelvin or less). It’s also 

economical, at about $300 per square metre. 

The prefabricated blocks are assembled on site 

using screws, and the entire house can be torn 

apart and reconfigured again and again. While the 

concept is still being tested – the firm has also 

completed a 70-square-metre prototype – the 

applications for emergency shelters and other 

temporary structures appear promising. As well, 

the insulation material choices (including wood 

fibreboard, cork, rock wool and cellulose), interior 

and exterior finishes and architectural styles make 

it ideal for erecting a studio, cottage or primary 

residence in a flash. multipod-studio.com 

Ceiling and floor 

products 

Incorporating recycled materials and appealing surface 

options, these high-performance materials work for 

many different applications. 

Acoustigreen’s ceiling and wall panels are made from 

low-VOC, formaldehyde-free recycled wood fibre. They 

range from tile-like configurations in custom veneers to 

perforated offerings in various trims and colours, to suit 

any type of interior. acoustigreen. com 

Decoustics Manufactured in Canada to match the style 

and proportions of individual spaces, Decoustics’ product 

line includes the Ceilencio suspension system, a versatile 

custom solution for commercial environments. It allows 

accessibility from below, and it can incorporate many of 

the company’s materials and finishes. decoustics. ca 

Fellert Ideal for dampening sound in auditoriums, restaurants 

and lobbies, Fellert’s recycled, low-VOC Even Better 

is made of fibreglass board with acoustic plaster sprayed 

on top. This surface structure can be specified in a wide 

range of shapes, sizes and textures, and tinted or finished 

with acoustical paint. fellert. com 

↑ Pinta’s Phonstop acoustic tiles are made from recycled 

glass, sintered to form porous sound absorbers. Avail able 

in a variety of sizes, they attach to ceilings or walls and can 

be coated to suit any decor, in indoor or outdoor applications. 

pinta‐elements. com 


Structural systems 

These manufacturers’ products contribute to building 

structures as interior walls, tiles or other components. 

BASWA Acoustic BASWAphon panels can be applied to 

any type of wall or ceiling, including curved surfaces. 

Made of pre-coated mineral wool with a micro-porous 

membrane, the up to 95 per cent recycled surfacing is 

available in classic and frosted finishes, as well as custom 

textures such as old-world plaster. The panels reduce 

room reverberation as they absorb noise. baswa. com 

→ Baux Stockholm design studio Form Us With Love’s 

25-millimetre-thick Träullit tiles are offered in six shapes 

and two sizes, for oversized mosaic wall compositions 

that absorb sound, provide thermal insulation and control 

moisture. Made using spruce wood, cement and water, 

the stylish tiles come in five easy-to-coordinate colour 

sets. baux. se 

Dow Corning Integrated into facades, the company’s 

Vacuum Insulation Panels are ideal for combining with 

curtain wall construction. They provide similar thermal 

resistance, or R-value, to that of mineral wool but with 

a profile up to 10 times slimmer, for insulated walls as thin 

as 18 millimetres. dowcorning. com 

Serious Energy’s iWindow retrofit system is internally 

mounted within existing windows to increase the thermal 

per form ance of glass or curtain wall. A single-glazed 

window can go from 1.0 R-value to 6.7 without altering the 

exterior appearance. seriousenergy. com 

Acoustic Panels 

Merging form and function, these panels are sculptural 

and sound absorbent, suitable for office environments 

and schools. 

Acoustic Factory The U.K. manufacturer’s innovative 

offerings include Greenwall, a fire- and water-resistant 

panel made of living Norwegian reindeer moss, which 

has natural insulating properties. acousticfactory. co. uk 

Alusion The Ontario manufacturer’s aluminum foam 

sheets range from large-cell translucent panels to 

small-cell models, which are denser and absorb more 

sound. They can be used as wall cladding, flooring or 

ceilings. alusion. com 

BuzziSpace The Belgian company’s sustainable BuzziBlox 

line is composed of recycled PET felt blocks, grouped in 

varying colours and depths. They diffuse sound at a natural 

spectrum range while evoking a sculptural work of art. 

buzzispace. com 

Oberflex’s Obersound collection of acoustic wall and 

ceiling panels comprises 25 styles, from carved rosewood 

to American walnut with an abstract rain graphic. The 

MDF-based boards come in 2.5-metre lengths and three 

heights. oberflex. com 

→ Offecct The Swedish furniture company’s sculptural 

Soundwave collection of panels, made from recyclable 

moulded polyester fibre, absorb sound levels 500 Hz and 

above. They are designed by the likes of Karim Rashid, 

Jean-Marie Massaud and Claesson Koivisto Rune. 

offecct. se 

Internal products 

Innovations in interior wall insulation employ recycled 

materials in easy-to-install forms, such as spray foam. 

Airkrete’s non-expanding material, made of air, water and 

non-toxic magnesium oxide cement, is blown into walls 

in old or new construction. Once dry, it becomes too rigid to 

vibrate, forming an acoustic and thermal insulation with 

R-values of up to 6. airkrete. com 

Bonded Logic Made of aluminum and natural fibres, the 

UltraTouch Natural Cotton Radiant Barrier from this Arizona 

manufacturer contains no fibreglass or formaldehyde, so 

it’s easy and safe to handle. The padding comes in 1.2-by- 

1.8-metre sheets and 1.2-by-23-metre rolls, and is installed 

with adhesive. bondedlogic. com 

Icynene’s new ProSeal Eco closed-cell expanding foam 

uses water in place of greenhouse gas–producing hydrofluorocarbon 

blowing agents. This vapour barrier can be 

used for floors, ceilings and exterior walls. icynene.com 

Igloo’s insulation, fabricated in Quebec from postconsumer 

recycled newspaper, was the first in Canada to 

earn low-VOC certification. The new 360HD Cellulose Cavity 

Fill system provides uniform density, with an R-value of 

3.6 per inch, and it won’t settle over time. cellulose. com 

Roxul Made of mineral wool board, this Ontario company’s 

Comfortboard IS exterior insulation sheathing is engineered 

for high-performance wall systems. It’s non-combustible, 

waterproof and sound resistant, and it reduces thermal 

bridging in basement and exterior walls. roxul.com 


media Shelf 

1 

2 

3 

1 If You Build It 

Documentary film directed by Patrick Creadon 

What happens when you pair two idealistic young designer-activists with a 

high school class from a failing town in rural North Carolina? In the world of 

this recent feature-length documentary from Patrick Creadon (produced 

by Christine O’Malley and Neal Baer), the result is a gorgeous new farmers’ 

market, built to the elegant, modern design of 10 local students. 

The documentary tracks Emily Pilloton, author of 2009’s influential Design 

Revolution: 100 Products That Empower People, and her partner Matthew 

Miller over two years, when they devoted themselves to running a shop class 

with the goal of introducing design thinking to economically depressed Bertie 

County. It shows them working in the face of stiff resistance from the local 

school board and ultimately surviving on grant money and credit, despite 

being much-loved full-time teachers. 

The result is more than just a building; it’s a radical rethinking of the 

transformative impact of learning by doing on young lives, and it demonstrates 

how teaching design has the potential to empower kids who have given up on 

themselves. Meanwhile, by kick-starting new businesses the farmer’s market 

has rekindled a sense of hope and faith in the county’s potential, something 

that had clearly been missing for years. 

The film (distributed by Long Shot Factory) does a great job of displaying 

the strength in Pilloton and Miller’s approach – and its limitations. By tracing 

the story’s evolution from start to finish, the filmmakers illustrate design 

thinking’s impact as a catalyst for change, not just on the students but on the 

community and the four new businesses inspired by the farmers’ market. Yet 

the documentary closes with Pilloton and Miller packing up and moving their 

ideas out to the friendlier territory of Berkeley, California. Sadly, the superintendent 

who originally brought them to Bertie was forced to resign, leaving 

Pilloton and Miller without an ally on the school board. Viewers are left both 

inspired and frustrated: inspired by the power design-and-build has to change 

lives, yet frustrated by those who prefer to obstruct such change and shut 

it down. you may also like: Tell Them I Built This (published by TED Conferences), 

Pilloton’s 2012 account of her time in Bertie County, which details her 

approach to grassroots design activism. By Rachel Pulfer 

Rachel Pulfer is the executive director of Journalists for Human Rights, 

an international media development organization, as well as an Azure 

contrib uting editor. 

2 Mies 

book by detlef Mertins 

Ludwig Mies van der Rohe’s philosophy was “Less is more,” 

but this 554-page hardcover honouring the father of modern 

architecture employs a “More is more” approach. Weighing 

in at over three kilograms, Phaidon’s tome contains more than 

700 site plans, sketches and photographs of every major 

Mies project, from his early houses and stone monuments to his 

revolutionary skyscrapers. Each project is contextualized by 

the facets of the architect’s life – his study of Kantian philosophy 

or Dadaism, for example – so that his work becomes a lens 

for viewing the global movements in technology, art and culture 

that emerged during the 20th century. In this telling, at least, 

Mies stands as the genius at the centre of it all. you may also like: 

Building Seagram (Yale University Press), Phyllis Lambert’s 

first-person account of how the iconic Seagram Building in New 

York came into being, from hiring Mies to the end of construction. 

By David Dick‐Agnew 

3 7 Studies 

book edited by Jörg schellmann 

“Creative leisure and reflection need a space of their own,” notes 

essayist Andreas Zielcke at the beginning of this fascinating 

look at how seven practitioners brought together a table, chair 

and shelf system to create the most ergonomic, adaptable 

workspaces possible. The catalogue from an exhibition at the 

Schellmann Furniture showroom in Munich last year – which 

brought together Donald Judd, Stefan Diez, Sebastian Wrong, 

the Bouroullec brothers, Gerhard Merz and Liam Gillick, as 

well as showroom founder Jörg Schellmann – 7 Studies includes 

Diez’s unified office made from sheets of steel, and Wrong’s 

modern take on Freud’s therapy couch. What makes these pages 

interesting is how each designer answers a simple question: 

what comes to mind when you hear the word “study”? 

you may also like: Cubed: A Secret History of the Workplace 

(Doubleday), Nikil Saval’s analysis of the nine-to-five world. 

By Paige Magarrey 

photo by kari silver 


coming in azure: 

JULY ⁄ AUGUST 2014 

5 

4 

announcing 

the WINNERS 

OF OUR 4th 

ANNUAL 

4 The Style of Coworking: Contemporary Shared Workspaces 

book by Alice Davies and Kathryn Tollervey 

Co-working spaces, which trade solitude for lower rent and 

access to shared facilities and resources, represent an attractive 

concept for new or small-scale businesses, and they have 

become particularly popular with creative types. This book from 

Prestel rounds up 160 pages of examples from around the 

world, ranging from London’s industrial-chic Google Campus, 

a 2,300-square-metre initiative by the Internet giant intended 

to nurture the local tech community; to Berlin’s BlinkBlink, a 

65-square-metre crafters’ workshop with a Bohemian style. 

Although some of the spaces seem to lack true personality (no 

doubt a side effect of the subjects’ fluid office cultures), this 

book offers a glimpse into many enticing workspace interiors. 

you may also like: Where Architects Work (Birkhäuser), edited by 

Nils Ballhausen, a compilation of photos and floor plans from 

architectural offices worldwide. By erin Donnelly 

5 Futuristic: Visions of Future Living 

book edited by Caroline Klein, text by STEFANIE LIEB 

Featuring the winners 

and finalists in design, 

architecture, interiors, 

concepts and student work 

Though our world faces dwindling resources, it has no lack of 

dreamers. In the visually stunning Futuristic (Daab), 53 designers 

and architects of the future use unrestrained imagination to 

confront the challenges presented by climate change, pollution 

and overpopulation. In stunning digitally rendered utopias from 

the likes of Lava, Architectonics, Arup and MAD – mapped out in 

easy-to-navigate chapters, such as Urban, Atmosphere, Water 

and Bionic – everything is possible, from mushroom-capped 

metropolises for densely crowded colonies, to vertical farms 

for feeding the masses, to floating settlements for regions 

submerged by rising sea levels. These utopias remind us of what 

is possible when we use our collective imaginations to not only 

predict the future but actively shape it as well. you may also like: 

Designing the Urban Future: Smart Cities, a collection of essays 

digitally published by Scientific American, which explores how 

technology will shape future cities from the macro scale to the 

micro. By Corinna Reeves 


ARCHITECTURE | CULTURE | TECHNOLOGY 

| |

advertiser index 

boldface 

ADVERTISER PAGE # 

Arctic Adaptations 93 

Alumilex 20 

American Standard 15 

Arborite 59 

Artopex 28 

Audi 2,3 

AVANI 33 

BMW 108 

Boston Architectural College 37 

B&B Italia 31 

Caesarstone 107 

Caesarstone Design 

Competition 12,13 

Ceragres 43 

Ceramics of Italy 27 

Cersaie 14 

Davis Furniture 16 

Design & Health Expo 102 

EQ3 29 

European Flooring 21 

Eventscape 25 

Fantini 45 

Fleurco 18 

Flexform 6,7 

Forbo 49 

Hansgrohe 63 

Hauser 17 

Humanscale 69 

Innovia 32 

Interface 47 

Jenn-Air 

Gatefold 

Keilhauer 4,5 

Kohler 81 

Lexus 8,9 

Maison & Objet 36 

Minotti 41 

Momentum 22 

Nienkämper 19 

Palazzetti 104 

Rimadesio 51 

Sheridan College 104 

Steelcase 10,11 

Teknion 35 

Thread Needle 34 

WetStyle 88,89 

Zancor 105 

and the winners are… 

Shigeru Ban has won the Pritzker Architecture Prize for 

2014. The Tokyo architect, who is renowned as much for 

his humanitarian efforts as for his elegant and innovative 

buildings, frequently travels to disaster sites around 

the globe to construct simple, low-cost shelters and 

community buildings that contribute to relief efforts. His 

ingenuity is also evident in his commissioned work, which 

considers human comfort, with a strong focus on natural 

light, ventilation and materials. Of the win, Ban said, 

“Receiving this prize is a great honour, and with it I must 

be careful. I must continue to listen to the people I work 

for, in my private residential commissions and in my 

disaster relief work. I see this prize as encouragement for 

me to keep doing what I am doing – not to change what 

I am doing, but to grow.“ Read more online or watch the 

June 13 ceremony live at pritzkerprize.com. 

In March, Peter Busby of Perkins + Will was awarded 

the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada Gold Medal, 

which recognizes his pioneering role in the sustainable 

archi tecture movement. In the same month, the organization 

named Nova Scotia’s MacKay-Lyons Sweetapple 

Architects as the recipient of its 2014 Architectural Firm 

or Practice Award; and Tyler Sharp, of Toronto’s RDH 

Architects, received the 2014 Young Architect Award. 

RAIC also announced the submission deadline, August 1, 

2014, for its Moriyama International Prize, a $100,000 

honour that will rival the Pritzker as one of the industry’s 

most sought-after awards. 

The 2013–2014 World Design Impact Prize has been 

granted to David Swann, of the University of Hud dersfield, 

U.K., for A Behaviour Changing (ABC) Syringe. The 

award represents an initiative by the International Council 

of Societies of Industrial Design to acknowledge designdriven 

projects that make significant improvements in 

human lives at the most basic level. With a function as 

simple as its name, the syringe promotes safe injection 

practices with a colour-changing label that clearly indicates 

whether or not it has been used. 

At the conclusion of the 2014 International Bicycle Design 

Competition, 22 innovative submissions were selected by 

an international jury that included Norbert Haller of IDBerlin 

and Michael Steen of Nike. All were officially honoured 

and showcased during the Taipei Cycle Show, and 10 of 

them took home cash prizes. The bright ideas included 

simple and technologically advanced solutions for riding 

in the dark. 

The International Interior Design Association’s two annual 

awards programs, the Interior Design Competition and the 

Will Ching Design Competition, announced their winners. 

For the latter, the award went to Jones | Haydu, a firm 

with fewer than five employees, for its Coffee Bar Kearny 

in San Francisco. Among the honourees in the former, 

Gensler, for its M Building in Beverly Hills, California, and 

Steve Leung Designers, for its Yoo Residence II in Hong 

Kong, will be presented with trophies at an event at the 

Ritz Carlton Chicago during NeoCon. More information is 

available at iida.org. 

In the seaside town of Blackpool, England, the 55th 

Annual Civic Trust Awards Ceremony honoured 79 award, 

commendation and community recognition winners for 

outstanding architecture, planning and design in the built 

environment. Special awards went to Haworth Tompkins, 

for the Shed in London; Hugh Broughton Architects, for 

the Halley VI Antarctic Research Station, British Antarctic 

Territory; and Erect Architecture, for the Timber Lodge 

and Tumbling Bay Playground, in Newham, Greater 

London. See the full list at civictrustawards.org.uk. 

The Ontario Association of Architects handed out 15 

awards for projects across the nation by practitioners 

who reside in the province. The winners include G. Bruce 

Stratton Architect’s renovation of the Mount Dennis 

Library in Toronto; and Fowler Bauld and Mitchell’s 

light-filled Nova Scotia Power Corporate Headquarters, 

in Halifax. As well, KPMB received a Sustainable Design 

Excellence Award for its LEED Platinum–certified 

Manitoba Hydro Place in Winnipeg. All of the winners 

can be seen at oaa.on.ca. 

Ma Yansong, founder of MAD Architects, has been 

crowned a Young Global Leader for 2014 by the World 

Economic Forum, which bestowed the designation on 214 

leaders in their fields under the age of 40. Yansong was 

chosen for his “professional accomplishments, commitment 

to society, and the potential to contribute to shaping 

the future of the world through inspiring leadership.” 

In March, Wood Works! B.C., an initiative led by the 

Canadian Wood Council, announced the 10th annual Wood 

Design Awards. They were handed out in 12 categories, 

for projects in British Columbia as well as national and 

international locations. Gerald Epp of Fast + Epp 

Structural Engineers earned the engineer award for his 

Bow River Bridge in Alberta, while Mike Mammone of 

Ratio Architecture – Interior Design – Planning took the 

architect category prize. Peter Busby of Perkins + Will 

was crowned Wood Champion, in recognition of his 

prominent use of the material in many public buildings; 

he also received one of two honourable mentions. More 

details are available at wood-works.ca. 

Spring brought Danish-Icelandic artist Olafur Eliasson to 

the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to receive the 

2014 Eugene McDermott Award in the Arts. After picking 

up the $100,000 cheque that accompanies the honour, he 

lectured on sustainable development, community engagement, 

and design and product engineering in developing 

economies, and also took part in a residency program. 

ON THE BOARDS 

David Chipperfield’s Berlin office has won the competition 

to design the new Nobel Center in Stockholm. Under the 

direction of Chipperfield and Christoph Felger, the firm 

submitted a slender, elegant building with vertical brass 

elements, which the jury unanimously favoured in the 

second and final round. Intended to concretely represent 

the Nobel Prize as Sweden’s most internationally recognized 

symbol, the centre will enrich urban public space via 

its transparent ground floor. 

An independent study by think tank New London 

Architecture has revealed that the British capital can 

soon expect to see some major changes to its skyline. 

More than 230 new towers over 20 storeys could be 

added, with at least 158 already approved or under construction 

and 72 other proposals now being con sidered. 

NLA is hosting a related exhibition, London’s Growing Up!, 

until June 12. 

Celebrations for the Royal Ontario Museum’s 100th 

anniversary are under way, kicking off with a big reveal of 

the proposed design for its Welcome Project – Plaza and 

Public Realm. Hariri Pontarini and landscape architect 

Claude Cormier collaborated on the concept for the 

public area, which will revitalize the promenade surrounding 

the museum. Acting as the ROM’s first outdoor gallery, 

the updated spaces will welcome visitors from all 

directions and will include an outdoor performance area 

and biodiversity gardens with all-season plantings. 

Movers and shakers 

Brent McDaneld has been appointed chief executive officer 

of Lladró USA by the Spanish-based porcelain maker’s 

board of directors. He comes to the company from luxury 

crystal producer Rogaska. 


1020 Lawrence Ave. W. Toronto, Ontario M6A 1C8 Canada T: 416.785.7190 1.800.944.2033 

palazzetti.ca

trailer 

Blow up 

How design can be used as a tool for political activism 

Cobblestones have a long history as objects of 

protest; they have often served as projectiles at 

hand, pulled from beneath demonstrators’ feet 

in public squares across the world. 

But how’s this for art literally reflecting life? 

Protests in 2012 during a general strike in 

Barcelona (shown) and on May Day in Berlin featured 

Inflatable Cobblestones. These metallic 

balloon cubes were created by design activists 

Tools for Action (formerly known as Eclectic Electric) 

and Enmedio Collective, as pieces of “tactical 

frivolity,” juxtaposing a playful nod to demonstrations 

past with the pragmatic needs of today. 

Here, the cobblestone took on some new roles: 

as a floating focal point for media; as a device to 

protect demonstrators’ identities by impeding 

the authorities’ movements and recording efforts; 

and as a mirror held up to the entire spectacle. 

The Inflatable Cobblestone represents multifunctional 

design at its best. Beautiful, useful and 

highly practical, it can travel in a suitcase to be 

filled with air on location. It transcends aesthetics 

to fill a need, and potentially de-escalate a dangerous 

situation. This summer it will go on display 

at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London as 

part of the Disobedient Objects exhibition, which 

demonstrates “how political activism drives a 

wealth of design ingenuity and collective creativity 

that defy standard definitions of art and design.” 

All of the objects on display will surely articulate 

a clear message. But some, like the Inflatable 

Cobblestone, go above and beyond to encapsulate 

a widely felt sentiment, to become the social and 

traditional media representation of a public demonstration 

and, at the highest level, to serve a 

functional purpose in the action itself. 

Todd Harrison is a co-founder and senior editor of 

Spacing, a quarterly magazine about urbanism. 

Photo by Oriana Eliçabe/Enmedio.info 


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