Tabla de contenidos para July/August 2022 en AZURE

By this fall, green-thumbed Torontonians might be planting their backyard tulip bulbs next to new foundations. Surging populations and concerns about housing affordability are prompting many North American cities to explore fresh approaches to urban density. Accessory dwelling units (ADUs) — secondary structures that share the same lots as existing homes — are one solution. After first approving streamlined as-of-right development of laneway suites in 2018, Toronto is now preparing to allow similarly straightforward garden suite approvals as the first tenet of the city’s Expanding Housing Options in Neighbourhoods initiative, which is dedicated to “missing middle” development options. Communities like Vancouver and Portland, Oregon, have been early leaders in this area, and other Ontario municipalities are now following suit, spurred by a recent change to the province’s Planning Act. While…

Even after more than two years, the threat of lockdowns and stay-a-thome orders remains a constant around the globe, and many people continue to contemplate ever returning to physical office spaces. Since commercial building owners arguably have the most to lose from permanent work-from-home, landlords worldwide are brainstorming new services to dissuade tenants from shuffling off their leases. In downtown Shanghai, local real estate developer Shui On Land has devised one such solution, proposing a two-for-one offer — supporting business growth and encouraging strong social connections — that is available not only to office tenants of its recently completed Ruihong Tiandi development but also to area residents. Called WorkX Social, it’s a capacious community hub where disparate businesses can meet clients and network with one another. Located inside the gargantuan…

1 HOOK UP With beautifully simple lines and practical accessories, the Hook Up collection by Toronto design firm MSDS Studio can accommodate all manner of meeting and work types. A universal rail connects tables together and can be fitted with privacy panels, letter trays, storage boxes, planters in different sizes, cupholders and power receptacles — all without the need for tools. The steel frame and legs are offered in nine standard colours (customizing is also an option), and three table heights are available. three-h.com 2 MITIS Part of the mid-century-modern-inspired Punt collection, the Mitis table by Barcelona-based designer Mario Ruiz highlights the natural beauty of wood through its sculpted trestle-like legs, sophisticated detailing and substantial surface (a contrasting solid surface option is also available). The rectangular table comes in three…

IRIS BY OPENSEED A three-part collaboration between meditation-pod-maker OpenSeed, designer Yves Behar (founder of multi-disciplinary studio Fuse-project) and Deepak Chopra, Iris is a successful blend of industrial design, wellness technology and sustainability. The womb-shaped, assembled-on-site capsule features a structure partially made from 3D-printed upcycled sawdust with 100 per cent natural sound-absorbing felt panels. Intended to “quiet the chatter and help…refocus on our well-being,” the stand-alone micro-environment is equipped with immersive audio for guided meditation, aromatherapy and specially designed LED sequences that are synchronized with the sound aspect, all controlled through an unobtrusive built-in touchscreen. In louder settings, noise-cancelling headphones can be used to help block out external distractions. fuseproject.com, openseed.co HEADSPACE POD BY HEADSPACE Challenged to bring the Headspace meditation app into physical form, San Francisco studio Mike & Maaike…

Project: Xu Wei Art Museum and Green Vine Square Location: Shaoxing, China Firm: UAD(ACRC), China Team: Huifeng Hu with Lanlan Jiang, Chenfan Zhang, Lifan Han, Jinyun Zhu and Pengfei Li Photos: Lei Tantan and Zhao Qiang “It fits into its context yet has magic. The form is original and well-resolved materially and doesn’t seem to try too hard. I love how it blends in. It’s the clear winner.”— Siamak Hariri Establishing a modern-day cultural landmark in an area of an ancient city packed with traditional small-scale dwellings takes a particularly sensitive execution — and it’s one that Hangzhou firm UAD(ACRC) has pulled off with aplomb with the Xu Wei Art Museum and Green Vine Square. Located in centuries-old Shaoxing, in China’s eastern province of Zhejiang, the new community art space…

Project: Grow Location: Calgary, Canada Firm: Modern Office of Design + Architecture (MODA), Calgary, Canada Team: Dustin Couzens and Ben Klumper (MODA); Rod Olson (YYC Growers) Photos: Ema Peter “This is a smart project that blends nature into the building to form a harmonious unity.”— Ma Yansong The seeds for Grow were planted with intention. Before it even began sketching its marvelous residential building — which offers a variety of housing types in order to nurture a diverse demographic, from one-bedroom flats to two-storey townhomes — Calgary architecture firm MODA discussed with the client inventive approaches to social, cultural and environmental sustainability. These three goals coalesced in ingenious ways throughout the project, a result of both the firm’s clear vision and its enthusiasm for responding to the challenges and possibilities…

Project: A Floating Forest: Fish Tail Park in Nanchang City Location: Nanchang, China Firm: Turenscape, Beijing, China Team: Kongjian Yu with Hongqian Yu, Yuan Fang, Hui Tong, Jianmin Jia, Dezhou Wang, Haixu Wang, Xuanying Wen and Lingxue Chen (Turenscape); Rui Wang, Minghui Ban, Yunying Chen, Chao Zhang, Jiahao Liu, Xiaoming Wang, Fan Zhang, Jingri Jiang, Fumin Yu, Wei Zhang, Rao Chen, Ang Lu and Songtao Huang The field of landscape architecture faces a growing responsibility to address climate change. According to Turenscape, such a daunting challenge should also be considered a major opportunity to create positive, uplifting transformation. That is where Fish Tail Park, the firm’s astonishing achievement in China’s Nanchang City, truly shines. In a region that has dealt with increasingly destructive monsoon seasons, the 51-hectare landscape signifies the…

Project: Anima Designers: Davide Groppi (Piacenza, Italy) and Giorgio Rava (Como, Italy) Manufacturer: Davide Groppi, Piacenza, Italy “This very poetic lamp really represents the ultimate idea of light, which is ethereal and invisible. It celebrates in a very romantic way the dematerialization of the hardware and the light output.” — Gabriele Chiave The absence and essence of light: Anima is as minimalist a light fixture as they come, focusing more on the phenomenology of light than the solidity of the fixture. Davide Groppi describes his slender lamp’s aesthetic as poised between Scandinavian and Japanese design — “two apparently distant cultures that are actually very close.” With a thin metal open circle at its top — “almost a hook for fishermen of the soul” — the piece features a carbon-fibre stem…

Project: Glyph Terracotta Tiles Collection Designer: Marie Guyodo, Berlin, Germany Manufacturer: Cosmographies, Berlin, Germany “I love the graphic approach to the design, which still has a strong connection to the handmade process of ceramic.”— Garth Roberts Marie Guyodo conceptualized her Glyph tile collection to be a new design language — and what a beautiful language it is. Informed by her work in the fashion industry and as a textile artist, the hand-hewn terracotta tiles demonstrate both an affinity for storytelling through design and a slow-approach philosophy that favours consciousness over mindless mass production. Made to order in the Portuguese region known for its artisanal Azulejos tilework, the series wonderfully communicates how clay’s natural allure is enhanced through the application of heat and the human hand; imperfections translate into poetic characteristics,…

Project: Peggy’s Cove Infrastructure Improvement Strategy Location: Peggy’s Cove, Canada Firm: Omar Gandhi Architect, Toronto and Halifax, Canada Team: Omar Gandhi with Jordan Rice, Kelly Cameron, Kaitlin Wierstra, Jeff Shaw, Justin Cormier, Chad Jamieson and Kristi MacDonald (Omar Gandhi Architect); Harbourside Engineering; Englobe; Trim Landscaping; EDM Planning Services; Thompson Conn Limited; Gemtech Consulting Engineers & Scientists; Tate Engineering; Boreas Heritage; Greytop Construction and CBCL Engineering Photo: Maxime Brouillet Ask architect Omar Gandhi about the driving force behind his winning infrastructure project at Nova Scotia’s Peggy’s Cove and you’ll receive a one-word answer: respect. It couldn’t be a more apt descriptor for this thoughtful intervention, which carefully considers its impact on both the landscape and its community. The project presented an exceptional challenge: how to improve the accessibility of the iconic…

• 01 ARCHITECTURE. BUILDINGS OVER 1,000 SQM Project: Qaumajuq, the Inuit Art Centre Location: Winnipeg, Canada Firms: Michael Maltzan Architecture (U.S.) with Cibinel Architects (Canada) Team: Michael Maltzan, Tim Williams, Gee-ghid Tse, Sara Jacinto, Michael Faciejew, Raffy Mardirossian, Paul Morel, Niel Prunier, Andrew Smith-Rasmussen and Casey Benito (Michael Maltzan Architecture); George Cibinel, Mike Robertson and Steff Beernaerts (Cibinel Architects); Guy Nordenson & Associates; Stantec; Lam Partners; Crosier Kilgour Partners; MCW/AGE Consulting Professional Engineers; Epp Siepman Engineering; WSP; HTFC Planning and Design; RJ Bartlett Engineering Photo: Lindsay Reid Los Angeles architect Michael Maltzan got inspiration for Qaumajuq — a new wing of the Winnipeg Art Gallery dedicated to Inuit work — from a trip he took to Nunavut. Maltzan’s schematic design consists of a sculpted granite facade resting on a luminous…

With the advent of work-from-home and flexible hybrid arrangements, employees returning to the office are looking to leave traditional workplace formalities behind in favour of a more relaxed setting that embraces the comforts of home. And, like the happy medium that exists between business formal and smart casual, work environments and the furnishings within them can also be designed to bridge this gap. This challenge was the impetus for Keilhauer’s new Forsi collection, conceived to meet the needs of modern meetings and recently launched at NeoCon 2022. The contract furniture heavyweight turned to its frequent collaborators at design firm EOOS to conceptualize the two-piece collection: a conference table and a chair. Forsi’s name — a portmanteau of the numbers four and six — hints at the ideal number of members…

SHAAL A study in duality by London-based studio Doshi Levien, Shaal combines residential comfort with the flexibility of modularity, and a sense of weightlessness with generous volumes. Six core elements can create angular or linear two-or three-seat compositions, each framed in a rigid panel that supports the supple cushions. A range of leathers and textiles is offered for the hard and soft segments; the removable upholstery can be replaced to extend the life of the sofa, and all components are recyclable. arper.com ONDULÉ Riffing on the undulating form of corrugated facades, Swedish designer Anton Bjorsing used vertical wood rods to frame the light grey or anthracite felt-upholstered backs and sides of his Ondule collection. Two back heights are available for the two-and three-seater versions, which can be arranged with a…

The first thing you’ll notice when you receive your Narwal T10 is how it blends right into your modern home. The all-white design of both the robot and its base station is perfect for minimalist interiors. The next thing you’ll notice is how easy it is to set up, how quietly it does its job and how efficiently it performs. Just plug in the base station, leaving two feet of space on either side and five feet in front, turn on the robot, recall it to the base station and begin mapping. That’s where the magic starts: In mapping mode, the robot will zoom along the contours of the room so that, when it comes time to clean, it can follow the same outline. After it vacuums the perimeters, T10…

Project: Shape Tomorrow Location: Berlin, Germany Firm: HWKN, New York, U.S. Team: Matthias Hollwich with Dorin Baul, Jessica Knobloch, Robert May and Olga Snowden Photo: Marco van Oel “Shape Tomorrow conveys a difficult thing for most people to understand about occupant empathy and abstract concepts like space and building types. It’s a great piece that’s interactive on a number of levels.”— Primo Orpilla “Honey, I shrunk the architecture.” For its wonderfully whimsical exhibition at Berlin’s Aedes Architecture Forum, New York design firm HWKN presented a metropolis in miniature, using nine five-metre-high towers to depict a range of different building typologies. Several of these bore passing resemblance to past HWKN projects, such as New York’s 25 Kent and Munich’s Die Macherei. Each of the downsized buildings was given a human name…

Project: Take-Out Designer: Rodrigo Torres, Milan, Italy Manufacturer: Landscape Forms, Kalamazoo, U.S. With a minimal form that packs a massive punch, Take-Out upgrades the conventional picnic table to one that is dynamic, adaptable and accessible to all — not to mention extremely goodlooking. Devised by Milan-based Colombian designer Rodrigo Torres to be a “toolbox for tailoring togetherness,” the collection of outdoor connected-seat tables encourages all different types of gatherings — from intimate one-on-ones to boisterous social affairs — and enhances the enjoyment of public spaces through thoughtful details and robust versatility. Recognizing that how people sit in relation to one another can impact emotional connection, the comprehensive series includes five silhouettes (single-, double-and triple-seaters, as well as wheelchair-accessible left-and right-hand triples) that can be freely positioned, depending on the nature…

Project: Mycelium — Bay Street Bridge Location: Toronto, Canada Firms: GPI Design (Cleveland, U.S.) and WilkinsonEyre (London, U.K.) with Adamson Associates, Hines, Ivanhoé Cambridge (Montreal, Canada) and EllisDon (Toronto, Canada) Team: Thomas Lawrence, Fallon Korinko and Mitch Polly (GPI Design) with Nicholas Baier Photo: Sierra Curtis Photography Many North American cities could stand to see some more public art, especially in their busy downtown cores. In Toronto, a bridge that connects three distinct destinations — a major sports and entertainment venue (Scotiabank Arena), a critical transit node (Union Station) and a state-of-the-art corporate complex (CIBC Square) — is one of its most frequented passages. Used by office workers, condo dwellers and long-distance travellers, its design is an opportunity to both set the stage for arrivals to Toronto and brighten locals’…

Project: Bethesda Medical Center Location: Cap-Haïtien, Haiti Firm: August Green, Phoenix, U.S. Team: Kyle MertensMeyer with Matthew Shields, Zoia Pushkova and Yingnan Ting (August Green); Ryan Eley (RWE Builds); Kos Komorowski, Ana Kuznietsova and Yurii Muzyka (Kaleidoskope) Rendering: Kaleidoskope For over 60 years, Bethesda Medical Center has provided Haitians with critical services, treating HIV and TB and delivering pre-and post-natal care and family medicine. But in recent years, it has outgrown its campus. That’s when the Bethesda team invited Phoenix, Arizona, design studio August Green to meet with them on the ground to envision a new site — to serve both the city centre of Cap-Haïtien and the rural areas surrounding it — as well as a new future for the medical institution. Together, they are planning a completely self-sustaining…

Project: Tintagel Castle Footbridge Location: Cornwall, U.K. Firms: Ney & Partners (Brussels, Belgium) and William Matthews Associates (London, U.K.) Team: Laurent Ney and Matthieu Mallié (Ney & Partners) and William Matthews (William Matthews Associates) with Nicholas Pearson Associates, Ramboll and Faithful+Gould Photo: David Levene “The project delights in its minimal profile. It is very poetic and appropriately transparent (it does not overwhelm its context), and it conjures the same sort of magical intrigue as the site’s mythical associations.”— Drew Sinclair This one’s for the lovers of Arthurian legend. As the story goes, King Arthur was conceived on the British island of Tintagel, the site of a fortress dating back to medieval times. In honour of that lore, Richard, Earl of Cornwall, built an actual castle on the spot in the…

Project: House of Dreams Location: Zhoushan Village, China Firm: Insitu Project, Hong Kong Team: Kuo Jze Yi and Peter Hasdell (Insitu Project), Liang Jun (Zhoushan Community Group) and Ku Hok Bun (APSS) with Yi Rong Liang, Zhou Hai Shan, Chen Guo Bin, Zhou Bao Liang, Wang Zhen Shan, Wang Zhong Shuan, Wang Jin Ping, Zhou Yin Mu, Wang Dong Biao and Sun Huan Ling (building team); Feng Rui Fen, Wu Huai Zhen, Jing Qiu Feng and Hao Yu Zhi (management); Zhou Xi Chuan, Jing Xiu Fang and Zhou Xi En (community association); Yi Fang, Zhou Zi Yun and Zhoushan Village Party Branch Committee & Zhoushan Village Committee (material donation); Evelyna Liang Yi Hu (interior decoration); Wu Jun Ping, Keita Tajima, Tan Min, Li Dong Min, Aubrey Au and Chelsea Chan…

Systems 1 Bespoke Kitchens Each custom-made kitchen by Danish design brand Garde Hvalsøe is an expression of quality craftmanship, thoughtful functionality and material appreciation, as evidenced by the handcrafted island shown, with its finger-jointed drawer fronts and chamfered drawer sides. Materials Shown: Dinesen HeartOak, raw steel Manufacturer Garde Hvalsøe, gardehvalsoe.dk 2 Tivalì 2.0 The original 2004 built-in kitchen by Dante Bonuccelli has been updated by Canadian firm Yabu Pushelberg. With theatrical flair, two concertina folding doors open to reveal the “scenographic” interior, which features curved worktops, a sloping terminal base and stage wing–like shelving. Materials Aluminum, stone or marble Manufacturer Dada, dada-kitchens.com 3 Visible-Invisible Optimizing available space, this highly detailed Canadian-made kitchen can conceal appliances, storage units and other tools behind customizable door panels, transforming it into the seamless extension…

While we’ve grown used to hyperlinks that hurtle us to different corners of the Internet, teleporting too abruptly between virtual realities can cause digital whiplash. “When your body is inside the medium, you need an anchor that makes sense of how you suddenly shift to a completely different environment,” explains Fredrik Hellberg, who co-founded London-based practice Space Popular with Lara Lesmes. And while technology may limit how sophisticated these digital transfer stations can currently be, that hasn’t stopped Hellberg and Lesmes from bringing their early conceptual explorations to London’s Sir John Soane’s Museum. “Space Popular: The Portal Galleries,” which runs through September 25th, hosts a mix of digital and physical displays that consider how portals have evolved in relationship to media and tech. Apart from the show’s two immersive films,…

At first glance, metal shelving might seem like a surprise coming from Milan’s Formafantasma, which is perhaps best known for its earthy experiments with natural materials. But co-founders Andrea Trimarchi and Simone Farresin are also two of the industry’s biggest bookworms, priding themselves on a research-based approach that often leads to designs accompanied by rich bibliographies. And in the case of T Shelf, there’s a lot more to the design than just its shiny cover. Formafantasma’s commitment to deep investigation was precisely what led Stockholm brand Hem to first approach the studio with an open brief back in 2017. “They weren’t coming only for the aesthetic of our product but for our way of thinking,” says Trimarchi. After identifying shelving as a subject worthy of further study, Formafantasma hit the…

When the 250-year-old glass-making factory at the heart of Meisenthal, a village in Northeastern France, closed its doors in 1969, it didn’t stay empty for long. Local creatives soon moved in, claiming parts of the one-hectare complex — which had first risen to fame for its collaborations with art nouveau innovator Émile Gallé — for a mix of formal and informal uses. Before long, they had repurposed areas for a glass museum, a cultural space known to host the occasional rock concert, and the Centre International d’Art Verrier (CIAV), which is dedicated to promoting the region’s historic skills in France and abroad. Fast-forward to 2014, and the architects at New York’s SO – IL won a competition to unify these many disparate uses and create additional visitor facilities. Deeming the…

In the late 1990s, while taking a summer program at the Harvard Graduate School of Design intended to help students refine their ideas and build a strong portfolio before applying to architecture school, David Schwarz had a revelation of sorts: Maybe he didn’t actually want to become an architect after all. Though he still loved buildings, his interests had begun to drift away from the analog aspects of the industry. “By 1999, I had moved to San Francisco, and I got swept away in the digital design revolution,” he says. At the time, tech start-ups were thundering onto the global stage. In late 2006, recognizing parallels between the two worlds, Schwarz and co-founder Erik Karasyk launched HUSH, a Brooklyn-based experience design agency that excels at translating a company’s overall mission…

STEELCASE FLEX PERSONAL SPACES Working together, these curved privacy wraps and specially shaped desks carve out a cocoon-like area for focused work, video calls or quiet conversations. Tufting details on the canopy give it a tailored look, while a portfolio of accessories (hooks, nameplates, integrated lighting, modesty panels, freestanding screens and pin-tackable surfaces) allows for diverse set-ups. steelcase.com TULSI Indigenous Nepalese lokta paper creates the spiral-like motif of the new Tulsi pattern available for 3form’s Varia panels. Handmade by Himalayan artists, the textural material is piped across the screen in unique layers that vary between levels of translucency, taking on the depth of each of the three colourways available — Amber, Pistachio and Obsidian (a transparent option, Pure, is also offered). The panels come in two sizes and five gauges,…

Read more about the 24 winners and 46 Awards of Merit at awards.azuremagazine.com The 12th annual AZ Awards program reaffirms our commitment to honouring the best design across the major disciplines. We once again invited 10 brilliant, internationally renowned practitioners to jury over 1,000 submissions that came in from around the globe. We also increased the number of categories that recognize excellence in the urban realm. With tremendous gratitude, we raise a glass to our remarkable jurors, who thoughtfully selected the 24 AZ Awards winners. These projects represent the best in design and architecture, innovating new approaches to sustainability, inclusivity and equity, and simply making the world more beautiful. GABRIELE CHIAVE The creative director at Marcel Wanders’s studio, where he oversees all projects for such renowned brands as Kartell, Poliform,…

Project: OG House Location: Halifax, Canada Firm: Omar Gandhi Architect, Halifax and Toronto, Canada Team: Omar Gandhi with Jordan Rice (Omar Gandhi Architect); Andrea Doncaster (Andrea Doncaster Engineering); Devin Harper (Hewn + Barter); Mike Burns (MRB Contracting) Photos: Doublespace and Ema Peter “There are great moments and details in this coherent whole.”— Siamak Hariri Omar Gandhi has created his own dream home while paying homage to the city around it. Embracing a skinny but deep 242-square-metre lot, he has inserted his house into the fabric of North Halifax, the common-bond brick pattern of its podium a reference to older buildings in the area, its upper cedar veil already patinated by the elements. The entrance to both the home and Gandhi’s studio (he practises in Halifax and Toronto) is through the…

Project: The Mercury Store – Timber Adaptive Reuse Theater Location: Brooklyn, U.S. Firm: CO Adaptive Architecture, Brooklyn, U.S. Team: Robert Johnston and Ruth Mandl with Leon Frazier and Sam Bowstead (CO Adaptive Architecture); Brian Barkovitz, Alex Schwartz and Jason Driggs (ABS Engineering); Nathanial Bergan (A Degree of Freedom Structural Engineers); Bruno Cardenas (Charcoal Blue); JP Bedell (SDA Lighting); Jenny Uchida (Two Twelve); Arthur Pearsall (Yorke Construction) Photo: Naho Kubota When it came to repurposing a 1,180-square-metre building in Brooklyn’s Gowanus Canal district to create The Mercury Store, a performing arts theatre and rehearsal space, CO Adaptive Architecture had some tough acts to follow. The heavy-industrial site originally served as a metal foundry before being converted into a warehouse and, more recently, a series of art studios and offices. The design…

Project: Stackabl Designer: Jeffrey Forrest, Toronto, Canada Team: Benoist F. Drut (Maison Gerard); William Harford (WEH Software); Devansh Shah (Stackabl); James Munroe (OAAT); Roger Wall (FilzFelt); Randy Simmen (Visual Elements); Tom Shoan (Sutherland Felt) and Daniel Blenich (A&D Woodturning) Manufacturer: Stacklab, Toronto, Canada Photo: Sean McBride A product developed to make use of existing material offcuts may not initially seem like it would allow for a high degree of customizability — but therein lies the genius of the “wasteto-wonders” Stackabl system. Powered by specially designed software, Stackabl’s digital configurator taps into regional manufacturers’ inventories in real time to present a wide range of design options based on leftover material. Using this interface, a customer can tweak the proportions, colours and details of a piece of furniture to their personal preferences,…

Project: Quest Designer: Jane Marks-Yewdall, Mirfield, U.K. Manufacturer: Camira, Mirfield, U.K. “An amazing project that transforms waste from land and oceans into a beautiful textile collection for multiple uses, with colourways and textures playing a role connected to the concept.”— Gabriele Chiave Made entirely from recycled plastic waste — recovered from oceans and beaches and sourced from post-consumer bottles redirected from landfill — this multi-use textile boasts some serious eco-conscious cred wrapped in an understated yet striking aesthetic. Camira’s second collaboration with Seaqual Initiative, an organization dedicated to combatting marine litter, Quest was created as a complement to the Oceanic textile: Whereas the chunky Oceanic is suitable only for seating, Quest can also be used for vertical panel and acoustic installations. A direct response to the 12 million tonnes of…

Project: Mirvish Village Location: Toronto, Canada Firms: Henriquez Partners Architects (Vancouver, Canada) with Diamond Schmitt Architects (Architects of Record, Toronto, Canada) Team: Gregory Henriquez with Shawn Lapointe (Henriquez Partners Architects); Donald Schmitt (Diamond Schmitt Architects); Benjamin Hoff (Urban Strategies); Michael McClelland (ERA Architects); Jennifer Nagai (PFS Studio); Geoffrey Glotman (Glotman Simpson); Steven Nemetz (Nemetz & Associates); Ian Gillespie (Westbank Corp) Rendering: Courtesy Westbank Honest Ed’s, a beloved discount store that anchored Toronto’s Mirvish Village neighbourhood for almost seven decades, was known for its eclecticism, which was expressed in both its wild marquee signage and its diverse product assortment. Impressively, the planning strategy for the building’s successor promises to maintain that trademark spirit of dynamic variety. As part of Mirvish Village’s visionary redevelopment, Honest Ed’s will be replaced not by a…

Project: Bethesda Medical Center Location: Cap-Haïtien, Haiti Firm: August Green, Phoenix, U.S. Team: Kyle MertensMeyer with Matthew Shields, Zoia Pushkova and Yingnan Ting (August Green); Ryan Eley (RWE Builds); Kos Komorowski, Ana Kuznietsova and Yurii Muzyka (Kaleidoskope) Rendering: Kaleidoskope Not only is the vision for the new Bethesda Medical Center a winner for its conceptual design, it’s also an exemplar of a strong sustainable ethos. The team at August Green approached the site — in Cap-Haïtien, Haiti — as a series of systems: ecologies, buildings, hardscapes, stormwater landscapes, power grids, waste treatment and freshwater delivery. In so doing, they have imagined a truly self-sufficient campus, one that generates all its own energy, water and even food. The entire place runs on solar energy (aside from a backup emergency generator) and…

Solid Surfacing 1 Ethereal Noctis Subtle veining gives Silestone’s latest pattern a nuanced texture. Boasting high scratch-and stain-resistance, each slab includes recycled materials in its composition and re-uses water during production. Choose from polished or suede textures and three thicknesses. cosentino.com 2 Light Haze Durasein softens classic Calacatta veining to create an evocative pattern with a dreamy, cloud-like quality. Ready to hold their own against scratches, stains and heat, slabs are stocked in a sheet size of 76.2 by 365.8 centimetres with a thickness of 1.3 centimetres. durasein.com 3 Bianco Giulia Lapitec expands its line of silica-free surfaces with a new addition to its Musa collection. Featuring dramatic grey veining, Bianco Giulia is offered in three different finishes: shine-free Matte, soft Satin and polished Lux. Large-format slabs are available in…