Set within a historic industrial building in downtown Toronto, this new loft apartment from architectural practice Susa Space blends contemporary forms and materials with a playful nod to the space’s heritage. The Candy Factory Lofts started life as a textile mill, built at the turn of the last century.

Ultimately, the building became a confectionery factory, amongst other uses, before becoming one of the first large-scale reuse projects in the city on the crest of the initial wave of loft conversions back in the 1990s.

The conversion retains more than just a memory of these former uses, with intentional layers of reference to the past. Most notably, this includes a series of prominent curved features, directly inspired by the conveyor belts that once carried an array of sweets and chocolates through the manufacturing process.

As the architects note, the site itself has a history that predates the era of manufacturing and labour. ‘Beneath this industrial narrative lies an older geography: the Carrying Place, an Indigenous trade route used by the Wendat, Seneca, and Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation, whose presence continues to inform the land,’ they write.

The new apartment blends dynamic contemporary elements with restored and retained features, most notably the timber columns, metal detailing and stonework. Many of these are heritage listed, so the curving divisions that form the layout and programme of the loft are threaded through them without impacting on their position or completely subdividing it into conventional rooms.

This was also a response to the client’s request for flowing open space, alongside a requirement for plenty of storage. To cater for this, large bespoke cupboard units, finished in light timber, are set alongside the original beams. ‘The design responds through a strategy of careful revelation rather than replacement,’ say the architects.

The flowing curved ‘armature’ structure that references the production line is a multi-functional element, serving not as a conventional wall, but as a ‘piece of domestic infrastructure.’

Described by the architects as a sculptural spine, the component integrates the key functionality of the apartment, including the kitchen, laundry, and pantry, as well as a fold-out bed and storage areas. ‘By consolidating utility into one element, the remainder of the loft is freed for light, movement, and flexible use,’ they say.

Other materials were chosen to make a deliberate contrast with the raw and worn industrial character of the original building. They include Travertine marble for the stone-wrapped bathroom and white oak for the flooring and cupboards.

Where one material meets another, the thresholds have been carefully delineated to define each individual space. In addition, the client’s collection of artworks has been given precise and exacting locations to further refine the sense of a journey through the space.

SUSA Space was established by Sara and Suzan Ibrahim, Swedish-Canadian-Iraqi architects who work between Toronto, Paris, and Malmö. This project brings together the studio’s interest in reinvention, cultural memory and historic context, finding serenity in detail and place.

SUSAspace.com, @SUSAspace

Toronto’s CN Tower has been one of the Canadian city’s most notable landmarks since its opening in 1976. Initially conceived by WZMH Architects, the building stretches up, dominating the skyline at 553.3m tall. Now, the freestanding tower has unveiled its new Lower Observation Level, offering a fresh, ‘treetop’ experience in the heart of the city.

Step inside CN Tower’s new Lower Observation Level

The renovation was led by construction company Boszko & Verity and executed in collaboration with Canadian architecture firm Superkül. It marks the first extensive renovation to the Lower Observation Level since the CN Tower opened in 1976

Tree canopies and Canadian geography were the inspiration for the new Lower Observation Level interior. The movement and organic make-up of tree branches moving in the wind, rocky surfaces, and the rippling of water were subtly referenced in the design.

The renovation was no easy task for the firm and the wider team. Say the Superkül team: ‘We were challenged to execute a major logistical feat: create more indoor space within the Lower Observation Level’s existing footprint while working 1,200 feet up in the sky. The renovation saw us hoist up a new four-storey permanent maintenance gantry and attach it to the exterior of the Tower’s uppermost observation level.’

The new observation level includes fresh vertical glazing and a replacement of the glass floor. Along with updating the interior floor space and the exterior observation deck, the ultimate goal was to enhance the visitor experience. This was done by adding more steeply angled glass, for the brave, to lean over and observe the views below.

Those perhaps a bit more wary of heights can look up, instead, to admire the sculptural oak-laminated, modular ceiling. There’s a 40ft-long floor-to-ceiling immersive video wall titled ‘Artmosphere’ and two panoramic screens. This audio-visual element includes holosonic and satellite speakers to provide smooth acoustics. Here, visitors can enjoy original works by Canadian and Indigenous artists from across the country.

The tower is inclusive, accessible and immersive, delivering intriguing spectacles, whether that be the unfolding city below, or the video productions, placing the CN Tower firmly as a monument to Canadian life and ambition.

cntower.ca
superkul.ca

The organisers of independent design festival DesignTO could not have predicted that Toronto’s heaviest daily snowfall on record would coincide with the opening weekend of its 2026 edition. Held in the immediate aftermath of the more commercial trade fair IDS Toronto, the festival takes place in the depths of winter – when conditions are at their least hospitable – but Canadians, as we know, are a hardy bunch and, undeterred by freezing temperatures, headed out onto the streets to seek out the best of independent Canadian design. This year, Wallpaper* joined them.

With a programme of workshops, talks, exhibitions and window installations scattered across the city, a car proved essential to covering ground – and cover ground we did. What follows is a selection of highlights.

Pot-au-feu by Ensemble at The Plumb

The strongest showcase of homegrown design came courtesy of Quebec collective Ensemble and its group exhibition Pot-au-feu. Hosted by art space The Plum, the show is the third in an ongoing series bringing together emerging and established designers hailing from, or working in, Quebec, underlining the collective’s role as a conduit for new talent.

Spread across the basement space, which the team reimagined with clever scenography using stretched nylon and wood veneer panels, works included riveted rubber upholstery, shelving and lamps by Atelier Fomenta; stools upholstered in psychedelic corduroy by Sangaré Studio; and some new independent work by Alex Joncas, co-founder of Montreal lighting brand D’armes. Called 'Sorry for your loss' the lighting series features diffusers made from blown-glass offcuts cradled within bronze frames that resemble thorny brambles.

'It's a pretty small and tight-knit creative community in Montreal,' explained the show's curator Anaïe Dufresne of Studio Jeta. 'Everyone included here is a friend, or a friend we’ve made along the way, so the curation feels very natural.'

All Light at Gallery 1065

A ten-minute drive south of The Plumb, at Gallery 1065 in Toronto’s Bloorcourt neighbourhood, was All Light, a show featuring 15 Ontario-based artists and lighting designers. Designer Kate Tessier (Kilowatt Kate) –who curated the exhibition alongside Common Good Studio– told Wallpaper* that the Canadian maker movement is ‘one of experimentation and audacity’. Among the highlights was 'Gathering Light', a wall lamp created by textile artist Khadija Aziz in collaboration with Tessier, made from structured linen intricately hand-stitched to create a softly glowing surface.

Tape at 8 × 7 

Toronto designer, and Wallpaper* regular, Jamie Wolfond opened up his studio and workshop for a special tour, while his adjoining gallery space, 8×7, hosted a studio-curated exhibition titled Tape, which saw nine designers experiment with the ubiquitous material. Pieces included a stained-glass lamp by Copenhagen-based Canadian designer Persia Mckinney Duncan held together with duct tape instead of solder, a kite by Dutch designer Bertjan Pot, and a series of colour studies made using washi tape by Rotterdam-based Earnest Studio.

Slow Furniture at Craft Ontario

At Craft Ontario, housed within the city’s warren-like 401 Richmond building, Eastern Ontario furniture maker Heidi Earnshaw presented an immaculately detailed collection of wooden furniture and cabinetry, recalling Japanese and Scandinavian joinery traditions.

Norm at Mjölk

Continuing this Scandinavian-Japanese thread, Danish firm Norm Architects showcased a selection of their work at Toronto design showroom Mjölk, where a Saturday talk by Norm partner Frederik Werner drew such a crowd that attendees spilled out onto the pavement. Presented in partnership with the studio’s collaborators, Japanese furniture brand Karimoku, the furniture and objects on show reflected Norm’s signature ‘soft minimalism’, with an emphasis on craft and natural materials, including carved wood, thrown stoneware and carved stone.

Ace Hotel

In the Garment District, the Shim-Sutcliffe Architects-designed Ace Hotel Toronto joined in the fun with a sultry duo of DesignTO events. The first was an exhibition by architect Quan Thai, TO.BE.LONGING: portraits of queer living, which explored ideas of home and identity.

Installed within one of the hotel’s suites, redesigned by Thai using sheer curtains to redefine public and private space, the exhibition was furnished with everyday objects collected from queer communities across North America. In doing so, the exhibition positioned the hotel suite as a flexible domestic setting – a more intimate experience – shaped by adaptation and chosen family, rather than by fixed or normative ideas of home.

In the hotel’s event space, Wallpaper* Design Award-winning design substack For Scale injected a note of mischief with a nude life-drawing class featuring design classics. The sold-out event saw aspiring artists sketch male model William Miguel striking poses across various iconic furniture pieces – including a 1970s modular sofa manufactured by Overman of Sweden and a 1960s Platner lounge chair for Knoll – supplied by Toronto collectible design store In Corso.

The class served as a playful exploration of the parallels between the human body and the ergonomics, curves and proportions of modern furniture – putting the body back at the centre of objects so often discussed in abstract terms. Or in the words of For Scale founder, David Michon: 'This was really a psychological experiment. BODY AND CHAIR! WILLIAM M. gave us his exceptional poses, but then individual SKETCHERS decided for themselves WHAT was interesting about the BODY-CHAIR CONNECTION.'

Pressing Matters

We also enjoyed Pressing Matters, the debut exhibition from a collective of recent graduates, which emerged from a shared brief exploring compression-defined forms. Pieces included the 'Lila' lamp by Kai Luk Laughton made from spun thermoformed plastic; Mary-Beth Scully’s 'Bound' lamp made from washi paper using a process inspired by traditional bookbinding; and chairs made from bent plywood and reclaimed springs by Patrice Temush.

Tactil by Futil Studio

DesignTO listings also included window displays, ensuring the festival was accessible beyond gallery walls. One standout was Tactil by Montreal-based artist and designer Alexandre Berthiaume of Futil Studio. The four lighting pieces are produced using large-format 3D printing to generate their complex, biomorphic forms, before being finished with a thick layer of scagliola – a 17th-century Italian technique for creating imitation marble, stone and alabaster. Made from plaster, glue and natural pigments, Berthiaume has spent 18 months refining his own recipe to suit local materials and contemporary production methods.

Across the programme, exhibitors and curators noted that amid growing political tension internationally and across the border, there has been a renewed enthusiasm for Canadian design, and for Toronto as a city capable of generating its own energy, programming and community, without seeking validation from traditional design centres such as New York, Milan or Copenhagen.

‘I want to establish that Toronto is enough, you know?’ said Jamie Wolfond at his studio space. ‘The turnout was huge, people were excited – it feels like a really good year for design week.’

DesignTO runs until 1 February, 2026 designto.org

This may be North of Brooklyn Pizzeria’s eighth Toronto location, but it is arguably its slickest yet. Set in the city’s western district of Etobicoke, the venue has a spatial complexity that elevates this much-loved hotspot for New York-style slices.

North of Brooklyn Queensway, Toronto

The new outpost is designed by MRDK – the Montreal studio behind several of Toronto’s most distinctive restaurant interiors, including North of Brooklyn’s Avenue Road outpost – and guests enter beneath a lightbox to find a crisp white takeout area. Bathed in natural light, the space is wrapped in Dtile moulded tiles, creating a continuous surface that runs from wall to ceiling.

Upstairs, the room takes cues from nostalgic Italian design but pushes it towards a more contemporary edge, centred around a low-rise bar clad in tumbled-marble mosaic with a zinc countertop. Above it, a fluted pendant by In Common With casts a warm wash of light.

The 40-seat dining room is defined by a sensual and intimate colour palette of dark wood, green and red. ‘To maximise natural light, we cut new windows into the side façade, aligning them with walnut dining tables that cantilever from the walls and nest within the niches,’ MRDK explains. Each table is paired with a version of Joe Colombo’s ‘Tube’ chair.

North of Brooklyn Pizzeria Queensway is located at 1180 The Queensway, Etobicoke, ON M8Z 1R5, Canada.

An ice cream craving is always latent, waiting for its cue. In Britain, it's roused by the toy-like chime of vans drifting through suburban streets – fairgrounds on wheels, plastered with cartoon cones and sun-bleached decals. The visual identity is maximalist and celebratory, yet the product itself remains restrained: the archetypal 99, a neat swirl of soft-serve crowned with the simplicity of a Cadbury Flake. It's at once both impulsive, yet ritualised.

In contrast, Italy could not be more different. Gelato is a passeggiata companion, its flavours artisanal and refined: pistachio, nocciola, stracciatella, amarena. Counters stretch wide, vitrines gleam, and pozzetti lids conceal the craft beneath polished steel. Each portion is shaped with a flat paddle rather than scooped: a fleeting moment of theatre, as opposed to a mere transaction.

The context of ice cream has always been inseparable from the experience of eating it: a mirror of history and culture. In Turkey, dondurma is dense and elastic, sold from brass-trimmed carts where fez-wearing vendors tease customers in playful routines. In India, kulfi is pulled from conical moulds at vividly painted stalls. In Mexico, tiled paleterías brim with rainbow ices and fruit sorbets dusted with chilli or chamoy.

Each country has long held to its aesthetic codes. But in recent summers, a new wave of parlours has emerged. Here, architects and designers approach ice cream as stagecraft, creating experimental environments that are as sensorial and inventive as the flavours themselves.

The evolution of the ice cream parlour

In Odessa, Tanu (‘Таю’ is Ukrainian for ‘I’m melting’) reframes the ice cream shop as a space of grown-up composure. Sivak+Partners resisted the usual pastel kitsch, instead wrapping the interior in undulating stainless-steel panels that ebb and flow like frozen liquid. What might have felt sterile was softened through finish: ‘Thanks to its matte, worn texture, the metal ended up resembling velvet or fabric on the walls,’ says studio founder Dmytro Sivak.

‘There’s no loud, boisterous music or children’s birthday-party vibe,’ Sivak adds. ‘Rather, it offers a calm and pleasant weekend serenity.’ This is a parlour where ice cream is contextualised as an adult ritual, not a sugar rush.

In a similar vein, El Equipo Creativo aimed to create something more grown-up for the design of Barcelona’s Gelato Collection by Spanish chef Albert Adrià. ‘We wanted a space that offered more than just ice cream, where each flavour would be presented as a collectable jewel,’ shares Natali Canas Del Pozo, co-founder and creative director of the studio, which borrowed aesthetics from perfumeries and jewellery stores for the project. The centrepiece is undoubtedly a glass display case designed like a block of ice.

Walls are lined with champagne-toned porcelain tiles, a material choice that echoes the creaminess of gelato. Overhead, octagonal glass light fixtures emit a cool glow. The entire design slows consumption: you don’t grab and go, you approach the counter as though entering a gallery. Adrià’s numbered, ever-changing flavours – recent ones include ‘balsamic candy,’ ‘hibiscus margarita’ and ‘mango green curry’ – are almost treated like precious stones.

Nearby, Amiko Gelato (also in Barcelona) takes a more exuberant, lush and playful approach. Masquespacio pushed Miami Art Deco into the future with pastel geometries, sculptural seating and a shifting play of light. Tropical greenery floods the room, set against ceramics, microcement and metal, creating a deliberate clash between nature and industry. ‘Organic forms and sculptural elements, directly inspired by ice cream, are seamlessly integrated into both the furniture and décor,’ explains Borja Sánchez Marín, product designer at the studio. The effect is lushly immersive, a sensorial oasis rather than a pit stop, sitting at the intersection of juvenile and mature.

Similarly, at The Dreamery in London, ice cream is recast as part of a longer, more indulgent ritual, while ensuring an immersive element: you stay for a glass of wine, under a ceiling mural that dissolves into infinity. English artist Lucy Stein created a canopy of folkloric creatures painted on unryu rice paper, backlit and reflected by three mirrored walls. The result is an enveloping dreamscape that makes time feel suspended.

The material palette – cement-coloured tiles, stainless steel bar, vintage Brutalist sconces by Marino Poccetti – sets a restrained stage, allowing the ceiling to dominate. ‘We wanted somewhere comfortable and playfully innocent,’ co-founder Alex Young says, ‘a retreat of sorts from cynicism and seriousness.’ Traditional English sweetshops informed the design, but nostalgia is filtered through sophistication.

Elsewhere, designers are looking at the past to inform the future of the ice cream parlour, while tuning it into a creative adult ritual. Scooped by Demetres at Square One in Toronto plays with cinematic artifice. ‘We were inspired by the simple, pared-down sets of 1940s and ‘50s films like The Gang’s All Here and An American in Paris, which used design elements like half-height partitions and gestural, line-painted backdrops that disrupt the vastness of the studio sets and ask the audience to use their imagination,’ explains Kfir Gluzberg, founder and principal at Kilogram Studio.

Fluted glass clad with mirrored film refracts light and movement, while perforated steel panels, lacquered with a soft pink automotive finish, shimmer under changing light. This choreography is deliberate: with no colourful tubs on display, attention shifts to the reveal of the scoop itself. ‘The lack of one clear focal point and the monochromatic palette draw heightened focus on the moment the ice cream is revealed,’ the architect notes.

Meanwhile, Gelato Messina’s Sydney outposts show how retro language can be sharpened into a contemporary brand identity. The Newtown site – described by Sans-Arc Studio as ‘a bit retro, a bit 1970s, but also a bit shiny’ – works with a narrow footprint, squeezing circulation around the central freezer. The architects borrowed cues from diners and mid-century gelato bars: timber panelling, a black-and-white chequered floor, and compact counter lines.

In Redfern, the diner influence is pushed further: cork wall panels and spotted gum bullnose battens hug bright orange light boxes, giving a vivid postmodern pop to the brand’s pint-sized offering. The atmosphere is cheerful yet disciplined, part retro homage, part contemporary riff. For Sans-Arc, each Messina outpost is an opportunity to evolve the brand language across multiple sites: ‘developing it over several spaces, improving and becoming more unique with time.’ Here, the parlour becomes an iterative brand experiment rather than a one-off showcase.

The new ice cream parlour occupies a threshold: between child-coded nostalgia and adult sophistication, between memory and reinvention. Designers are not erasing the kitsch traditions of the past, but translating them into new forms: velveted steel, jewel-like vitrines, dreamscape ceilings. The result is a typology redefined by tension; playful yet serious, indulgent yet reflective. Ice cream becomes both an artefact and a stage, suspended between different life stages.

And in each, the ritual itself is re-engineered. Whether through conceal-and-reveal, immersive theatre or sensory overload, ice cream is no longer a snack, but architecture’s most playful act of indulgence.

The organizers behind DesignTO (pronounced design tee-oh) are well aware the festival (this year, 24 January to 2 February) falls in the midst of Toronto’s coldest, snowiest stretch. The timing is entirely planned: January isn’t just frigid, it’s also quiet with little to do. All the more reason, they say, to inject energy and joy and community into the Canadian winter.

Now in its 15th year, the once grassroots endeavour – which started with just seven exhibitions and a lofty dream to bring Toronto’s insular studio community into the open – now has over 100 exhibitors large and small. From art displays in shop windows to panel discussions with boldfaced designers and immersive installations in top-notch studios, the festival makes the most of ten full days.

One moment you’re browsing sculptural works at a proper gallery within Yabu Pushelberg’s white-walled office, and the next, you’re eyeing painted skateboards on the wall of a local laundromat – so long as you brave the cold, you’ll find art most everywhere.

Routinely overlooked, the design scene in and around Toronto is nevertheless determined to be seen this week. Here’s a quick look at what we saw.

Best of DesignTO 2025

Recent Works – Dennis Lin Studio

At Dennis Lin’s open studio in Parkdale, the Taiwanese-Canadian artist displayed memory-laden mobiles that are particularly close to home; Lin suspends salvaged and sentimental materials, notably chunks of charcoal from a fire that levelled his former house (read: look closely to spot a charred hardback from his child’s lost library).

Ensemble

The Plumb – located down a gritty alley and beneath a nondescript building – welcomed a dynamic display of collectible design from Montreal throughout three distinct rooms. A creature-like chair by Reggy was a bright red hit, as were meticulously crafted light fixtures by JETA, casting a flattering light on Montreal’s forward-thinking scene.

Dwell

At Union Station, Canada’s busiest hub, deliberate art moments encourage viewers to stop and ponder while everyone and everything else is on the go-go-go. The star, a sweetly designed maple tête-à-tête chair by Alison Postma (on theme and accidentally on trend, given renewed interest in ‘kissing’ chairs) nods to private moments for chit-chat.

The Invisible Tide: Awakening Unseen Forces

Enveloped with fabric and surrounded by misty water, Mason Studio proved its multidisciplinary might with an immersive installation that activated all senses. Light and rhythmic soundscapes blurred the boundaries of perception while Othership led guests through briefly transformative (and borderline athletic) breathwork, and a fragrance evoking dirt and frogs completed the delightful trip.

Panel: Craig Stanghetta: Emotionally Resonant Spaces

With panels aplenty throughout the festival, one refreshing chat at the Interior Design Show with Craig Stanghetta of Ste Marie Studio (known for transportive spaces like Elio Volpe and Caffé La Tana) reflected on emotionally charged hospitality – and how Stanghetta draws inspiration from childhood, theatre, and even the late David Lynch to create authentic concepts. ‘We're not asking people to have a fully cathartic experience when you're having a whisky sour at a hotel cocktail bar,’ he joked. ‘But we do want that atmosphere to be emotionally permeated – we want it to feel like there's something behind it.’

To Hold: A Group Exhibition Curated by Yabu Pushelberg

The all-Canadian exhibition at Yabu Pushelberg’s Leslieville studio loosely mediates on how the act of holding changes an object’s meaning. Pieces from emerging artists, like a fused pile of glass vessels by Montreal’s Verre D'Onge, to higher profile works, like a flattened disposable coffee cup embellished by Toronto’s Georgia Dickie, all hold your attention with ease.

Interior Design Show

The convention-center endeavour highlighted big brands like Montreal’s Montauk Sofa and Spain’s Cosentino, while a robust section called Studio North offered space for independent designers, including a special showcase on innovative prototypes. Vases made from men’s business shirts, and a midcentury-esque side table that’s not-so-secretly a safe? Big ideas, small packages.

REVIVE

Curated by DesignTo organisers, the exhibition at Gallery 235 contemplates preservation, exploring materials and creative practices at risk of extinction in our digital, global age. Haunting the centre, a physical self-manifestation by Ghanaian-Nigerian artist Delali Cofie takes shape as a West African-inspired masquerade garment made with sentimental scraps (like bedding, or old clothing from family members).

New Narratives in Design: Salvage, Reuse, and Toronto’s Evolving Aesthetic

An exhibition on material reuse (you know the drill: repurposed bricks, beams, etc) brought curious home-reno nerds to a conscious renovation project in Little Portugal. Nicky Bruun-Meyer, the architect, walked guests through a salvage-heavy Victorian property that she’s turning into a thoughtful three-unit building – one that puts tenants well above the bottom line.

Void: Jewelry by Chu Winnie Cheung

Chu Winnie Cheung, a recent Toronto transplant, infused a series of powerful jewellery (made by pressing shredded Xuan paper and dehydrated flowers into stone-like segments and shapes) with her deeply personal, decentralising perspective. The wearable pieces at Craft Ontario critique her experience with societal oppression, Chinese centralisation, and digital overload – jewellery, elevated with self-expression.

DesignTO Talks: Net Positive

An easy excuse to see the crowd-pleasing Ace Hotel Toronto, with its dramatic suspended lobby by Toronto’s Shim-Sutcliffe Architects (complete with a temporary light installation by artist Annie Legault), the half-day panel is certainly one for the wish-list. Aligning with a core festival theme, sustainability, local experts ruminate on topics surrounding the climate crisis, from regenerative design to urban infrastructure.

DesignTO runs until 2 February 2025, designto.org

Based in Toronto, architecture and art studio Svima was founded in 2020 by Anamarija Korolj and Leon Lai, who draw inspiration from the ever-changing context of cities, and design in order to create positive symbiotic relationships - whether that be natural, built or even digital. The studio’s Passageway House - a private residence near the Danube River in Novi Sad, Serbia - showcases its aesthetic sensitivity which reflects the duo’s Eastern European and Asian heritage, and is ultimately expressed through their Canadian identity. Now, the young practice joins the Wallpaper* Architects Directory 2024.

Who: Svima

Starting the practice five years ago Korolj and Lai, looked towards nature and ecology. During our era of mass construction, the studio fine-tunes its mission by focusing on three key pillars: air, light and greenery. With this in mind, their designs draw on the blossoming biomes of Canada, while balancing a human-centric approach, ensuring that the client receives a design that provides ample access to nature. The studio's portfolio brings together a series of schemes that nod towards creating a more equitable and sustainable future.

Seeing themselves as ‘not only as designers of buildings but as stewards of human experience’, Korolj and Lai seek to unite art and architecture to ‘continuously leverage the two mediums as vehicles with a reciprocal relationship in pushing the boundaries of the visual and spatial expressions.’ The creative duo strives to implement projects with a sense of place, resilience and inclusivity, ‘reflecting the essence of what it means to be Canadian.’

What: Passageway House

Located near the banks of the Danube River, Passageway House is a calming nook off a shared courtyard, sheltered from the Novi Sad city bustle. It was designed for a couple looking to downsize and aspired to live in the historical Serbian city. The plot is quaint, positioned off a pasaž, a semi-private passageway that follows the local vernacular, and overlooking a green courtyard shared with other families. Venturing inside, the home feels fresh and crisp, with clean white walls and high ceilings that allow for an abundance of natural light and an airy feel.

The clients are enthusiastic about contemporary Japanese minimalism - nods to which have been threaded through the design. Thin steel stair posts naturally expand the gaze towards the ceiling, opening up the space. Storage is cleanly tucked away behind white panels. The result creates a calming sanctuary within its busy urban context.

Why: Wallpaper* Architects Directory

Conceived in 2000 as an international index of emerging architectural talent, the Wallpaper* Architects’ Directory is our annual listing of promising practices from across the globe. While always championing the best and most promising young studios, over the years, the project has showcased inspiring work with an emphasis on the residential realm. Now including more than 500 alumni, the Architects’ Directory is back for its 24th edition. Join us as we launch this year’s survey – 20 young studios from Australia, Brazil, British Virgin Islands, Canada, China, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, India, New Zealand, Nigeria, Portugal, Singapore, South Korea, Spain, Thailand, Tunisia, the UK, the USA, with plenty of promise, ideas and exciting architecture.

svima.ca

Aircraft manufacturer Bombardier Inc is best known for its Global and Challenger families of business jets. As part of the historic Canadian company’s plan to consolidate its scattered production facilities, this new assembly centre in Toronto is now home to the final assembly of its Global 7500 and Global Express long-range aircraft.

Hiring long-term collaborator NEUF architect(e)s, a Canadian practice founded in Montreal back in 1971, Bombardier has now moved into its new manufacturing campus and office complex. This massive 750,000 sq ft facility at Toronto Pearson International Airport replaces the company’s long-standing facility at the city's Downsview Airport and marks a new prominence in manufacturing at a time when other key players are going through major issues.

The new campus has been designed with the same levels of efficiency and sustainability as a healthcare complex, with vast manufacturing hangars paired with office and administrative areas. According to Bombardier's Graham Kelly, vice president of Operations for Global Aircraft, ‘building an aircraft is an undertaking that rivals the complexity of a major building project’.

Consisting of two structures, a flight test hangar and a much larger Aero-Structural Facility (ASF), NEUF has helped Bombardier bring production together under one roof. This speeds up assembly, preserving a line of sight right through the entire manufacturing and testing processes.

Inside the Bombardier Aircraft Assembly Centre, Toronto

Scale varies wildly from precision handiwork through to robotic handling, automated equipment and the challenge of moving wing assembly and fuselages through the space safely and efficiently.

All of this needs to take place in a precisely climate-controlled environment with a minimal energy footprint and very high fire and safety requirements. The expansive list of sub-contractors and consultees is testament to the complexity of blending industrial architecture, precision manufacturing and conventional workspace design.

NEUF’s work involved helping streamline Bombardier’s processes, tailoring the new spaces for a constantly evolving manufacturing environment without constraining the potential for more efficiencies in the future. ‘Designing for aerospace isn't just about the physical structure,’ says NEUF partner architect Lilia Koleva. ‘It's about creating a space that perfectly supports Bombardier's workflow, its people, and the meticulous detail that goes into every jet it builds.’

Bombardier Aircraft Assembly Centre, Toronto Pearson International Airport, Ontario, NEUF.ca, Bombardier.com

The new Royal De Versailles Rolex boutique in Toronto has opened its doors, showcasing a dynamic, wavy façade courtesy of locally based architecture studio Partisans. The store design is as visually striking as it is architecturally ambitious, occupying the ground level of a modernist architecture high-rise on the city’s coveted shopping strip, Bloor Street. 

Behind the wavy façade of the Royal De Versailles Rolex boutique in Toronto

Partisans, headed by Alex Josephson, is no stranger to experimental, eye-catching designs. The studio’s impressive Canvas House, also in Toronto, stands out in a similar way through its woven brick frontage. With this latest project for a Rolex boutique for their client, Royal de Versailles Jewellers and Burnac, the team used a CNC parametric composition that has been etched into the façade's limestone cladding through an algorithmic design developed in collaboration with computational designer Arturo Tedeschi. 

Making the most of cutting-edge, digital technologies, Partisans creates parallels through its design with its client's heritage in high-precision craft. 

The team write: 'Against the steel of the modernist high-rise, the digitally fabricated limestones – sculpted fluidly – offer a magnetic juxtaposition. Integrated down into the mullions of the storefront, the rhythm of the columns recalls the patterns of a watch’s band links.'

They continue: 'As the mullions trace down the exterior of the high-rise, they begin to slowly bend into subtle and graceful arcs that capture the essence between the existing structure and soft geometries.'

Meanwhile, inside, clean, luxurious and minimalist surfaces serve as the perfect backdrop for the Rolex watches within the custom displays – at the same time, cleverly allowing for spaces that cater to a variety of different functions, spanning both public and private shopping experiences. 

partisans.com

This Toronto office has been designed with a post-covid workspace in mind. Created for the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) by international architecture firm HOK, it is the fast-growing global consulting firm's Canadian headquarters. The 400-person-strong team now has a fresh interior for their day-to-day operations – one that not only conveys the firm's dynamism and ethos, but also cleverly leans into the needs and wants of a workforce that just came out of a pandemic, enhancing health and wellness, productivity and innovation. 

‘BCG helped us learn and grow and push our boundaries in terms of transformational workplace design,' says Caitlin Turner, director of interiors for HOK in Canada.

‘This was an opportunity to demonstrate that the office wasn’t dead,' the HOK team continued. To that end, the architects worked to compose an interior that satisfies work needs but also includes an array of amenities that help support employees throughout their working day.

Collaboration and inclusivity were key to create a truly agile workspace. Flexibly designed, the spaces include open offices, case team rooms, convertible private offices, soundproof phone booths, a quiet library, a large café and individual nooks to work in next to the library. 

Wellness was also high up on the architects' agenda. Embracing the position that ‘sitting is the new smoking', rooms have been designed to encourage movement. In this context, chance encounters and cross-pollination across departments were also promoted.

And while work settings are multiple and diverse, everywhere is bathed in natural light and supported by specially designed or selected, state-of-the-art office furniture. As a result of the team's efforts on the wellness front, the project has earned a WELL Health-Safety Rating. It is also on track to attain LEED Platinum Core & Shell certification and WELL Platinum Certification.

Equity in the workspace was another core concern, so as a result all rooms are bookable and everyone has the exact same workplace environment and options – and this caters for BCG’s neurodiverse population too, as interiors have been designed with a range of design strategies to ensure comfort for all.

Even the company's alumni are part of the picture. ‘Purpose-built spaces are set aside for BCG alumni who find themselves visiting Toronto or who are in the neighborhood and want to drop in and work,' the architects explain. ‘When people join BCG, they become part the BCG family – even after they leave.'

hok.com

For over two decades, the Ace Hotel has stood for fostering community, whether it’s in providing guests with an insider’s view into each of its locations, or welcoming locals to use its lobbies, restaurants and public spaces for work, play or however they may seem fit. In its latest opening in Toronto, the Ace’s commitment to this cause has been multiplied, not least in the commissioning of a new building, designed by the Toronto firm Shim-Sutcliffe Architects. While in the past, the hotel would usually co-opt an existing building and transform it into its own, Ace Hotel Toronto has been designed and built expressly for the hotel’s purposes. 

Inside Ace Hotel Toronto

Inspired to create a structure evocative of Canada to mark the hotel’s first home in the country, Shim-Sutcliffe Architects honed in on a material palette and design language that speaks to Toronto’s past and its present. The hotel is located on a peaceful, parkside corner in the city’s once vibrant Garment District, an area known for its red brick factories and warehouses at the turn of the 20th century, few of which remain today.

The distinctive brick, which became a hallmark of Toronto’s architectural identity due to rich clay deposits found in nearby Don Valley that resulted in up to 43 million bricks being pressed in the 1890s, has been adapted into the hotel’s red clay façade to remind passers-by of an era before green glassy highrises were a thing. Mounted in double-height panels that clad the building, the brick bestows the 14-storey hotel with a warmth and tactility, while effortlessly embedding it within the surrounding cityscape. 

On the inside, the drama continues with a cascade of poured-in-place concrete structural arches that rise from the sub-ground level to one level above. Accented with steel edges, each frame terminates in an oversized knuckle that transfers the load from the hotel rooms above to the building’s foundations.

Suspended below these arches is the Lobby Bar, a floating tray-like platform that hangs from steel rods dropping down from the central concrete structure. The lobby is an inviting refuge for guests and locals alike, featuring a wooden butcher-block floor made from end grain Douglas fir, furniture created by designer Garth Roberts in collaboration with Atelier Ace, a white glazed-brick bar and floor-to-ceiling windows with views onto the park. 

‘Our basic proposition was to make a building that looked like it had already been there, and then to do an insertion into it, which is the lobby, to confuse that issue, ’ says Howard Sutcliffe. ‘Because there’s a slight slope on the side going south, we figured we would pull up and lift the floor, so that we could get decent light into the lower level. It was all very pragmatic but also pretty effective in the end. You come in and get a sense of all these different spaces.’

On the level below, two different staircases lead visitors to Alder, the hotel’s restaurant helmed by local chef Patrick Kriss, with a woodfired grill. Half buried in the earth but benefiting from floods of natural light, the cavernous space features in-laid brick flooring, bush-hammered concrete walls and banquettes tucked within the steel structural frames from above, creating a seamless continuity between both spaces. This is further enhanced by reupholstered vintage chairs, a captivating copper and black wood bar and Shim-Sutcliffe Architects’ custom-designed copper lanterns which bring a luminosity to the concrete space. 

In the 123 guest rooms upstairs, the spaces have been individually treated depending on the layout, with a handpicked selection of art, music, snacks and beverages. Evocative of a wood cabin in the Canadian countryside, the rooms feature deeply recessed windows, leather-covered window benches, custom-made quilts by the Canadian artist Kyle Parent using deadstock fabrics, and copper headboards, tables and chairs by Atelier Ace. Douglas fir panelling not only frames each of the windows, but also the room’s entryways and various living areas, serving as a visual point of delineation while maintaining the space’s open feel.

Soon to come is Evangeline, the rooftop bar, wrapped on two sides by an outdoor terrace. ‘The fact that it’s a simple building that has a richness to it, I think that’s interesting and resonates with a lot of people,’ Sutcliffe concludes. ‘Ace has done some amazing things in a fairly crowded and competitive market. They’ve continued to do authentic work.

INFORMATION

shim-sutcliffe.com

acehotel.com

The clients of Everden house, a new-build Toronto home, asked for an ‘unapologetically contemporary’ residence, when they approached local architects StudioAC with the commission; and they certainly got their wish. The project, set in a residential suburb, was created with a distinctly 21st-century feel, a mix of clean shapes, warm wood and minimalist architecture. At the same time, it responds to the desire of the owners – a family – to have something ‘unique', while retaining cues to the traditional ideas of a ‘house’.

The result? A three-storey residence made up of a stack of geometric volumes that culminate to a distinctive gabled roof. Tall and slender, if you squint, the home might even appear like a typical narrow terrace. But upon approach, it is clearly a contemporary construction, conceived to interpret archetypal visions of the house into a modern domestic space. The experience of walking through and living in the house, with its wood-clad interiors and large windows, should evoke the feeling of a space that is impactful, ‘but not indulgent’, according to its authors.

The architects, headed by studio founders Jennifer Kudlats and Andrew Hill, elaborate: ‘We were interested in elevating this phenomenon beyond motif to a spatial experience that defined a narrative throughout the project. A gabled space on level three relates to the roofline, but a decision was made that the ground floor, often relegated to cubic space, should be provided with a gable extrusion as well, enhancing the sense of “house” across the shared living spaces. This combined a planometric and material direction that would emphasise a three-dimensional stacking and staggering that plays with the definition between form, space and motif.'

The design aims for something timeless but also livable, offering a balance between an exploration of an architectural theme, and a real family home. The interior's warm and hardwearing timber surfaces are offset by a somewhat harder exterior, clad in corrugated metal – it's ‘durable, affordable and familiar', the architects explain. It's just one more of the contrasts that give this Toronto home its identity, making it a subtle equilibrium of elements that seem at odds, but instead come together in a very contented whole.

INFORMATION

archcollab.com

Reigo & Bauer have completely transformed an old townhouse in the Toronto neighbourhood of Forest Hill. The existing house, a Victorian structure, was in need of a refresh in order to better fit the needs of its residents, who enlisted the architecture studio headed by Merike and Stephen Bauer for the project. 

First order of business for the architects was to open up the interior in order to improve the internal flow and the atmosphere as well as functionality of the various rooms. So, an open plan living, kitchen and dinning space was created on the ground level, while a double garage replaced the old formal dinning room; and the removal of smaller rooms towards the garden means that now the living spaces can enjoy wide views out towards the redesigned garden (with a landscape design  and a new pool pavilion by Amantea Architects). 

‘The move also broadens views from the sunken family room to the breakfast area, vastly improving the overall sense of openness and connection while a new wet bar, backed by a low bench, adds a visual barrier between the family room and kitchen,' say the architects, who collaborated with local firm Amantea to design of all the custom millwork. 

A striking, sculptural staircase replaced an older, closed, rectangular stair and becomes a centerpiece in the renovated interior. Not only is the new circulation hub a visual focus for the space, but also it helps light travel across levels and strategically knits together the rooms of all three levels of the home around a single architectural gesture.

The architects aimed to create a space that feels contemporary and sophisticated, but also thoroughly comfortable and, ultimately, very liveable. A limited colour palette of white, charcoal grey and black ensure a blank canvas for the owner's life to unfold; while traditional elements were subtly reintroduced in places, to create harmony between old and new and delicately bring the townhouse to the 21st century.

INFORMATION

reigoandbauer.com; amarchitects.ca

Aluminium may not have the nobility of bronze or the warmth of wood, but the utilitarian material is the unexpected focal point of a showcase of Canadian design, opening in Toronto this weekend. Organised by MSDS Studio and designer Jamie Wolfond, ‘Aluminum Group’ brings together new work from 15 of Canada’s brightest design talents who have each created objects made out of machined aluminium. Ranging from practical prototypes to pieces of sculpture, the diverse showcase casts the versatility of this oft-overlooked material into the fore.

‘The show is really about the material and the process together,’ explains MSDS Studio’s Jonathan Sabine. ‘Aluminium is a relatively soft material, but it is hard enough to hold very tight tolerances and sharp edges, so it’s ideal for machining. It can be anodised afterwards, which is a finish that adds basically no thickness, so it retains a fresh-off-the-mill feel.

Participating designers were presented with a simple brief: the design must be made by machining solid aluminium and was something that they felt was truly beautiful. ‘Machining is one of the cornerstones of modern fabrication but it’s labour intensive, and as labour costs have risen in the west, it’s become kind of a luxury.’ Sabine continues. ‘A combination of CNC technology and the rise of high-skill prototyping shops in other parts of the world have made a show like this possible. As people interested in object making, it was an opportunity we couldn’t pass up.’

‘We wanted to create a moment for independent Canadian designers that would be relevant both inside and outside the Canadian design community.’ Jamie Wolfond explains. ‘I had been working with an incredibly talented aluminium machining factory in Shenzhen, which makes high tech machining very accessible. So Jonathan had the idea to combine these interests.’

With works ranging from minimalist trays and vessels to Rachel Bussin’s clever ice cube tray and more complex designs such as Anony’s tableware collection and Wolfond’s highly machined Frog Vase, the material appeal of aluminium has progressed far beyond its industrial roots.

‘Aluminium is a ubiquitous material. We interact with it all the time. What gives these pieces their unique but consistent quality is the process of machining.’ Wolfond says. ‘To make something in large production runs, it’s generally most efficient to work with aluminium in castings or sheet metal. Since the work for this show was made in editions of one or two pieces, we had the opportunity to work subtractively, which, in combination with anodising, creates uncannily perfect objects.’

INFORMATION

‘Aluminum Group’ is on view 16-19 January at ESP | Erin Stump Projects. erinstumpprojects.com

ADDRESS

558 Dupont Street

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Toronto has long seen itself as the underdog. No more. This year’s playoff run by the Toronto Raptors of the National Basketball League, who are on the cusp of an unlikely victory as the league’s champions, reflects a new and more braggadocious spirit in Canada’s largest city. Its avatar is the Raptors’ biggest fan, Torontonian superstar Drake, whose boisterous behaviour on the sidelines boosts the spirits of the team and the metropolis.

Indeed, times are generally good. Locals like to boast about the uncommon diversity of its 2.7 million people, more than half of them born abroad. The region is seeing sustained economic growth, buoyed by a red-hot tech sector that is helping reduce the city’s traditional focus on finance. Toronto, in the words of urban designer Ken Greenberg, is ‘evolving into an entirely different kind of city'. Projections show the city adding a million people in the next generation.

Already, a 20-year building boom has added homes and workspaces for hundreds of thousands; these are increasingly clustered in the oldest part of the city, first laid out by British surveyors nearly two centuries ago. New towers by BIG and Wilkinson Eyre are joining older ones by Mies Van der Rohe and I.M. Pei, who sadly passed away earlier this year.

There is a downside. Inequality is rising. The province of Ontario is now ruled by the right-wing, and the region’s social-democratic tradition is being challenged. Yet the arrival of people and investment into Toronto is creating a lively and innovative urbanism, one that should help the city adapt to its new realities.

The 2016 Serpentine Pavilion, designed by Bjarke Ingels Group, has found a new life – introducing a dramatic urban development that brings BIG’s radical geometries to Toronto.

The 27-metre-long pavilion, constructed of 1800 lightweight components of fibreglass, has been installed on the site of Westbank King Street, a new building planned for the centre of Toronto that recalls the stack-of-blocks design of Moshe Safdie’s Habitat 67. The pavilion and the planned building ‘both consist of modular elements that are manipulated into something organic,' Bjarke Ingels said during a visit to Toronto. ‘In each case, we’re trying to take the ordinary and make it extraordinary.'

On September 15, the pavilion opens to the public with UNZIPPED, an exhibition of 10 BIG projects emphasising the architects’ ongoing collaborations with development company Westbank and its founder Ian Gillespie. These include two formally ambitious mixed-use towers, both under construction, and a previously unannounced infrastructure project: a biomass-fuelled power plant, for Vancouver, that will be topped with a large commercial greenhouse. In this work, ‘we try to put the basic elements of the city together in a way that creates a lively and engaging urban environment,' Ingels says.

The Toronto project – extremely unorthodox in its urban design – certainly pursues that ambition. Set in a block of Victorian industrial buildings, the structure consists of approximately 500 residential units organised into four ‘mountains', recalling the irregular stacks of Safdie’s famous structure. These rest atop office and retail space and four heritage brick buildings. 

The landscape architecture, by Canadians PUBLIC WORK, includes a central courtyard that will host live performances, and a set of trees and trellis that extend on top of the building’s many small terraces. The goal? To emphasise ‘indoor-outdoor living', Ingels says, ‘and to create a real sense of community for the residents.'

Gillespie, the developer, echoes that point. ‘Dense urban living is our future,' he says. ‘We’re exploring how architecture can make it better and more beautiful.' 

Read more about the afterlife of other Serpentine Pavilions here

INFORMATION

For more information visit the website of BIG

Nostalgic for childhood memories of hacienda life and inspired by trips across diverse Mexican regions, chefs Kate Chomyshyn and Julio Guajardo have opened Quetzal to share the many methods of Mexican slow food with Toronto.

The restaurant is a venture with chef-cum-restaurateur Grant van Gameren who helped usher in the era of nose-to-tail in Toronto 10 years ago with The Black Hoof. Since then, he’s opened nine restaurants and cocktail bars with passionate staff and sous chefs to continuously refine Toronto's diverse dining and palate preferences.

Quetzal serves salsas with Chicatana ants, Maguay worm salt with ceviches, and masa with Mexican grown varieties of corn for hand-pressed tortillas. The masa is made and nixtamalised (soaked in alkaline to soften skins and release nutrients) in house, cooked on a clay comal over an open fire as it would be in regions of Mexico.

The labour-intensive slow food dishes are a part of the culture that is being lost, even in Mexico, according to the co-chefs, who feel an obligation to learn, share and carry on the diverse traditions. Cocktails by co-partner Owen Walker are inspired by the processes as well. Herbs like Hoja Santa used in masa and chocolate de mesa harmonise meals holistically.

INFORMATION
For more information, visit the Quetzal website

San Francisco-based hospitality outfit Kimpton Hotels & Restaurants’ global expansion continues apace with the recent opening of Toronto's Kimpton Saint George Hotel – the brand’s third address outside the United States.

Located between the Annex neighbourhood’s bohemian charm and Yorkville’s affluent sophistication, the 14-storey, 188-room hotel was designed by local company Mason Studio, who created a sense of place with an artsy, lived-in look brightened by craftsmanship and pieces by top Canadian talent. As such, the reception features millwork arches, a fireplace tiled with ceramic inlay, and quirky decorative objects – some found in nearby vintage shops while others were designed by Mason Studio in partnership with local artisans.

The guestrooms meanwhile pay homage to the Annex’s heritage houses. Some of them date back to the 18th century and typically feature a contrast of textures thanks to generations of owners who add character to their homes through furnishings and accessories collected over a lifetime. At Kimpton Saint George, this mix-and-match aesthetic shows up in the custom carpet with a diamond herringbone pattern, the freestanding armoire in natural oak, comfy chairs in yellow velvet, and brass-legged marble side tables.

Like many new hotels these days, art is also a big talking point for this property. Toronto’s Arts and Objects was tasked with curating this narrative which includes the large-scale mural on the building’s exterior by street artist Birdo, modern wood totems by Djuna Day, and Jen Mann’s watercolour series found on the corridor of every floor. (All of three are of course Torontonians.)

INFORMATION

Website

ADDRESS

280 Bloor Street West

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If you ever needed a sign of Yorkville’s culinary credentials, look no further than Sofia restaurant, Christine Mast’s swanky new Italian – the Toronto-based chef is checking all the boxes when it comes to setting, ambience and menu. Particular applause, please, for local outfit Studio Munge which created a sophisticated progression of spaces, beginning with a foyer lined with rich red wall panels and black and white marble.

This leads into a lounge inspired by Italian art deco which is anchored by a circular bar wrapped in leather, and eventually into a dining room whose dimensions are exaggerated by rectangular columns clad in mirrors and a dozen Barovier & Toso chandeliers, alongside tables topped with Rosso Levanto stone. And with the city bathed in summer sun, the south-facing garden makes for a louche pit-stop with a pre-prandial Negroni spiked with limoncello.

In the Sofia kitchen, Mast masterminds a smart menu that blends Italian standards with modern flourishes – think Sardinian flatbreads topped with mozzarella and fava; spot prawns paired with melon, cucumber and dill; zucchini flowers stuffed with crab and truffles; coffee-scented duck breast; and Florentine steak warmed with Calabrian chili and lemon. Desserts are equally imaginative, not least the clementine semolina cake draped with basil cream.

INFORMATION

Website

ADDRESS

99 Yorkville Avenue
Toronto
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In Toronto’s Midtown, Studio Gang has launched a new design for a mixed-use tower and its block. Located at the southwest corner of Yonge and Delisle, ‘One Delisle’ brings with it aspirations for urban enhancements blending residential with retail space and pedestrian-friendly areas. Now, after launching plans of the block to the community, Studio Gang and developer Slate Asset Management will submit to the city of Toronto planning department.

The building rises from its plot, swelling into a complex 16-sided organic form sprouting a series of eight-storey elements that spiral up the facade. The shape is defined by the diverse floor plans of the residences, designed by Studio Gang in a variety of shapes and sizes to welcome a range of single people, couples and families into the building. 

Attuned to Toronto’s climate, One Delisle synthesises verdantly planted terraces and shaded balconies into the design, opening up the outdoor experience to residents all year around.

Chicago-based Studio Gang have residential towers springing up internationally such as the Aqua Tower in Chicago, Folsom Bay Tower in San Francisco, and 40 Tenth Avenue along the High Line in New York, where the studio continues to experiment by vertically threading green space through a block, elevating the offering of public space and blending typologies together to create new forms.

Benefitting from its developer Slate Asset Management acquiring a large portion of land in the area, while One Delisle certainly is a new form to the area, it also falls into step in its neighbourhood. At street level, the architecture is set back from Yonge Street and Delisle Avenue to open up public spaces and wider pavements. Storefronts along Yonge Street help the building to feel part of the community and respond to the local context.

INFORMATION

For more information, visit the Studio Gang website.

With equal measures of great stealth and taste, Akira Back restaurant is quietly building a burgeoning culinary empire that stretches from Singapore and New Delhi to Las Vegas, Seoul and, now, Toronto’s Bisha hotel.

For his first Canadian outpost, the Korean-born, Colorado-raised chef tapped local interior designers Studio Munge for the 3,000 sq ft cocoon. De rigueur is a pre-prandial Kinoko martini of shitake-infused vodka and peanut oil at the bijou black marbled bar, lined in velvet and marble pillars and trimmed with gold shelves. The main attraction is, of course, the dining room which Studio Munge has furnished with dark stained wall panels, glossy gold accents, a dreamy cloud-like ceiling of hand-painted indigo petals, and an undulating mobile that encases original artwork by Back’s mother.

It’s a suitably dramatic setting for Back to showcase his repertoire of Korean-Japanese fusion dishes like toro caviar and kojuchang miso, and jidori chicken shimmering with a maple teriyaki glaze.

INFORMATION

Website

ADDRESS

Bisha Hotel
2nd floor
80 Blue Jays Way

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Setting an infinity pool on the rooftop of the newly minted Bisha was something of a given, but we’re especially pleased the Toronto hotel opted to make room on the 44th perch for this light-washed restaurant. 

Here in a sprawling room bounded by potted palms and floor-to-ceiling windows that look out over the CN Tower and Lake Ontario, Studio Munge has created what it modestly calls a ‘reimagined coastal paradise’ – think blonde wood furniture, creamy banquettes, a head-turning wall of pop art photographs and, dripping from the tessellated timber ceiling, looping tangles of lamps that recall a futuristic jungle canopy. 

All this is a canny backdrop to chef Ben Heaton’s bright menu of Californian and Mexican flavours by way of the Baja Peninsula – for example little neck clams bathed in a warm mezcal broth scented with lime, and sesame-encrusted ahi tuna, simply grilled and served with a yuzu butter sauce.

INFORMATION

Website

ADDRESS

Bisha Hotel
44th floor
80 Blue Jays Way

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The latest project to land in the fast gentrifying east end of Toronto is The Broadview Hotel, a 58-room hotel courtesy of local developers Streetcar Developments and design firm DesignAgency. 

Housed within a 126-year old Romanesque Revival landmark, old meets new with a bold assortment of furniture, whimsical decorative pieces and eclectic wallpaper patterns that match the moods from eras long gone. 

Meanwhile, in-room record players and collections of vinyl from the nearby Tiny Record Shop, along with artwork curated by consultants Tartar Art Projects, provide delightful finishing touches. 

Outside, the humming neighbourhood is not short of food markets and green spaces, but personally, we’re staying put to take in panoramic city views from The Rooftop, which serves up dishes such as fresh Bay scallop ceviche or kofte kebabs, using locally sourced southern Ontario produce.

INFORMATION

Website

ADDRESS

106 Broadview Ave

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When Canadian hoteliers, the Germain family, opened their boutique property on Mercer Street in 2003, it swiftly became Toronto’s heavyweight. After refreshing hotel rooms last year, attention turned this year to in-house restaurant-café-bar, Victor.

The remodelling was undertaken by the city’s own DesignAgency, which was tasked with giving Victor a hotel feel, without quashing its appeal to the 40,000 new residents expected to move into the neighbourhood in the coming years.

By extending remodelling to the lobby, a seamless link has been created with the restaurant, which reads as a contemporary brasserie – think leather banquettes, velvet couches, bronze accents, intricate tiling, locavore menu and eye-catching sculptural ceiling lighting – where the open-plan interior is carved subtly into zones through different lighting schemes. The rich palette of greys, teals and rich woods adds a distinct, understated deco elegance that is warm and intimate by night, but light and airy by day. 

INFORMATION

Website

ADDRESS

30 Mercer St

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Heading one of Canada’s leading furniture brands can come in handy when it comes to envisioning your own home, as Avenue Road’s Stephan Weishaupt found out, when he embarked on a project involving the transformation of an old Toronto townhouse.  

Weishaupt collaborated with local architects Chapi Chapo Design on a complete overhaul of a derelict Edwardian structure, in one of his favourite neighbourhoods, Cabbagetown. ‘I was initially thinking of moving into a larger home and I realised that it wasn’t really what I wanted or needed,’ he explains. ‘What was more interesting to me was to work with the artisans I collaborate with at Avenue Road. I aimed to have some unexpected and inspirational pieces that would allow them to demonstrate how far their talents could be taken. I wanted to focus on the details to refine a home I already love.’

Take an interactive tour of Avenue Road

Working together to inject new life into the old house, the team studied the original building’s architecture in order to incorporate its essence in the interiors, explain the architects. They also wanted to respect their client’s needs and personality. ‘In this particular residence, the client’s identity is multi-layered – there is a public persona and a private persona that need to be reflected in the home’, they add.

The architects response included creating an open space for entertaining – something fun, that ‘stimulates the senses’ - while also defining a series of private spaces, which would counterbalance the public areas and serve as sanctuaries to retreat into after the owner’s busy daily life. Highlighting Weishaupt’s significant art and furniture collection – without ‘being ostentatious’ – was also central to the design.

Achieving the level of detailing Weishaupt was after, was another of the project’s key challenges. ‘[It] required a lot more time and changes that originally anticipated’, he recalls. ‘It went from a renovation to more of a rebuild. It was important to make the house as environmentally responsible as possible for well into the future.’

The result? A playful and homely environment with a carefully thought out private and public areas that together form a refined and composed whole; peppered of course, with Weishaupt's carefully curatred personal art and design collection.

INFORMATION
For more information, visit the Avenue Road website and Chapi Chapo Design website

Housed in an old pickle factory, next to the future home of Toronto’s MOCA, Drake Commissary is the latest addition to emerge from Jeff Stober’s Drake empire, which started 13 years ago with the Drake Hotel and now includes a restaurant in the financial district, an inn in Prince Edward County and five general stores. Located on the rail path that connects two of the cities hippest spots – Parkdale and Junction Triangle – the Commissary is a hybrid restaurant, bar, bakery and larder that serves as the hub for the brand’s culinary operations, providing all the breads and sauces for each of the outposts while churning out out fresh food all day.

Inspired by his brief stint at San Francisco’s Bar Tartine, chef Jonas Grupiljonas focuses on slow fermentation and fresh ingredients, making everything – including sourdoughs, smørrebrød, patisserie, confectionary, pickling, kombucha, house-cured charcuterie, pasta, gelato and preserves – from scratch.

And like the food, designer John Tong of +Tongtong Studio, wanted the interiors to cross at ‘the intersection of handcrafted and high production’, resulting in a modern-yet-utilitarian wood and metalwork look, inspired by a pop-up Prouvé prefab in New York; there are green industrial lights spanning across exposed duct work, folded sheet metal contours along the bars, a cosy dropped wood ceiling and custom creations like bulleted banquettes and riveted metal tables that mimic the mechanised processes that pumps out gourmet goodies in the back.

A selection of prepared meals, displayed on heated marble counters or on stocked shelves, are available to go, but we suggest staying in to watch the action from behind the glass-walled kitchen while sampling dishes such as the classic Drake smoked brisket sandwich, served on freshly braked bread with horseradish crème and grainy mustard.

INFORMATION

Website

ADDRESS

128 Sterling Road

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Brandon Olsen, former chef de cuisine of culinary cornerstones Bar Isabel and The Black Hoof, opened CXBO (Chocolates by Brandon Olsen) this month in Toronto. It’s been many mouth-watering months of anticipation for cocao locals in the know. The CXBO factory and shop is a feast of bonbons and eye-candy, including a Sol LeWitt- and Frank Stella-inspired mural, synchronised in sugarcoated harmony.

Mixing a single-origin Cacao Barry couverture with the creative direction and recent Expo ’67 obsession of his artist/filmmaker fiancée, Sarah Keenlyside, Olsen created two chocolate collections to be tasted (read: devoured) as a whole. We’re taking that as permission to do it in one sitting. 'Just as I’d build and destroy with Lego,' Olsen says, 'it’s the same with chocolate. There are no wrong answers.'

'We wanted to create something with meaning, not only about taste, but also the references,' Keenlyside recounts. 'Not just flavour, but something you want to look at for a while as part of the experience of eating it.' So what do yuzu, sherry, pistachio-bergamot, Willy Wonka, Jackson Pollock and Buckminster Fuller have in common? These are a few of Olsen’s (and our) favourite things. 'I had the idea to do this seven years ago, but it took time to refine my skills, learn new techniques.'

A fateful meeting brought Olsen and Keenlyside together, and on one of their first dates they drove to Hudson Chocolates in Poughkeepsie to meet Francisco Migoya, now head chef of Modernist Cuisine (Hudson Chocolates has closed). The trip ignited the couple’s passion for concocting confectionery combinations. In the factory, Olsen doesn’t stop; he’s melting chips, air-brushing or drip- and finger-painting chocolates, filling boxes. But the mood in the factory is light and fun. Their design-forward thinking carries through to the custom-painted packaging. Olsen splatters and drip paints boxes à la Pollock late at night, and he or Keenlyside will document it. 'Social media is a ravenous beast of good photography,' she sighs.

The summer collection (popcorn-peach, burnt marshmallow and orange creamsicle) is available exclusively at the Toronto Drake Hotel’s General Store.

INFORMATION
For more information, visit the CXBO website

Photography: Ryan Crouchman

ADDRESS

Chocolates X Brandon Olsen
1132 College St.
Toronto, Ontario

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Toronto is a city that loves a good loaf of burnished bronze , crusty bread as much as a shatteringly crisp-on-the-outside, tender-on-the-inside macaron. And its citizens all have their favorite bakeries for different items. This city's best are many—too many to rattle off as a top five. Instead, we offer you a list of some of our favorites, categorized by what they do best.

Croissants

Buttery, flaky, with a bit of crackle on the crust and tender, not soggy or dry, in the middle. If that's your ideal croissant specimen, head to Colette Grand Cafe's bakery and order their coconut raspberry version if you've got a sweet tooth. Or stick to the classic butter version at Parkdale's The Tempered Room, where Bertrand Alépée makes them so well, you'd swear you're in Paris. If you're in North York, Dolcini by Joseph (or West Finch Bakery) offers flaky perfection under the practiced hands of Belgian patissier Bruno Elsier (his baguettes are tasty, too).

Italian Treats

Craving the kind of amaretti that make you feel as if you're in Lombardy? Or a semolina, pine nut, rosemary and orange scented cake that takes you to nonna's table? Head to Forno Cultura on King Street and try to stop from buying out the store. Want your baked goods with a modern Italian accent? Sud Forno delivers. There's the thinly sliced fried eggplant paninis for lunch, or the weekend-only zeppole that ooze Chantilly and pastry cream, as well as amarena cherries.

Gluten Free and Vegan Goods

GF, vegan, and jonesing for a treat of your own? Head to Tori's Bakeshop in the Beach, where the iconic Canadian butter tart is brilliant, as are the doughnuts, muffins moistened with apple sauce, and the campfire corn loaf. Bonus: they're made with all-organic ingredients. In the west end, Bunners makes some of the best vegan, GF cinnamon buns you'll ever try. Come in the morning and get them hot. Or snag a Sonic cookie chock full of dried fruit, seeds, and nuts for a chewy snack.

Lovely Loaves

One of the best places in the city for top notch sourdough bread loaves (try the seeded version or the baguette) is the Blackbird Baking Company in Kensington Market. Heritage, stone ground, unbleached flours (including the Canadian Red Fife wheat) make a world of difference. If you're in the Distillery District, Leslieville, the Beach or First Canadian Place, you'll find an outpost of the Brick Street Bakery, which serves toothsome loaves that get turned into fresh sandwiches (try the Boxing Day) for the lunch crowd. Eccles Cakes, and perfect, hand-held sausage pies are also sure bets.

Pretty Pastries and Macarons

Nadege Patisserie, helmed by fourth-generation French pastry chef Nadege Nourian, makes some of the city's finest. Her cassis macarons are delightful, as are the salted caramel or lemon varieties. Don't miss the Marie Antoinette, luscious edible art featuring mini macarons adorning a vanilla bean panna cotta and a maple syrup mousse. Butter Avenue delights with caramel macchiato, cream cheese passion fruit, and matcha macarons. Pick up a "Jardin Secret," crafted with light rose vanilla cream, mixed berry jelly and a soft candy wrap to keep the dessert together. Chocolate crumbles act as the jardin's earthy garden soil.

This article originally appeared on Travel + Leisure 

Architecture practice ODA New York has designed a housing development in Toronto that appears to be following the sun. 

The US firm created the project, entitled Bayside, for the Canadian city's fast emerging lakeshore neighbourhood. The volume's loosely L-shaped staggered-cubes form was designed to strategically lift, pivot and twist, responding to the sun's daily path. 

The cascading effect of this striking design is created using a modular system and also allows a number outside space and amazing vistas. As a result, 163 of the total of 228 units have water views and 221 of them have terraces. 

Natural light is an obvious factor in increasing quality of life, and the Bayside development makes sure to make the most of it.  

'We are leading a quiet but unyielding revolution to replace the dogma of resigned and compromised city living for one that enriches our lives,' says ODA New York founder and executive director Eran Chen. 

'We can and must rethink our reliance on the extruded big box concept and instead design permeable residential buildings more as a collection of individual private homes. Restoring our relationship to nature within our most private spaces is a crucial element in maintaining both our physical and psychological wellbeing.'

Apart from the residential element, the building includes a large communal terrace and pool area facing the waterfront (its glass walls open fully, uniting indoors and out), a day care facility and 10,228 sq ft of retail on the ground floor. 

The project is currently just a proposal.

INFORMATION

For more information, visit ODA New York’s website

Renderings courtesy of by-encore

Toronto's King Street West is an exciting and diverse urban neighbourhood, where one can hear dozens of languages within a few hundred metres. But so far it's failed to express the city's much lauded diversity in terms of architecture. That could change if Bjarke Ingels' latest project is realised. 

The Danish architect's ambitious plans for a new mixed-use development – including a significant residential part – in the heart of the city were announced last week at Toronto's Koerner Hall.

Playing with the variegated building heights of the transitional area the site encompasses (between 469 and 539 King Street West), the conceptual design for the new project interprets the surrounding low-rises to the northwest and high-rises to the South and East through pixelated, stacked massing.

Set at a 45-degree angle from the street grid, the 'pixels' create an undulating street wall that offers a refreshing alternative to the usual tower and podium typology and respects the preserved volumes of the area's heritage buildings.

The complex's unique topography – that some have referred to as a mountainous terrain and others as a ziggurat – will offer balconies and terraces to all tenants and break up the surrounding architectural homogeneity. Alleyways will connect to an inner plaza with retail and public space, featuring a landscaped Hemlock forest to the West.


Ingels claims his inspiration for such 'community building' came from Moshe Safdie's 1967 Habitat housing project in Montreal – also a kind of prefab pixel city. But it's easy to also see influences from the works of Arthur Erickson – perhaps absorbed during Ingels' time in Vancouver – in particular his Evergreen building, which, like his Law Courts, features cascading green terraces as well as switchback-like rising tiers.

The King Street West design even recalls elements of Ingels' 2008 Mountain Dwellings apartment complex in Copenhagen, albeit with even more engagement with the streetscape and public realm. But in Toronto, his plans for 'utopian' living will be actualised not on an island or in a suburb, but like Erickson's aforementioned works, right in the heart of downtown.

INFORMATION

For more information on the project visit the BIG website

Of all the recognition that one could garner, nothing quite compares to being honoured on home turf. After 35 years of creating some of the most captivating hotels, restaurants and residences around the world, the Canadian design firm Yabu Pushelberg is being celebrated this weekend by Design Exchange, the only museum dedicated to design in their hometown of Toronto. Past honorees have included the artist/writer Douglas Coupland and Byron and Dexter Peart of the fashion label Want les Essentials de la Vie.

Both Ontario natives, George Yabu and Glenn Pushelberg first met as students at Ryerson University in Toronto. They went on to pursue different paths until a stroke of fate brought them back together by way of a shared office space. Collaborations ensued and before long, they decided to join their efforts both professionally and personally. More than three decades later, their passion for design continues to inform their projects and their work.

These days, the Yabu Pushelberg aesthetic – a refined mix of clean bold lines and sumptuously textured materials – has come to symbolize sophistication and luxury. Restrained forms are infused with buoyancy, thanks to gestural, individual flourishes, such as the metal screens in the Park Hyatt New York, or the statuesque, gilt mosaic tiled columns of The Edition in Miami. In furniture form, Yabu Pushelberg favours elegant silhouettes that still invite the user to explore and interact with them – a balance that’s not often achieved.

In a pre-emptive move to this weekend’s celebrations, we invite you to join us in toasting some of the firm’s greatest hits over the years.

INFORMATION

Website

Every monumental museum is inspired by a great collection. In the case of the sparkling white-stone Aga Khan Museum, opening next week in the outskirts of Toronto, it's the 1,000 Muslim texts, architectural elements, fountains, crystal, paintings and shahnameh, or epic poems, amassed by the holy leader of the Ismailis and his ancestors.

When, in 2007, he began a public tour of his private collection, the Aga Khan sought out Fumihiko Maki to fashion its permanent home. A Pritzker Prize-winner from Japan and architect of the Aga Khan Foundation's Canadian headquarters in Ottawa, Maki drew up 10,000 sq m of towering gallery spaces housed within a minimalist angular form - shaped not unlike an open packing box - assembled on a precise grid of 1m Brazilian granite slabs. (He might have used marble had the climate not been so unforgivingly Canadian.)

The angled facades were designed to play with the arc of the sun, throwing light and shadow onto the surrounding terraces and reflecting pools. 'The play of light is the focus,' says Andrew Bernaus of Moriyama & Teshima, architects of record on the project, 'not the design.'

The light effects continue inside, where a small stone courtyard (with a star-shaped drain at the centre and underfloor heating to melt the winter snow) is enclosed in glass etched with a mashrabiya pattern, an ancient Islamic motif reinterpreted by Maki. Light filtered through the patterns splashes on the white walls at different elevations throughout the day. In the upper galleries, built to house the temporary exhibitions, hexagonal skylights, or 'lanterns', introduce shafts of ambient light - the hexagon being symbolic, in the faith, of heaven. Curator Henry Kim, plucked from the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford to run the Aga Khan, says, 'When it's partly cloudy, the natural light raises up the light levels, then the clouds drop it down - so you can see the space breathing.'

Elsewhere the surfaces are flawlessly smooth, from the black granite that conceals the escalators to the slender 10m-high steel columns that anchor the white granite walls. Those walls are soundproofed for acoustics, to foil the high ceilings. Even the exit doors and electrical panels are hidden within the surfaces, invisible to anyone who doesn't know of their existence. Bernaus references Adolf Loos' Ornament and Crime when he says, 'You don't use ornamentation to cover things up just because you can't figure it out.'

In the auditorium, the building's crown jewel, the temperature is controlled from grilles hidden beneath each individual seat. That allows the origami dome, inspired by a bazaar in Iran, to rise unfettered over walls panelled with strips of teak. An angular access staircase spirals around in a hexagonal formation, divine against lapis-blue plaster wall, Maki's only concession to colour.

It's a palette that will please Toronto's Ismaili community, accustomed to the simple, cool aesthetics and vast, naturally lit spaces. Yet Kim, who is collaborating with the Hermitage and Louvre museums on some exhibitions, is adamant his museum offers a secular experience. 'The Muslim population is the "low-hanging fruit", to be sure,' he says, 'but our collection is a primer, for everyone, and part of a trend in Islamic art, which is rising to the surface as a significant artform.'

Toronto’s annual Interior Design Show, took place last week in a new location - the city’s centrally located Metro Convention Centre, directly in the shadow of the CN tower.

Another change this year saw the trade show form the back bone of the city’s first all-singing design week, the Toronto International Design Festival. Well, when we say all-singing, Toronto is no Milan, Paris or Cologne when it comes to volume of new design, and satellite shows were limited in number and relatively insular – Toronto has a small pool of established product designers who crop up everywhere an event is raised in the name of design. But there is also a sizeable pool of interesting creator-makers, artists and a respectable number of creatives in the making.

What it may lack in quantity is certainly made up for in passion and ambition. The week’s events included design-specific exhibitions at Ontario’s cultural seats – the highlight being the excellent show, Cut/Paste at the Royal Ontario Museum curated by local creative agency Motherbrand, which explored the long-standing culture of reuse in Canadian design.

Though recycling in design is undoubtedly a global preoccupation, exhibits showed arresting examples of it throughout history - alongside great contemporary pieces were the Ruspan Lounge Chair by Russel Spanner designed in the 1950s to be made with the materials and technology used to create the dwindling-in-demand wooden battery boxes at his family’s factory, and the iconic K42 kettle designed by Fred Moffat for Canadian General Electric in 1945, whose body is made from the headlamp of a McLaughlin Buick. The form of the K42 became industry standard, and the kettle was produced for 30 years.

In a symposium on ‘A World without Oil’ hosted by Jesse Ashlock, former Editor-in-Chief of I.D. magazine, the world of architecture and design kindly took on saving the world, searching for design-led answers to dwindling energy resources.

Speakers included the mighty local Bruce Mau - ‘let’s get angst and guilt out of the equation and design beautiful and intelligent responses to our world’s needs just because we can’; Mirko Zardini, director of Montreal’s Canadian Centre for Architecture who examined the responses to the oil crisis in the 1970s, and exposed the subculture of architects and designers forging futuristic solutions then which we now consider our own; Fritz Haeg from LA, who is on a one man mission to dig up America’s Stepford front lawns and reintroduce wild, indigenous and edible horticulture to the city; Tord Boontje and Enrico Bressan of Artecnica who spoke of the small ways in which their mission to make local global and global local can help the situation; and Sheila Kennedy of Boston based architecture practice KVA who revealed results of their energy-saving explorations, including ground-breaking energy-harvesting curtains.

Appropriately, ‘salvaged objects and responsibly harvested materials’, the mantra of established local design duo Brothers Dressler, might have been applied to most of the current crop of Canadian design. Reuse, wood and Canadiana were dominant themes everywhere.

At the Radiant Dark Assets and Values exhibition curated by local institution Made (a gallery that supports and retails new Canadian design), there was a standard lamp from Brent Cordner of Luflic made from newsprint; cushions covered in textiles featuring pines and grizzlies from Kerry Croghan (reflecting Canada’s great outdoors, and seemingly the prints from the linings of 1970s sleeping bags); and posh poutine forks from Anneke Van Bommel, forged from gold, presumably for feeding on the current trend for poshed-up poutine (Quebec’s chips, curd and gravy comfort dish).

At the ROM, the popular local design mavericks Castor exhibited their latest piece, a cluster of pendant lights made from fire extinguishers that have been sliced and sprayed and successfully defy the shabby quality of much recycled design; while Brothers Dressler, the gang-leaders put their own stamp on hunted and gathered old school chairs (adding wooden supports), for their showing at the IDS, and used recycled bottles to create a chandelier at Radiant Dark.

A small group bucked the trend for recycling and wood-based design at Heavy Metal, an exhibition of objects celebrating the ‘inherent honesty, quality and longevity’ of cast iron and exploring various techniques from sand-blasting and foam-casting. Works by Jonathan Sabine of Mat Cult, Brent Cordner, Rob Southcott, Derek McLeod and Dieter Janssen stood out.

At the IDS show, the Studio North area nurtured, as always, the new local design: highlights came from Tahir Mahmood - who injected colour with his Sotsassian pestle and mortars, made with ancient lathe-turning techniques from his native Pakistan; to Science and Sons - who showed their patriotic maplewood Radio Canada; and Kevin Karst with his Orchid stacking stool.

In an annual event at Toronto’s art laboratory The Gladstone Hotel, eleven rooms (not thankfully guest bedrooms) were taken over by young artists and designers, many collaborating for the first time for the exhibition Come Up to My Room. The results varied from a mirrored den draped with futuristic fabrics, to a space exhibiting objects gathered from a fictional aircrash, and a living space (the resident artist’s actual living space) accommodating a meandering light sculpture.

A whirl around local design retailers, Ministry of Interior, Gus Studio, Abstracto, Made, Klaus by Nienkämper, Hollace Cluny and the new Atelier 668, (home to photographer Alex Jowett - an apart-showroom featuring work by local designers, some for sale, some just for Alex to sit on) introduced us to beautiful works by the artist and designer Al Groen, designer-maker, Michael Greenwood, design company Left Right Designs and artist/designer Julie Jenkinson among others.

And after a day of pavement pounding, hunting out the highlights of this, Toronto’s first design week, late night sustenance was sought and consumed with gusto at Toufik Sarwa’s new venue, Cinq 01, designed by the rather brilliant Torontonian interior design company Commute Home. So much of contemporary design here is rooted to the terrain whether it’s Canadian culture, skills or the materials they employ and expose. But chickpea chips, courtesy of Cinq 01’s kitchen, are one Toronto-harvested design we will attempt to reproduce at home.

Side table by Michal Maciej Bartosik, after Mies van der Rohe, at Klaus by Nienkämper

Dubbeldam Design Architects (DDA) is a young Canadian practice, founded by Heather Dubbeldam in 2002. Working on a range of scales, from architecture, landscape design and interiors through to lighting and furniture, DDA’s design-focused approach favours sustainability and advocates for the use of recycled or renewable materials.

This same philosophy guided DDA in their latest residential design, the renovation and addition to a 100-year old townhouse in Toronto’s Cabbagetown, one of the largest continuous areas of preserved Victorian housing in America. The existing semi-detached building was typical of its heritage neighbourhood and its Victorian front façade and sidewalls should be preserved. The interior and rear façade on the other hand were in great need of a redesign in order to accommodate the owners’ cotemporary needs.

Dubbeldam and her team worked towards incorporating a number of passive sustainable technologies and material in the final solution, as well as improving the interior layout and natural light allowance in the house; a not so unusual problem of Toronto’s typical housing. This includes southern orientation and open-able glazing, which maximize passive solar gain; and open-plan interiors, allowing light and airflow throughout the house, aided by a skylight over the stairwell, which reduces the need for air conditioning and artificial lighting.

Living, dining, kitchen and sleeping areas are spread across the existing ground and first floors. A third floor addition features a master bedroom, bathroom and terrace and the overall project was realised on a notably low budget for its size. Built-in furniture, lightly customized standard elements like doors and windows, and cedar exterior decking and fencing were paired with few high-end materials, giving a bespoke feel to the whole interior design.

Adding contemporary value to the already precious preserved townhouse, DDA have proved that modern tailor-made design need not be expensive. The practice’s focus and interest in the renovation of the city’s fabric has already won them the 2008 Emerging Practice award from the Ontario Association of Architects and their work has been showcased in a number of exhibitions.

John Shnier and Martin Kohn started their practice together in 1990, and now work together with a new partner, Maggie Bennedsen. While the studio's work ranges from commercial interiors to large schemes for civic centres, they're also adept at turning out modest modern dwellings for space sensitive Torontonians.

The Laneway House in Toronto was originally designed for a family of four, with ground floor sleeping areas - including ultra-compact 'couchettes' for the children - and a living space above. At 120 square metres, this is no sprawling McMansion.

'There are more families who are not opting to go the suburban route when they have children, and as a result are getting comfortable with the smaller places generally available, and affordable, in the city,' says Martin Kohn.

At the other end of the scale is the Muskoka House in Ontario, a paean to the practicalities of prefabrication. Constructed from wooden modules, the house is raised up on columns and threads its way through a spectacular wooded site.

www.kohnshnierarchitects.com

The Bombardier Learjet

Interior of the Learjet

Read the article: Bombardier Learjet

The Bombardier Learjet

The Staircase House by Cindy Rendely, Toronto

Read the article: Cindy Rendely

Coast restaurant, Vancouver

Read the article: Coast restaurant

Supernova by Douglas Coupland

Read the article: Douglas Coupland's art

Talking sticks by Douglas Coupland

Penguin Pretty Vacant by Douglas Coupland

Coyote by Douglas Coupland

Patricide by Douglas Coupland

Penguin Cumshot by Douglas Coupland

Penguin Clash by Douglas Coupland

Matricide Silver Skate by Douglas Coupland

Matricide Beer by Douglas Coupland

Drip Maple Syrup

Read the article: Drip Maple Syrup

Form & Forest by D'Arcy Jones Desig

Read the article: Form & Forest

The Keefer Hotel, Vancouver

Read the article: Keefer Hotel

Laneway House, Toronto, by Kohn Shnier architects

Read the article: Kohn Shnier, Toronto

Richmond Olympic Oval by Cannon Design

Read the article: Vancouver Winter Olympic architecture

Territory table and chairs by Samare Design, Montreal

Read the article: Samare design, Montreal

Territory desk and chair by Samare design

R-Mountie bench and throw by Samare design

Still House by Level Design, Vancouver

Read the article: Level Design, Vancouver

Sunset Cabin by Taylor_Smyth Architects, Toronto

Read the article: Taylor_Smyth Architects, Toronto

40R_Laneway House by Süperkul, Toronto

Read the article: Süperkul, Toronto

SHIFT Cottage by Süperkul

The Trans Canada Trail

Read the article: Trans Canada trail

Nylon Haneda by WANT luggage

WANT luggage, Montreal

Newberry White by WANT luggage

Dumont black by WANT luggage

Carl Phare's wooden rollercoaster, designed in 1958, Vancouver

Read the article: Wooden rollercoaster

Carl Phare's wooden rollercoaster, Vancouver

Fashion by Ying Gao

Read the article: Ying Gao, Montreal

Fashion by Ying Gao, Montreal

Toronto-based Taylor_Smyth Architects’ portfolio may include a wide variety of carefully-designed projects, but it is their cabin-making skills that first caught our eye. Their Sunset Cabin, set in the stunning landscape of the southern shore of Lake Simcoe, is a simple yet sophisticated private retreat; a minimal insulated glass cabin enclosed on three sides in a cedar slats outer shell. Its design simplicity meant that its prefabricated elements could be assembled on site in just ten days.

www.taylorsmyth.com

The Bombardier Learjet

Interior of the Learjet

Read the article: Bombardier Learjet

The Bombardier Learjet

The Staircase House by Cindy Rendely, Toronto

Read the article: Cindy Rendely

Coast restaurant, Vancouver

Read the article: Coast restaurant

Supernova by Douglas Coupland

Read the article: Douglas Coupland's art

Talking sticks by Douglas Coupland

Penguin Pretty Vacant by Douglas Coupland

Coyote by Douglas Coupland

Patricide by Douglas Coupland

Penguin Cumshot by Douglas Coupland

Penguin Clash by Douglas Coupland

Matricide Silver Skate by Douglas Coupland

Drip Maple Syrup

Read the article: Drip Maple Syrup

Form & Forest by D'Arcy Jones Design

Read the article: Form & Forest

The Keefer Hotel, Vancouver

Read the article: Keefer Hotel

Laneway House, Toronto, by Kohn Shnier architects

Read the article: Kohn Shnier, Toronto

Richmond Olympic Oval by Cannon Design

Read the article: Vancouver Winter Olympic architecture

Territory table and chairs by Samare Design, Montreal

Read the article: Samare design, Montreal

Territory lounger by Samare design

Territory desk and chair by Samare design

R-Mountie bench and throw by Samare design

Still House by Level Design, Vancouver

Read the article: Level Design, Vancouver

Sunset Cabin by Taylor_Smyth Architects, Toronto

Read the article: Taylor_Smyth Architects, Toronto

40R_Laneway House by Süperkul, Toronto

Read the article: Süperkul, Toronto

SHIFT Cottage by Süperkul

The Trans Canada Trail

Read the article: Trans Canada trail

Nylon Haneda by WANT luggage

WANT luggage, Montreal

Newberry White by WANT luggage

Nylon Haneda by WANT luggage

Dumont black by WANT luggage

Carl Phare's wooden rollercoaster, designed in 1958, Vancouver

Read the article: Wooden rollercoaster

Fashion by Ying Gao

Read the article: Ying Gao, Montreal

Architect Cindy Rendely approaches her profession with special attention to detail. Her studio not only produces buildings, ranging from residential, commercial and institutional projects, but also extends to product, landscape as well as jewellery design; Rendely is also a trained goldsmith, jeweller and metal artist.

The Toronto-based practice recently completed the Staircase House, the transformation of a Toronto Victorian home into a contemporary zinc-clad volume, featuring a dominant sculptural steel and wood staircase. Rendely’s architectural work spans a variety of different scales and apart from a series of recent residential renovations and extensions, including the Forest Hill Residence and a Private Residence in Toronto, work continues on OBJEX, her line of domestic products.

www.crarchitexture.com

The Bombardier Learjet

Interior of the Learjet

Read the article: Bombardier Learjet

The Bombardier Learjet

The Staircase House by Cindy Rendely, Toronto

Read the article: Cindy Rendely

Coast restaurant, Vancouver

Read the article: Coast restaurant

Supernova by Douglas Coupland

Read the article: Douglas Coupland's art

Talking sticks by Douglas Coupland

Penguin Pretty Vacant by Douglas Coupland

Coyote by Douglas Coupland

Patricide by Douglas Coupland

Penguin Cumshot by Douglas Coupland

Penguin Clash by Douglas Coupland

Matricide Silver Skate by Douglas Coupland

Matricide Beer by Douglas Coupland

Drip Maple Syrup

Read the article: Drip Maple Syrup

Form & Forest by D'Arcy Jones Design

Read the article: Form & Forest

The Keefer Hotel, Vancouver

Read the article: Keefer Hotel

Laneway House, Toronto, by Kohn Shnier architects

Read the article: Kohn Shnier, Toronto

Richmond Olympic Oval by Cannon Design

Read the article: Vancouver Winter Olympic architecture

Territory table and chairs by Samare Design, Montreal

Read the article: Samare design, Montreal

Territory lounger by Samare design

Territory desk and chair by Samare design

R-Mountie bench and throw by Samare design

Still House by Level Design, Vancouver

Read the article: Level Design, Vancouver

Sunset Cabin by Taylor_Smyth Architects, Toronto

Read the article: Taylor_Smyth Architects, Toronto

40R_Laneway House by Süperkul, Toronto

Read the article: Süperkul, Toronto

The Trans Canada Trail

Read the article: Trans Canada trail

Nylon Haneda by WANT luggage

WANT luggage, Montreal

Newberry White by WANT luggage

Dumont black by WANT luggage

Carl Phare's wooden rollercoaster, designed in 1958, Vancouver

Read the article: Wooden rollercoaster

Carl Phare's wooden rollercoaster, Vancouver

Fashion by Ying Gao

Read the article: Ying Gao, Montreal

Fashion by Ying Gao, Montreal

Young Toronto-based practice Superkül was only founded in 2002 but can already boast a diverse portfolio, working eco-wonders in every field, but especially residential design. Set up by principles Andre D’Elia and Margaret Graham, the emerging practice has scooped a couple of local awards for their house designs.

Their most recent offerings, SHIFT Cottage and 40R_Laneway House, demonstrate Superkül's commitment to green building, with both projects employing numerous sustainable elements and strategies. These include passive lighting, ventilation and air conditioning, as well as the almost exclusive use of locally-sourced material and, in the case of 40R_Laneway, a green roof, maintained by rainwater collected especially into a cistern.

www.superkul.ca

The Bombardier Learjet

Interior of the Learjet

Read the article: Bombardier Learjet

The Bombardier Learjet

The Staircase House by Cindy Rendely, Toronto

Read the article: Cindy Rendely

Coast restaurant, Vancouver

Read the article: Coast restaurant

Supernova by Douglas Coupland

Read the article: Douglas Coupland's art

Talking sticks by Douglas Coupland

Penguin Pretty Vacant by Douglas Coupland

Coyote by Douglas Coupland

Patricide by Douglas Coupland

Penguin Cumshot by Douglas Coupland

Penguin Clash by Douglas Coupland

Matricide Silver Skate by Douglas Coupland

Matricide Beer

Drip Maple Syrup

Read the article: Drip Maple Syrup

Form & Forest by D'Arcy Jones Design

Read the article: Form & Forest

The Keefer Hotel, Vancouver

Read the article: Keefer Hotel

Laneway House, Toronto, by Kohn Shnier architects

Read the article: Kohn Shnier, Toronto

Richmond Olympic Oval by Cannon Design

Read the article: Vancouver Winter Olympic architecture

Territory table and chairs by Samare Design, Montreal

Read the article: Samare design, Montreal

Territory lounger by Samare design

Territory desk and chair by Samare design

R-Mountie bench and throw by Samare design

Still House by Level Design, Vancouver

Read the article: Level Design, Vancouver

Sunset Cabin by Taylor_Smyth Architects, Toronto

Read the article: Taylor_Smyth Architects, Toronto

40R_Laneway House by Süperkul, Toronto

Read the article: Süperkul, Toronto

The Trans Canada Trail

Read the article: Trans Canada trail

Nylon Haneda by WANT luggage

WANT luggage, Montreal

Newberry White by WANT luggage

Nylon Haneda by WANT luggage

Dumont black by WANT luggage

Carl Phare's wooden rollercoaster, designed in 1958, Vancouver

Read the article: Wooden rollercoaster

Fashion by Ying Gao

Read the article: Ying Gao, Montreal

BlueSky MOD iss the brainchild of lawyer and entrepreneur Hy Rosenberg and Richard Stark, an urban planner with a company in custom-home construction.  Their instinct, that Canadians would succumb to ‘low impact, high design’ cabin fever, led them to commission a Canadian in Norway.

The internationally renowned Todd Saunders (of the Aurland Lookout, nominated for a W* design award) designed the prototype prefab ‘to meet the needs of aesthetically and ethically discerning consumers,’ according to BlueSky. ‘Todd’s design feels very Canadian. It combines the simplicity of form found in Scandinavian or Japanese architecture with a strong sense of awareness and connection between interior and exterior,’ Stark remarks. ‘This is very Canadian.’ The result is an eco-ethical modern masterpiece.

www.blueskymod.com