“Clouds of Colour”, artist Amanda McCavour’s recent installation in the main entrance foyer at Toronto’s Harbourfront Centre, uses spatial techniques to activate an unruly public interior. Continue reading Spatial Effect in ‘Clouds of Colour’
Recently – over the course of four weeks – I spent more than 24 hours of productive time attending the online BIPOC [Black, Indigenous, People of Colour] Design History Class: “Black Design in America: African Americans and the African Diaspora in Graphic Design, from the 19th to the 21st Century” (https://bipocdesignhistory.com/). Organized by a collective … Continue reading Lessons Learned from BIPOC Design History Class
The exhibition “Treasures of a Desert Kingdom: The Royal Arts of Jodhpur, India” is in Toronto for the summer. Installed at the Royal Ontario Museum, it explores the rich legacy of the Maharajas of Marwar-Jodhpur, as seen in their patronage of the arts, devotion to their gods, and the central role of women as members … Continue reading Dreaming of the Desert Sun in the ROM’s Basement
Last summer (August 2017) saw the opening of a newly-renovated and expanded Broadview Hotel, situated on the North-west corner of Queen Street East and Broadview Avenue in Toronto’s east end. At that time, I stopped in for a visit and was prompted to write a series of posts about the design of the café interior … Continue reading Re-view: How Furniture Defines Interior Space at the Broadview Hotel Café
This summer, one of my research projects is concerned with Toronto’s Pearson International Airport, Terminal 1. Looking back at a project born in the new millennium has me thinking about lessons for the future. Officially opened in 2004, Terminal 1 was designed by a joint venture known as Airports Architects Canada that was made up … Continue reading Time-Travelling back to YYZ Terminal 1
Last week, I attended a lecture given by Philip Beesley as part of the ROM Daytime Lecture series. Beesley spoke about his long-standing experimental architectural practice with the Living Architecture Systems Group. Beesley and his collaborators investigate the possibility of a living architecture – next generation interactive environments – by combining artificial intelligence with a … Continue reading Beesley’s Question: Can Architecture Come Alive?
On Wednesday I spent the day at EDIT. I toured the main floor exhibit “Prosperity for All” (curated by Bruce Mau) and the diverse installations that surrounded it, such as the “Letters to the Mayor/The Developer” (a Storefront for Art + Architecture initiative presented in Toronto by Partisans Architecture). I climbed to the second floor … Continue reading The Real Star of EDIT May Be Hiding in Plain View
This summer, an unexpected design installation arrived in my neighbourhood: a series of Bike Share Toronto stations were installed outside up and down the main thoroughfare, linking bike path corridors with community parks, with retail and commercial areas, with residences and schools, and with the western beaches of Lake Ontario. The bikes themselves have a … Continue reading What Comes After EDIT? An Editorial about Design Studies
Yesterday, the Art Gallery of Ontario posted “Designing a home fit for a monster” on their ‘Art Matters’ Blog. It is a teaser for the long-awaited opening of “Guillermo del Toro: At Home with Monsters” and it got me thinking again about a favorite topic: exhibition design. Prior to studying interior design, I worked for … Continue reading Getting Ahead of Myself: Looking Forward to a Review of Exhibition Design for the AGO’s “Guillermo del Toro: At Home with Monsters”
In the recent article “Taking on the World” (Canadian Interiors July/August 2017 vol. 54 No. 4), writer Leslie C. Smith provides a condensed interview with the three principals at DesignAgency: Anwar Mekhayech, Matt Davis and Allan Chan. DesignAgency is a renowned Canadian hospitality design firm currently earning international accolades. I have written about their recent … Continue reading Getting it Right: an Interview with DesignAgency in Canadian Interiors magazine
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