Category: History

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My Top Five Interiors to Visit at ‘Doors Open Toronto’ 2018

Doors Open Toronto provides architecture enthusiasts with a yearly opportunity to experience interiors that are not usually available for public access. For May 26-27, 2018, organizers have devised a particularly photogenic theme “Film: the Great Romance.” (link: https://www.toronto.ca/explore-enjoy/festivals-events/doors-open-toronto/) While the destination list includes some new opportunities to gather insight into Toronto’s creative film industry, there … Continue reading My Top Five Interiors to Visit at ‘Doors Open Toronto’ 2018

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From Parnham to Durham: Feature Interview with Canadian Furniture-maker Robin Speke of SPEKE|KLEIN

Recently I had the opportunity to speak with Canadian furniture designer Robin Speke, of Speke|Klein, about the firm’s practice – especially their education at Parnham College in England, the evolution of Speke Klein’s business model, and the links between design, craft and manufacturing. This is an edited version of our conversation. Given that Parnham College’s … Continue reading From Parnham to Durham: Feature Interview with Canadian Furniture-maker Robin Speke of SPEKE|KLEIN

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Asking More Questions (About the One Arm Stool)

This month Canadian Interiors has published “One Arm Clapping” by Michael Totzke, a short feature about John Tong’s stool design for The Drake Commissary. (See an earlier version published in the Globe & Mail here:  “Toronto’s latest Drake enterprise has a familiar theme”) While it is a great article, especially in that it features the … Continue reading Asking More Questions (About the One Arm Stool)

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The Power of Waiting

In this series about how furniture functions as a key interior design element in the Broadview Hotel Café, I have spent some time discussing the overall architectural context of the room and the Circular Stacked Bar as its central landmark piece. I’m also interested in the two seating areas that occupy the threshold zone between the … Continue reading The Power of Waiting

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What I’m reading: New Book about the Use of Paint and Colour within Buildings

Patrick Baty’s new book The Anatomy of Color: The Story of Heritage Paints and Pigments (Thames & Hudson, 2017) just arrived at my summer studio. It is a glorious 350+ page tome filled with 1500+ images. Wide ranging analysis of the subject stems from Baty’s well-established practice as an Historian of architectural paint and colour … Continue reading What I’m reading: New Book about the Use of Paint and Colour within Buildings

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Reading About Furniture

As part of my summer reading, I’m getting back to books that I have collected over the past year. One of these is Witold Rybczynski’s Now I Sit Me Down: From Klismos to Plastic Chair – A Natural History (2016). When it was first published last summer, Mark Medley interviewed Rybczynski for The Globe and … Continue reading Reading About Furniture