Tabla de contenidos para November - December 2017 en AZURE

Your area of study is design anthropology. How did it prepare you for your current job in Toronto? Design anthropology tries to understand how design translates values into tangible experiences. At OCAD, we’ve identified a core set of values – diversity, inclusion, “decolonizing” the curriculum – and expressed them through our academic plan, then tried to make them tangible through our curriculum, how we do research, the relationships we establish to build communities. So you’re talking about design in the broadest and highest terms? Yes, almost in meta terms. But also about the work created by students. How do you measure successes? Well, you can gauge whether students, all students, feel a sense of community. Sometimes they’ll tell you, but you can also see it. What we have to be…

AT THE EDGE OF CULVER CITY sits Blackwelder Campus, a landmark cluster of 25 iconic light-industry manufacturing warehouses that are transitioning into office spaces. This is where Hungry Man Productions calls home. When the production company, known for its punchy Super Bowl commercials and spots for Geico and Microsoft, decided to reimagine its existing headquarters in a 743-square-metre warehouse there, it made sense to augment the building’s rich industrial history – original concrete floors, high bay lighting, and ribbed metal ceilings – with Hungry Man's relaxed yet bouncy point of view. Local design firm FreelandBuck was responsible for carving out a variable, contemporary office that paralleled Hungry Man’s modus operandi: a highly collaborative workflow with configurations of different-size teams and a staff that fluctuates depending on the commission. The firm…

TWIST BY ACTIU For spaces that need to accommodate a large staff, this kit-of-parts system features a central steel frame and slender legs that each attach with a single screw. Workstations can be configured in a variety of ways, and placed on an angle for an open flow of communication, while filing benches, privacy panels and integrated power enhance the configurations. actiu.com EXPANSION CITYLINE BY TEKNION Incorporating everything from hot-desking and head-down work to collaborations – even casual lounge zones – this system is limited only by the imagination. The customizable nature of its design means it can fit easily into existing spaces or be reformatted as needs change. Coordinating accessories like movable whiteboards and screens, shelving, and freestanding tables add to its versatility. teknion.com WING BY TRUE DESIGN Reminiscent…

FOR AN UP-AND-COMING advertising agency called The Keenfolks, following the rules is not necessarily top of mind. Creativity – read: less polish, no budget – is more important, as is experimentation, and letting ideas fall where they may. It made perfect sense, then, for the founders of the Barcelona firm to let local designer Guillermo Santomà do as he liked for their new office space, situated in a former factory complex where a half-dozen or so other start-ups are neighbours with automotive and metal workshops. Santomà chose to model the office after the white-cube paradigm of an art gallery, and he built the project himself – an approach more like an artist than that of a designer. In fact, Santomà’s designs are often hard to distinguish from fine art. His…

DEGREES Master of Architecture, University of Calgary, 2015 Bachelor of Science, University of Alberta, 2010 EXTRA CREDIT Winner of the 2015 Prix de Rome in Architecture for Emerging Practitioners, a grant enabling his research into hybrid approaches to urban development CURRENT JOB Working in London at AL_A YVES POITRAS graduated from the University of Calgary with a Master of Architecture only two years ago, but already he has big ideas for how to build better cities. Having won the 2015 Prix de Rome in Architecture for Emerging Practitioners, he has been investigating how to maximize the vibrancy and efficiency of cities by mixing public and private uses. “I did research into buildings that are designed for a single-user group and looked at the effects,” says Poitras. To develop hybrid typologies…

THERE IS A CERTAIN INEVITABILITY to Lego House, the exuberant visitor centre opened this fall in Billund, Denmark. Billund is home to both Lego headquarters and the original Legoland: The office building’s dullness does not square with the brand that launched a billion creative careers, while the theme park threads rides and activities around do-not-touch Lego-brick masterpieces. Lego House, by contrast, includes four colour-coded play zones devoted precisely to hands-on tinkering. Its architectural pizzazz comes courtesy of Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG), which may currently be the only Danish export more popular than the ubiquitous plastic brick. The new 12,000-square-metre building fills an obvious gap. Naturally, it bears some resemblance to a ziggurat of giant Lego elements. BIG submitted to the irresistible program by arranging restaurant, interactive-experience and gallery uses into…

TAILOR MADE The collective talent behind Austrian studio 13&9 includes architects and interior and fashion designers, all of whose skills are evident with BuzziPleat. Applying traditional sartorial techniques like smocking and pleating to the brand’s proprietary sound-absorbing felt, the firm has turned out sculptural forms with genuine artistic merit. The Victorian-ruffle-collar-like pieces, crafted in two sizes (1 metre and 1.5 metres in diameter), can hang on the wall or be suspended from the ceiling with an optional light fixture attached in the centre. buzzi.space A SCREEN OF SCREENS While acoustic control is a common requirement for open-concept work environments, expanses of blank wall for installing sound absorbers are not always available. That’s where David Rockwell’s Telly screen for Knoll comes in. The fabriccovered segments, which look a lot like vintage…

WHEN WEWORK ENTERED the coworking sphere in 2010, the concept of freelancers and entrepreneurs sharing space wasn’t entirely new. What made the company stand out was its commitment to “cool” design. More than just desks and chairs, WeWork offered clients attractive places to lounge and socialize, and that translated into energetic workspace communities – the kind of vibe most start-ups thrive on. “There’s a power to being around like-minded individuals who are pursuing their life’s work and passion,” says Federico Negro, global head of design at WeWork’s New York office. “And our spaces are meant to nourish that kind of productivity, progress and inspiration.” Seven years later, the company has refined its methods and branding into a fail-safe formula. Online, the WeWork community connects via an app. Offline, they gather…

The red brick Romanesque building at the intersection of Toronto’s Queen Street East and Broadview Avenue has witnessed more than its share of dancers over the years, many in varying states of undress. Since 1891, it has lived multiple lives as a commercial hub, a meeting hall and, intermittently, a hotel. In its most recent incarnation as a boarding house and home to the strip club Jilly’s, it held firm as a shabby east end cornerstone while everything around it gentrified. It is safe to say that, up until last night, it had never had Grace Jones and Fashion Santa share the dance floor. In 2014, when the club’s owners ordered an interior teardown so they could improve sightlines for customers, they inadvertently removed essential structural walls, and, in an…

DEGREES EVAN FAY AND AYAKO ARATANI Master of Fine Arts in 3D Design, Cranbrook Academy of Art, 2016 EVAN FAY Bachelor of Fine Arts in Furniture Design, Kendall College of Art and Design, 2014 AYAKO ARATANI Bachelor of Engineering in Product Design, Chiba University, 2007 CURRENT JOBS Founders and principals, Aratani Fay FOR AYAKO ARATANI AND EVAN FAY, partners in the Detroit-based studio Aratani Fay, pursuing MFAs in 3D design at Cranbrook Academy of Art was an opportunity to loosen up. Aratani had already earned a degree in product design from Chiba University in Japan and spent seven years as an industrial designer with an office furniture company. Fay had graduated with a BFA in furniture design from the Kendall College of Art and Design in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Both,…

“THEY ARE THEIR OWN LITTLE ISLANDS OF UTOPIA,” Porky Hefer says of his human-scale nests and pods, which look more like giant birds’ nests or lifesize shells than immersive hideaway spaces in which people can escape a hectic, overstimulated world. “The fact that the pieces are suspended provides a unique sensation,” Hefer explains. “You are not rooted to the ground but rather floating in space. The sensation has been likened to that of being back in the womb. It blocks you off from the world and protects you. It is never static and is continually rocking. It’s almost like going back to the beginning, giving one a chance to do things differently.” The pods, like most of Hefer’s work, are inspired by the natural world and his childhood in South…

THOUGH THE WORD BIOPHILIA was popularized in 1985 (by biologist and environmental theorist Edward O. Wilson) its application has remained on the fringes. That’s about to change, though. Biophilic design is the idea that in order to create a healthy work environment, design needs to incorporate nature – everything from access to daylight and water to air filtration, noise control and comfortable interior temperatures. It has taken more than two decades for this common-sense hypothesis to morph into theory. This month, at Greenbuild in Boston, the first-ever award to recognize excellence in biophilic design will be handed out. It is called the Stephen R. Kellert Biophilic Design Award, and it is named after a professor of social ecology at Yale University who, in the 1980s, was instrumental in advancing the…

“IN MILAN, YOU CAN’T HELP BUT BE CLOSE TO FASHION,” explains Michele Pasini from his goldtrimmed office in the city’s trending Porta Venezia neighbourhood. “It happens very easily.” Pasini is describing how Storage Associati – which includes partners Barbara Ghidoni and Marco Donati – became the favourite interior design studio for some of fashion’s biggest names when they need to bedeck their shops and showrooms. Dolce&Gabbana, Tod’s and Dsquared2 all turn to Storage when in need of a refresh. “We realized very early,” Pasini explains, “that fashion and interior design need to be complicit.” Their intuition paid off. It’s what drew Rimini-based entrepreneur Maurizio Pritelli to approach the firm about designing his shop, Acqua Salata, which specializes in hard-to-find streetwear. His only edict was that he wanted a “simple, bright…

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AND THE WINNERS ARE… The Moriyama RAIC International Prize was awarded for the second time on September 19. Tokyo firm Tezuka Architects was recognized for Fuji Kindergarten, a unique circular school built around a trio of zelkova trees that shoot through the one-storey structure. Tezuka beat out four other finalists for the $100,000 prize, including Bjarke Ingels Design’s 8 House apartment complex in Denmark and MacKay-Lyons Sweetapple’s Shobac Campus in Nova Scotia. Studio Gang founder Jeanne Gang is the recipient of the 2017 Marcus Prize for Architecture, awarded every two years by the Marcus Corporation Foundation and the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee School of Architecture and Urban Planning. The US$100,000 prize will support an upcoming design studio that Gang will lead at the school. Previous winners include Sou Fujimoto, Diebedo Francis…