Table of contents for July - August 2016 in AZURE

AZUREMAGAZINE.COM DAILY POSTS All summer long, we take you to stunning vacation homes and getaways around the world. That’s in addition to our daily coverage of the latest, greatest products and interiors, along with industry news. PRODUCT GUIDE If you’re specifying furniture or lighting, surfaces or flooring, fixtures or even appliances, our online product guide is the place to start. This month, watch for new carpeting, and textiles for exterior applications. WORK SMARTER Log on this month to read about four intelligently designed and elegant workspaces, including Campari’s new blush-hued Toronto headquarters, and the funky digs of Montreal architecture firm La Shed. PLUS JOB BOARD ⁄ COMPETITIONS ⁄ AWARDS ⁄ EXHIBITIONS ⁄ TRADE SHOWS ⁄ LECTURES ⁄ CONFERENCES SOCIAL MEDIA WE’RE OPEN 24⁄7 twitter.com/azuremagazine facebook.com/azuremagazine youtube.com/azuremagazine instagram.com/azuremagazine pinterest.com/azuremagazine…

Inside Out A house in Australia takes advantage of its warm clime with an all-season kitchen A LONG AND LEAN HOUSE filled with shadowy corners required some creative thinking to optimize both space and light, the two top concerns for the homeowner of this pint-sized residence in the suburbs of Sydney, Australia. Local firm Benn + Penna’s solution integrates indoors and out, right down to the kitchen sink. “The clients needed more space,” says principal Andrew Benn, “and it’s such a nice climate here for outdoor living.” Informed by the neighbourhood’s elongated lots and textured brickwork, Benn and his team focused on a pared back interior that plays up the pencil-shaped property. The main floor was transformed into an open plan that moves fluidly from living, dining and kitchen spaces…

THANK YOU TO OUR SPONSORS THE 2016 AZ AWARDS CELEBRATE THE BEST IN ARCHITECTURE AND DESIGN VEGAS ALTAS CONGRESS CENTRE AND AUDITORIUM LOCATION: VILLANUEVA DE LA SERENA, SPAIN FIRM: PANCORBO + DE VILLAR + CHACON + MARTIN ROBLES, MADRID TEAM: LUIS PANCORBO, JOSE DE VILLAR, CARLOS CHACON AND INES MARTIN ROBLES EACH HARVEST, FARMERS IN the Extremadura region of southern Spain press tons of grain hay into compact bales. From the native stork’s perspective, the harvest forms a compelling geometric patchwork over the arid landscape. Those golden bales also provided the unlikely inspiration for the Vegas Altas Congress Centre and Auditorium, a theatre and office complex in the ancient city of Villanueva de la Serena. A collaboration between four principals working at two mid-size firms in Madrid, the building is…

STANFORD UNIVERSITY CENTRAL ENERGY FACILITY LOCATION: PALO ALTO, CALIFORNIA FIRM: ZGF ARCHITECTS, PORTLAND, OREGON TEAM: JOE COLLINS, TOBY HASSELGREN AND RENEE KAJIMOTO, WITH CHRISTOPHER FLINT CHATTO, SIENNA HILL, BRADLEY IEST, GLEN JUSTICE, MICHAEL McGALE, KELVIN ONO, NICHOLAS ROBERTSON AND CURTIS WILLIAMS STANFORD UNIVERSITY is a global leader in education, so when it came time to replace its outdated electrical system, which used 100 per cent fossil fuel, it made sense to delve into cutting-edge sustainable design. The commitment to raise the bar enabled ZGF Architects to look for solutions where none had seemed possible, and in the process demonstrate how architecture might well help to save the planet. The Central Energy Facility, open since April, maximizes the 3,310-hectare campus’s energy efficiency by cutting greenhouse gas emissions by 68 per cent.…

SLIM PROFILES 1 FLEXIBLE STONE The Air Slate collection, from L’Antic Colonial, is made of paper-thin slate mounted on a layer of fibreglass. The sheets are easily applied on flat walls or curved surfaces. anticcolonial.com 2 LARGE SCALE Behind the interwoven patterns of Patrick Norguet’s Slimtech Naïve lies one of Lea Ceramiche’s most complex materials. The ultra-thin (5.5 millimetre) porcelain stoneware slabs are digitally printed with a 3-D glazed surface. ceramichelea.it 3 THINNER BRICK American brick maker Boral recently launched Thin Brick, an indoor-outdoor clay veneer that measures a mere 1.5 centi metres thick yet provides the illusion of a solid brick wall. Ten colourways offer a range of looks, from crisp new build to vintage character. boralamerica.com 4 REAL VEINS Evoking the look of marble – complete with through-body…

WHEN ZAHA HADID ARCHITECTS’ Maritime Terminal opened in Salerno, a port town in southwestern Italy, it seemed to come out of the blue. ZHA won the competition in 2000, then the site sat for years with seemingly no pro gress. “After winning the bid, the first contractor proved incapable of carrying out the construction,” explains project architect Paola Cattarin. “The town council had to go through a long procedure to replace them.” Funding was delayed as the gears of Italian bureaucracy turned slowly. Thus the terminal’s completion this past April was as unexpected as the iconic architect’s untimely passing just weeks earlier. Suddenly, though, the shell of the oyster (as the firm describes it) came to life at the end of a promenade that juts into the Tyrrhenian Sea. From…

TO DECEMBER 31 TURN THE PAGE VIRGINIA BEACH, VIRGINIA Casting a spotlight on the art quarterly Hi-Fructose, this exhibition at the Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art celebrates the wild and wonderful designs featured in the magazine’s first decade. The show includes a trove of curiosities, from digital landscapes and bold graphic and product designs to spectacular sculptures and public art installations. Among the more than 50 participants are street artist Shepard Fairey, sculptor Wim Delvoye (creator of the large-scale Cement Truck, made of laser-cut stainless steel, left) and Toronto illustrator Gary Taxali. One of the highlights is a site-specific installation by yarn-bombing artist Olek, whose previous work includes covering a four-car locomotive in crocheted yarn. Her piece for the exhibit promises to promote sustainability by eschewing synthetic materials. virginiamoca.org JULY…

1 INVISIBLE SEAMS The modular walnut interiors of the Genius Loci system by Valcucine keep everything in type-A order. A hardware-free version means the drawer sits flush with the cabinets when closed. valcucine.com 2 NOW YOU SEE IT The Pandora downdraft by Elica rises through its narrow opening via a mechanical push-up system. When not in use, it fits snugly within the counter. elica.com 3 WALL FLOWER With is handle-free door, Gaggenau’s 400 Series dishwasher literally fades into the background. A gentle push opens the washer to reveal LED panels illuminating its interior. gaggenau.com 4 ALL IN ONE The novel Made to Measure series from KitchenAid offers two sink options: one visible; the other with a stainless-steel cover to make more room on the countertop. kitchenaid.com…

STEININGER, a third-generation family-owned manufacturer based in Austria, has reduced their latest kitchen to the barest essentials, aesthetically, at least. The Rock. Air outdoor system is rigorously minimal, designed to virtually disappear into a garden or on a patio. But it also hides some surprises: when in use, it comes to life as a complete culinary environment. Composed of individual cube-shaped units, Rock. Air includes a remotecontrolled fire pit, a sink and dishwasher, a gas barbecue, and a refrigerator and freezer, complete with ice-maker. The anthracite-hued stainless steel modules are treated with a nano-coating of glass ceramic that makes them resistant to all weather conditions, including saltwater spray. When in use, the top section of each module can be pushed back to create a horizontal overhang, while a row of…

WHEN TRANSLATED FROM SWEDISH, Matklubb means simply food club. But the Stockholm dining event by that name is far more complex. The dinnerslash-social experiment is the brainchild of designer Petter Kukacka and his studio PJADAD, along with Emelie Bergbohm, who operates a production studio for actors and performers. It all began when the two became neighbours last year and Kukacka was keen to show off his Food Machine, a remote-controlled cooking robot he invented in 2014. Much of PJADAD’s work revolves around food, including restaurant branding, food photography, even pop-up produce projects for Ikea. Food is one of the basic needs of humanity, says Kukacka: “Everybody eats, so we like to combine food and design, especially since food is organic and most design is not. As a modernist, it’s hard…

I once had a young neighbour who raised crickets (to feed his lizard) on the ledge outside his window, and every night I fell asleep to the comforting sound of cheerful chirping. Housing 22,000 of these singing critters, the Cricket Shelter by Brooklyn non-profit architecture group Terreform ONE is also about comfort – and food. Designed to provide a low-carbon source of protein, in a compact structure that doubles as post-disaster housing, this modular insect farm looks like a sci-fi movie prop: an exoskeleton of interlocking pods topped with a mohawk of spiky fins. The prototype spent a couple of months at Brooklyn’s Navy Yard, and in September it heads to Florida to begin a tour with Survival Architecture and the Art of Resilience, an exhibition exploring emergency shelter. These…

GH3 An AZ Award winner in 2015, for Best Land scape Architecture, Toronto firm GH3 recently completed the Castle Downs Park Pavilion, a community centre in Edmonton that has been in the works since 2011. Sited next to a grassy athletic field, the complex is an atypical structure for housing such humble facilities as public washrooms and rentable meeting rooms: the 783-square-metre building sports a stainless steel facade that zigzags from end to end in dramatic folds. The cladding reflects the green horizon in wonky patterns, enticing kids to make faces at their funhouse-mirror reflections. The project is a testament to Edmonton’s vision for hiring top creative talent to make beautiful buildings that citizens can take pride in, even when it comes to the most basic of structures. gh3.ca STEVEN…

MIKROFON LAMP Mimicking a vintage hanging microphone, Alexander Lervik’s pendant for Swedish brand Tingest casts a unique pattern of hexagonal shadows. It’s available in white as well as black. tingest.se MIMA LIGHT HOUSE The newest concept from Portuguese prefab makers Mima Housing appears to float above the landscape, thanks to a mirrored base. The simple, pine-clad interior features chrome details and glazed end walls. mimahousing.com SCALLOP WATCH American brand Projects has released its final collaboration with architect Michael Graves, who died last year. The intricate dial, engraved using a guilloche technique, is sold in three colours, including Celadon (shown). $295, projectswatches.com STARMAN VASE Joining the Cosmic Diner collection of spaceinspired tableware, by Seletti and Diesel Living, this far-out vessel has a reflective gold visor and stands 28 centimetres tall. $145,…

WALUMBA ELDERS CENTRE LOCATION: WARMUN, AUSTRALIA FIRM: IREDALE PEDERSEN HOOK ARCHITECTS, PERTH, AUSTRALIA TEAM: FINN PEDERSEN, ADRIAN IREDALE AND MARTYN HOOK, WITH JONATHAN ALACH, REBECCA ANGUS, LAYLA CLUER, CAROLINE DI COSTA, MATT FLETCHER, JOEL FULLER, KHAIRANI KHALIFAH, JASON LENARD, MARY MCAREE, DREW PENHALE, NIKKI ROSS AND JONATHAN WARE RURAL AUSTRALIA has its share of extreme weather. In 2011, a catastrophic flood devastated the isolated town of Warmun, located 3,000 kilometres northeast of Perth. As a result, 300 Gija people lost their homes, including the residents of the area’s seniors centre. The replacement facility, built by Iredale Pedersen Hook Architects, far exceeds what was there before structurally. But it also goes much further socially, by providing a home where elders can celebrate their cultural practices, all within a lively, expressive form.…

1 Icaro by Flexform Roberto Lazzeroni’s bookcase combines an ash frame with leather- or suede-covered solid wood shelves, giving stability to the floating form. It stands 201 centi metres high and 168 centi metres wide, and the shelves come in 13 shades. flexform.it. 2 Cavetto by Karl Andersson & Soner German studio Kaschkasch designed this system of shelving units so that back and side panels can be easily added and arranged in numerous ways with no hardware. The flexible series, in oak and ash, can be set against a wall or used as a room divider. karl-andersson. se 3 Endless RGB by Porro The versatile modular unit was updated for Salone del Mobile in Milan this year, with six new transparent colours that leave the wood grain visible. Die-cast aluminum…