Table of contents for March/April 2024 in AZURE

What do we owe each other as members of a community? What do we owe ourselves as individuals? What do we owe those we care for? “Brick and Roses” (page 64), the title of our cover story, recalls the time-honoured adage “bread and roses” and its twin appeal to have our basic needs met while also gaining some access to that often neglected essential: beauty. The article is about intentional communities, inspiring places enabled by co-operatives, community land trusts and other frameworks that allow a group of people to come together, organize and shape their own ways of collective living. Another saying, “many hands make light work,” springs to mind. Via strength in numbers, people can purchase land or building stock and design it in a collaborative process. What’s typically a…

_DOP _Porto, Portugal _Atelier Sérgio Rebelo 1. THE BRIEF Portuguese chef Rui Paula didn’t fully appreciate the value of design until his third restaurant, Boa Nova Tea House, was awarded a second Michelin Star in 2019. The space is built into the rocks overlooking the ocean in Porto, and Paula had gradually begun to observe how the coastal landscape shaped the direction of his cooking and menu. When it came time to renovate his second restaurant, DOP (first opened in 2010 in Porto proper), Paula commissioned Atelier Sérgio Rebelo (ASR) — a local architecture and design studio that specializes in cutting-edge hospitality projects — to craft a similarly inspirational backdrop. While DOP’s original interiors had skewed minimalist and neutral, the goal for the reimagining was a lively, urbane gastropub that…

Usually, when a designer is known for a signature material, it’s something tangible like wood or steel. But in the case of Marjan van Aubel, it’s sunlight. In 2021, the Amsterdam creative harnessed solar energy to power Sunne, a pendant that absorbs light by day and emits it by night. Building on subsequent sun-themed installations mounted during events like Dutch Design Week, van Aubel unveiled her latest solar-powered spectacle this past December in Miami. Working with Lexus and the experiential designers at Random Studio, she presented 8 Minutes and 20 Seconds — named for the time it takes light from the sun to reach Earth — in the sculpture garden of the Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami. Graphics printed on transparent plastic sheets recreated the silhouette of the Lexus LF-ZC, a…

What makes a great home? For architects French 2D, the process is rooted in dialogue — and lots of it. After all, the answer varies depending on who you ask, which leaves designers with the task of translating the client’s needs and aspirations into a bespoke environment, all while balancing climate, site context, building code and budget. It’s a challenge familiar to architects the world over; beauty emerges through careful listening, as well as attention to detail and sensitivity to local culture. But Anda and Jenny French weren’t designing a luxurious single-family home; the Boston-based sisters were bringing their thoughtful, collaborative ethos to a striking three-storey residential complex for an intentional community of 30 households. Recently completed, their collective ownership project in Malden, Massachusetts, integrates playfulness, personality and an elegant…

DOCUMENTARY Charlotte’s Castle Charlotte Mickie has lived in apartment 7 of Toronto’s Spadina Gardens since 1993. Located in the Annex neighbourhood, the 16-unit mid-rise, completed in 1904 by esteemed architect Arthur R. Dennison, boasts a rich history. Set in the wake of the building’s sale to Amsterdambased development company ProWinko in April 2018, this documentary by director Jamie Kastner follows the tenants of Spadina Gardens as they band together to conserve its heritage under the looming threat of renoviction. The film raises important questions: What constitutes heritage? And what is at stake if we fail to preserve it? For the tenants association, it was about more than protecting the units’ spacious Edwardian layouts, pocket doors and decorative windows: It was about retaining the community they had cultivated over decades. BOOK…

_Darwin Bridges _Montreal, Quebec _Provencher Roy Linked to Montreal via the Champlain Bridge, which opened in 1962, Nuns’ Island is a time capsule of mid-century development. The area even boasts a trio of apartment buildings designed by none other than Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. Just a short drive away from one of these towers, Provencher Roy recently completed a retrofit of two of Nuns’ Island’s smaller bridges that addresses another, less praiseworthy remnant of that era: its auto-centric urban planning. Leveraging innovative materials and novel forms, the firm’s reimagined Darwin Bridges successfully shift the dynamic between pedestrian and car. As the original bridges (which were constructed in the 1960s) approached the end of their material lifespans, a rebuild posed an opportunity for a larger rethink. “The project came with…

Coral reefs occupy only a tiny fraction of the ocean floor, yet they are home to a quarter of all marine species. While they’re delicate and increasingly at risk due to climate change, could they also provide inspiration for how we build our own habitats on land? For the fifth edition of the Chicago Architecture Biennial, Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM) designed a spiral-shaped pavilion that introduced an entirely new construction material: the Bio-Block. Developed by Colorado firm Prometheus Materials, the concrete block alternative harnesses microalgae, one of the many life forms that coral reefs support. To produce Bio-Block, microalgae is grown in factory conditions with artificial sunlight and seawater — plus CO2 from ambient air — to support photosynthesis. Organic additives are mixed in to stimulate biomineralization, replicating the…

There’s no house style at Holloway Li, the interior architecture studio founded by Alex Holloway and Na Li. Rather, the London practice imbues its blockbuster projects with “set-piece moments.” Much as in theatre design, these architectural components and furnishings make all the difference in driving home a clear, holistic concept. It comes as no surprise, then, that when outfitting British entertainment company Broadwick Live’s massive London HQ, Holloway Li introduced a refined, monolithic aesthetic not dissimilar to the one found at the electronic music and arts promoter’s popular post-industrial clubs, including Printworks and the newly opened Drumsheds in the former Ikea Tottenham. The most emblematic set-piece objects in the HQ: the sinuous central staircase, sculpted microcement reception desk and custom edition of the popular T4 chair that populates the reception…

“I use architecture to reveal stories that may not be visible at first,” says Sumayya Vally. She is Zooming with me from the London office of her research-based multidisciplinary practice, Counterspace (the firm also has a location in Johannesburg). The stories she is interested in — the lives of migrants throughout history, how community networks operate and the geological makeup of their lands — are close to her heart and her work. Counterspace’s first project, exhibited at the inaugural Chicago Architecture Biennial in 2015, was an analysis of Johannesburg’s abandoned mine; an extension of her thesis, it explored the highly polluted landscape as a visceral reminder of how waste, toxicity and radiation have become a quiet, sinister backdrop to our everyday world. The firm’s highest-profile project to date — a…

Fjord Your Consideration The Hardangerfjord — one of the longest fjords in the world — may be the main attraction along Norway’s Highway 13, but the new rest stop that looks out to this captivating inlet is a wonder in its own right. Designed by Oslo firm Code Arkitektur, it’s part of the Norwegian Scenic Routes, an initiative that commissions cultural pavilions that knit together the country’s most picturesque landscapes. Complementing rather than competing with its surrounding view, the metal-clad concrete structure establishes its own mountain range in miniature with a 50-metre-long roofline defined by a series of sharp peaks. A wide walkway, complete with benches and picnic tables, passes below this angular canopy en route to a cavelike washroom facility. The project’s reflective casing proves especially enchanting come nighttime,…

There’s gilding the lily, and then there’s wrapping a promenade of palm trees — a pretty flamboyant form of greenery to begin with — in twinkle lights, as Ocean Drive does each December. All that to say, Miami is a city that recognizes the value of a little extra flash. Art Basel Miami Beach is well-established as a must-visit for collectors of bold canvases, while Design Miami commands its own following as a design fair dedicated to edgy, limited-edition furnishings — many by exciting industry luminaries such as Nifemi Marcus-Bello and Sabine Marcelis. The 2023 edition was no exception: It was filled with interesting material experiments like Lukas Wegwerth and Corinna Dehn’s chaise longue clad in an armadillo-like shell of wooden shingles. Design Miami’s creative energy has gradually spilled over…

“Furniture waste is a significant issue that will only worsen as new modes of working drive shorter-term demands for office equipment,” says Tony Elkington, founder of London-based, sustainably focused industrial design firm Studio Elk. Having observed overconsumption of home office furniture in response to the COVID-19 outbreak, his team ruminated on how to prevent more desks and chairs from entering U.K. landfills. Its solution, still in the concept phase, is a subscriptionbased system that essentially leases out furniture, recovers pieces or parts when they’re damaged or no longer in use, and redistributes or recycles them. Both the concept and the Studio Elk–designed furniture line intended for use with this program are called Koru. The system comprises desks, accessories and chairs that are minimal yet handsome enough to suit both business-and home-office…