Table of contents for June 2016 in AZURE

BY THEIR VERY NATURE, monuments are contentious: they touch on sensitive topics, they involve seemingly numberless stakeholders, and they try to please everyone. Rarely do they rise as poetic expressions devoid of bureaucratic manhandling – which is why the Shoah Memorial in Bologna, Italy, dedicated to Holocaust victims, stands as a testament to the power of quiet contemplation. The imposing structure is installed in an existing plaza elevated over the city’s new central high-speed train station. It comprises two 10-metre-tall volumes made of Corten steel, aligned to create an interior pathway that narrows at one end, from 160 centimetres wide to just 80, so the diminishing space nat ur al ly heightens visitors’ sense of confinement. By day, only a dim light manages to filter into the passage; at night,…

OUR INTERNATIONAL JURY for the 2016 AZ Awards gathered in Toronto in March to weigh in on the 826 competition entries that poured in from 52 countries. We’re thrilled to present the final 66, who wowed our panel with their remarkable vision, innovation and creative genius. The winners in each category will be revealed at the AZ Awards gala on June 17, held at Toronto’s Evergreen Brick Works, and their projects will be featured in our July⁄August issue. Residential Architecture Atelier Big City: The U, Montreal, Canada LAN Architecture: 79 Housing Units, Bègles, France Neri&Hu Design and Research Office: Rethinking the Split House, Shanghai, China Patkau Architects: Tula House, Strait of Georgia, Canada PK Arkitektar: Vacation Cottages, Brekkuskógur, Iceland Tropical Space: Termitary House, Da Nang, Vietnam Commercial⁄ Institutional Architecture Over…

Members Emma Aiston, born in Adelaide, Australia, 1985; Daniel To, born in Adelaide, 1984 Location Adelaide, Australia Education Industrial design, University of South Australia, 2007 Occupation Industrial designers Selected awards 2010 Bombay Sapphire Design Discovery Award Selected exhibits 2016 Beauty-Cooper Hewitt Design Triennial, New York; 2015-16 Rigg Design Prize, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne; 2014 and 2012 Wallpaper Handmade, Milan; 2012 Designjunction, London; 2008 and 2009 100% Futures, London Selected clients Aãrk Collective, Field, Good Thing, JamFactory, Petite Friture, Tait, Wrong for Hay WORKING TOGETHER Daniel To: We met at university while studying industrial design in Adelaide. We did one project together and didn’t enjoy the process at all – and we vowed never to work together again. After university, we worked for a couple of years in London, where…

GRUPPO CAMPARI CANADA HEADQUARTERS TORONTO “It’s like wandering into a cave and discovering something magical” CAMPARI’S FIRST OFFICE WAS in a basement in central Milan – or at least that was where Gaspare Campari distilled the bracing concoction his wife served in the bar upstairs. But that was over a century and a half ago. For the opening of its Canadian office (its 24th internationally), Gruppo Campari wanted something ambitious, audacious, even a little celebratory. Tucked away on a dead-end street in Toronto’s Liberty Village, a trendy locus for start-ups, tech companies and advertising firms, the office had been a film studio and before that a foundry. At first, it didn’t look like much: it had no windows, no partitions, no ventilation. The space was “a horrible black hole,” as…

JUNE 10 TO OCTOBER 9 SERPENTINE PAVILION LONDON The Serpentine Pavilion, installed each summer in Kensington Gardens, is the highlight of London’s architecture and design festivals, held in June and September, respectively. This year’s installation, designed by Bjarke Ingels, will be joined by four ”summer houses,” including one by Barkow Liebinger (left), which offers shade beneath a sinuous ribbon of plywood. serpentinegalleries.org JUNE 13 TO 15 NEOCON CHICAGO The top brands in contract furniture are all on hand at the Merchandise Mart to reveal their latest launches. Expect new products from old favourites, including Arper – introducing the free- standing divider at right – as well as up-and-coming brands like Naughtone. Also on the bill are keynote speakers David Rockwell and International WELL Building Institute founder Paul Scialla. neocon.com JUNE…

DATA CENTRE CLOUD DSC GUANGZHOU CHINA “Investments in design are usually found in areas like the hotel industry, but a factory is a whole new realm to explore” DIGITAL COMMUNICATION COMPANIES that house hectares of server racks are rarely considered for their creative potential. In Guangzhou, one of China’s fastest-growing tech hubs, Cloud DSC is changing that by turning its industrial park location into an immersive environment. “Investments in design are usually found in areas like the hotel industry, but a factory is a whole new realm to explore,” says Alberto Puchetti, the Italian architect whose Hong Kong-based firm, Arboit Ltd Design and Architecture, has reconfigured the data centre’s 20,000-square-metre headquarters. Part of a larger master plan, the pro ject is the first to be added to a campus that…

DIGITAL LAB SAINSBURY'S HEADQUARTERS LONDON LOOKING AROUND THE WELL-LIT offices of Sainsbury’s Digital Lab in central London, it’s hard to imagine its former life as a windowless basement canteen. Now the 991-square-metre space is an eye-filling display of colourful seating, hexagonal work islands and inviting booths. The lab is where developers work on next-gen technologies that are changing how we shop for groceries, including apps that allow you to purchase products directly off the shelf rather than line up at the cash; and e-ink pricing devices that automatically update labels, doing away with the need for printed stickers. Creating an environment that would attract and retain the best digital talent was therefore an imperative. London’s Chetwoods Architects was commissioned to transform the basement into a highly flexible and visually stimulating…

Landscape urbanist and curator of Canada’s submission to the Venice Biennale Why extraction? Extraction is what we share the most with other nations around the world. Every country relies on Canadian extraction services, technologies, and operations. We have the largest gold company in the world, along with the largest potash, copper and iron companies. From a cultural perspective, extraction is our main presence in the world. The biennale focuses on architecture. What is archi tectural about the project? Extraction makes us rethink what architecture actually is. It concerns the unaddressed and unspoken power of the state itself – not only how buildings are made or constructed, but also where do the resources come from to begin with? We’re interested in the culture surrounding resource extraction. What will the exhibit look…

SUNSHADES Sun blockers 1 LIGHT INTEGRATED Carpetlight, of Germany, combines a textile circuit board, dimmable LEDs and a passive cooling system to create luminous, outdoorfriendly sheets that can be folded, rolled or stretched. carpetlight.com 2 A WORLD OF APPLICATIONS Sunbrella’s versatile Contour collection of knit-textured fabrics is supersupple, so it easily forms into awnings, windscreens, umbrellas, cabanas and pavilions. Available in 15 colours, it offers exceptional UV protection. sunbrella.com 3 THE NEW PERGOLA French textile maker Dickson Constant’s Area+ line of pergola fabrics includes the light-permeable Sunworker Cristal, which adds a thin, translucent PVC membrane to an open-weave fabric for complete waterproofing and high durability. dickson-constant.com 4 FASHION-FORWARD Inspired by spring, Création Baumann’s new Outdoor Collection includes several options for curtains and sunshades, including Outdoor Nicaragua, a dirt-resistant, washable acrylic…

It seems like dark times when the arts com munity and the defence industry are ready to go to war over the use of a new colour. However, when nano-materials developer Surrey NanoSystems clarified recently that British-Indian sculptor Anish Kapoor has acquired exclusive rights only to the artistic use of its super-black pigment, Vantablack, the military-industrial complex breathed a sigh of relief, safe in the knowledge that it can still use the light-absorbing nanotechnology to coat stealth fighter jets. Artists, on the other hand, remain miffed that this blackest of blacks will not be an option for the average painter’s palette anytime soon. It’s not the first time someone has claimed ownership over a colour (Yves Klein did it with his bespoke blue in the 1960s), but this particular pigment…

FOR DECADES, Toronto’s idea of retaining historical buildings while making way for densification was to preserve just the facades and erect towers in the remaining footprints. There are signs, though, that developers are reassessing the value of leaving old buildings intact as a key element of a vibrant street culture. One project, Queen Richmond Centre West, has become a poster child for more sensitive urban growth, restoring two beloved brick-and-beam factories by building around and above them. Local firm Sweeny&Co designed 11 floors of high- performance office space that rise 23 metres above both buildings. Where a trash-strewn parking lot once stood between them, a soaring, glass-walled atrium now links all three structures. To lift the new addition, the floor plate had to be held aloft at four corners. While…

LICEO EUROPA At this preschool in Zaragoza, Spain, Rosan Bosch Studio replaced traditional desks and chairs with an angular landscape of hills, valleys and caves. Shelving integrated within the dunes provides storage for books and toys. rosanbosch.com MEMORIA URNS Research into contemporary burial practices led Montreal designeranthropologist Diane Leclair Bisson to create a series of ceramic urns with a modern aesthetic. dianeleclairbisson.Com THE ENDANGERED Trigger Design Studio’s collection of musical jewellery boxes uses various materials to represent the characters of four animals, including cracked concrete for the rhino, and smooth white ceramic for the elephant (above). triggerdesignstudio.Com LA TAULE SPORTS CENTRE This athletic training facility, by Montreal firm Microclimat, is part of a revitalization of Quebec’s Eastern Townships. The footprint of the steel-clad two storey volume makes space for an…

“There’s a redefinition of ground-floor retail spaces taking place along commercial streets” ARCHITECTURE FIRM LA SHED MONTREAL LA SHED IS KNOWN FOR subverting convention. The Montreal architecture firm’s street-level office, in a former general store (circa 1890), is typical of the cheek that has distinguished it as a bona fide up-and-comer. “The advantage of working in a space like this is that we see passersby, the seasons and Duluth Avenue’s ever-changing streetscape,” says co-founder Sébastien Parent. “It’s stimulating for creativity on every level.” Established in 2012, the nine-person practice has carved out a niche in residential architecture with a string of irreverent updates to century-old Plateau townhouses, deftly mixing contemporary and heritage elements. The facades of this former working-class neighbourhood, a checkerboard of brick and stone row houses, are often…

THE HEIMTEXTIL THEME PARK ABOUNDED with creative energy – an experiential display of curated trends that stole the show. It amassed close to 1,500 fabrics and objects by brands both behemoth, like Texdecor of France, and boutique, like FAF Design Studio of Tel Aviv, in a sunburst-inspired setting. Thinkk Studio pedalled away at a bicyclepowered loom, weaving vibrant thread lampshades; while Handmade Industrials showed off the results of its colour- morphing oxidation experiments on everything from clay and fabric to metal. The exuberance at the theme park was matched by the innovation at Print IT Digital, a hall that buzzed with the massive digital printers of HP, Epson, Durst and others. The high-resolution machines slowly cranked out saturated patterns on textiles and wallpapers – everything from tufted tile motifs to…

1 Farrah Ruby by The Rug Company Interior designer Nicole Fuller took inspiration from the graffiti-printed fashions of Stephen Sprouse for her graphic rugs. Here, hand-spun ruby red silk snakes across a cream Tibetan wool base. therugcompany.com 2 Fanfare by Beaulieu Aqua Hospitality Carpets’ series consists of printed rugs with medallions and borders in painterly combinations of watery blues, soft greens and pale yellows. Available in seven textures, they are made of durable nylon. beaulieuflooring.com 3 27815 by W Studio Muted brown, rust and cream work together in this wool and silk rug, which is woven and knotted by hand in India using traditional methods. Custom sizing and colourways are available. wstudio. ca 4 Vertical Layers by Shaw Contract Group Mimicking how the passage of time affects exposed materials, the…

Black Dog Publishing (hardcover, 352 pages) THE COMPANION PUBLICATION to the Vancouver Art Gallery’s most ambitious exhibition ever – 371 historical and contemporary works by 156 artists, assembled with the participation of some 27 invited curators – is correspondingly big and enterprising. The book’s premise is supported by essays, illustrated with hundreds of images, and laid out with expansive, punchy graphic design. As described by Bruce Grenville, the VAG senior curator who ori gin ated the show’s concept, MashUp proposes that the “radical simplicity” of the collage techniques Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque pioneered in the early 20th century kicked off a seismic shift in European art – one that “continues to shape and define the production of visual culture through to the present.” A century of “mash-up” strategies has…