Table of contents for January - February 2017 in AZURE

AZUREMAGAZINE.COM Ice Cube This month, the crowd-pleasing Warming Huts return to Winnipeg’s Red River to shelter skaters from the winter wind. A new addition for 2017 is Anish Kapoor’s Stackhouse, which will be constructed entirely from blocks of ice. We’ll profile the full line-up of structures after their late-January inauguration. DAILY POSTS From the Interior Design Show in Toronto to IMM in Cologne and Maison&Objet in Paris, January is a month packed with design events. Check in for news on the latest product launches and installations. PRODUCT GUIDE In the coming weeks, our editorcurated Product Guide will feature the latest and greatest architectural lighting, as well as dining tables and chairs, kitchens, appliances, surfacing and more. INSIDE EDITION A robot-staffed makeup counter in St. Petersburg, a Marrakesh-themed cafe in Amsterdam…

JANUARY 16 TO 22 TORONTO DESIGN WEEK DURING THE THIRD WEEK OF JANUARY, you’ll hardly be able to turn a corner in Toronto without stumbling into spectacular design. The Toronto Design Offsite Festival will see storefronts, galleries and public spaces across the city display independently produced works from hundreds of established and emerging creatives. The lineup includes over 100 events, installations and curated exhibitions, while a series of tours – including a designer-led walk through revitalized Regent Park – will allow locals to see their city through new eyes. At week’s end, head to the Metro Toronto Convention Centre to get out of the cold and take in the Interior Design Show. In addition to over 300 exhibitors of interior products, the show features a slate of big-name speakers, including…

1 LINEO BY CRASSEVIG The appeal of this lean stool lies in the simplicity of its parts – a curved wooden surface and two open-frame metal supports. $425, crassevig.com, augustusjones.com 2 OTTO BY CRASSEVIG A steel tube wraps around the circular seat of Otto to form the footrest, and a small lever, no bigger than a pencil, operates the pneumatic height adjuster. $770, crassevig.com, augustusjones.com 3 REVOLVER BY HAY Powder-coated in poppy red, this steel perch looks stationary, but it actually spins 360 degrees. $335, hay.dk, themodernshop.ca 4 CORKTOWN BY HOLLIS+MORRIS The Toronto studio's cold-rolled steel stools are becoming regular fixtures at local retailers and bistros – you can spot them by their distinctive footrests. From $470, hollismorris.com 5 CROSSHATCH BY GEIGER The vintage feel of this sturdy seat has…

1 Dandy by Lema A bronze metal frame supports a variety of door panel options, including fabric, leather, bronzed mirror, transparent or lacquered glass (in 10 colourways) and silk-screen printed glass. Internal components range from drawers and hanging bars to display cases. lemamobili.com 2 Dress Bold by Rimadesio This walk-in closet can be installed in a linear, corner or C-shaped formation. Wall panel options come in mirror, lacquered glass or backlit wood, and can be equipped with organizing elements such as shelves, rods, racks and draw-out trays. rimadesio.com 3 A Filo by Molteni&C With an invisible handle integrated into the doors, this system is compatible with a variety of door styles including hinged, sliding and flush-mount. The inner workings offer swivel pull-out mirrors and suspended drawers with fronts in solid…

SELECTION BY ERIN DONNELLY ↑ SECOND DOME Creative workspace provider Second Home commissioned Spanish architects DOSIS to create this reconfigurable, inflatable structure. This past October the space played host to a series of community events in London Fields. dosis.es ↓ VEETEE Thanks to this floating timber pavilion, designed by students from the Estonian Academy of Arts with architects b210, visitors can enjoy the wetlands of Estonia's Soomaa National Park during the spring flooding season. ekasisearhitektuur.ee ↘ BEATLES YELLOW SUBMARINE LEGO Bringing together two icons of pop culture, this Lego set is inspired by the 1968 Beatles film. Navigate Pepperland in a faithful recreation of the psychedelic sub, or reinterpret the pieces to build a unique structure. $70, lego.com ↑ KNOT LIGHT This hand-blown glass pendant is the first collaboration between…

“YOU’D NEVER CALL THIS A MINIMALIST HOUSE,” says Pedro Reyes, speaking by phone from his home in Mexico City. No, you definitely wouldn’t. Before they broke ground, Reyes and his wife, Carla Fernández, had a vision unlikely to be found on an architectural cheat sheet. “We had a certain idea of a sciencefiction villain who lives on an island in a grotto, surrounded by elements of stone, strange apparatuses, switchboards and Op art,” says Reyes. “We imagined the ruins of an extraterrestrial civilization. Something that feels futuristic and ancient at the same time.” Well, mission accomplished. Reyes is an experimental visual artist and sculptor who also trained as an architect. His work, he says, rejects the idea of boundaries. He and Fernández, a celebrated fashion designer, designed their home to…

AT THE WORLD’S PREMIER SHOWCASE of ceramic tile, visitors were in hot pursuit of what’s new, different and innovative. What more can be done with marble imitations? Has the wood look reached saturation? Can slabs get any thinner? And what about the potential for textures and added dimension? Cersaie 2016, held in Bologna, Italy, in September, delivered on its promise of new possibilities. More than 850 exhibitors – largely Italian, with some Spanish and Turkish representation – revealed planks and panels that prove ceramic tile knows no bounds. Trends that dominated in previous years reappeared, but in evolved forms. Though hardwood imitations are still an industry, many manufacturers – including Unica, Fioranese and Ceramiche Piemme – focused on artful reinterpretation, rather than convincing replication. Versions of oak, walnut and ash…

AT JUST OVER A KILOMETRE LONG, Chicago’s Navy Pier is one of the world’s longest public piers. Opened in 1916 as one of five proposed by Daniel Burnham, the pier served a commercial port until 1995, when it was renovated into a tacky but popular festival marketplace that drew upwards of eight million visitors each year. In 2012, James Corner Field Operations won a competition to modernize the Midwest’s most popular attraction, heading up a team that includes Brooklyn’s nArchitects. The US$155-million makeover began with an exercise in de-cluttering. Mimi Hoang, principal of nArchitects, compares the process to looking around your living room and asking yourself, “Where did I get all this crap?” The strategy of erasure she describes entailed removing all vendors and ticket sellers, then building four polished-steel…

IT IS WELL KNOWN that new parents are an exhausted bunch. They lose almost three hours of sleep a night, on average, according to a recent poll – a deficit that adds up to 44 or more days over the course of the first year. Such deprivation can lead to postpartum depression, relationship stress, decreased ability at work, accidents or even child abuse. “It’s more than just a nuisance,” says designer Yves Behar, who is also a father of four. “I rest easier knowing there’s a robot in my baby’s room,” he says of his latest creation. Billed as the world’s first smart sleeper, Snoo can rock a crying baby to sleep, giving new parents some much-needed rest. “Crib design hasn’t changed in 1,000 years,” says California pediatrician and author…

WHEN A FAMILY COMMISSIONED Sanjeev Panjabi and Sangeeta Merchant, partners in the Mumbaibased architecture firm Spasm, to design a vacation home, the site was far from a tabula rasa. Located about a two-hour drive east of Mumbai in the mountainous town of Malavli (a so-called hill station with a cooler climate, where one can escape the searing summer heat), the site was blessed with mature trees and vegetation, but cursed with a dilapidated existing structure. “The house had developed cracks from the foundation all the way up to the roof,” says Panjabi. “And it had been left unused for almost 10 years.” The typical approach might have been to call in the wrecking crew, knock down the structure, and remove the detritus while levelling the site. But Panjabi and Merchant…

1 Bam Bam Baby by Riva 1920 With a slightly rustic appeal, this bed combines a handmade finger-jointed frame with a padded headboard that can be upholstered in fabric or leather. The base is finished with a blend of wax and natural vegetable oils. riva1920.it 2 5050 by Molteni&C Including a dresser and two sizes of bedside tables, these pieces mix solid surfaces with open voids to an interesting degree. Topped with dark-stained wood, the furnishings can be gloss or matte lacquered and feature Eco Skin trays. molteni.it 3 Fidelio Notte by Poltrona Frau Wrapped in a honey-hued saddle leather with recessed handles, this dresser has a tightly tailored appearance. The frame is made from solid walnut and birch plywood and can be topped with walnut veneer or Calacatta gold…

THE IDEA THAT ARCHITECTURE and design exist in a vacuum disappears within the opening moments of Knowledge Matters, the latest publication from UNStudio. With innovation as its selling point, the book explores 11 “knowledge tools” that the Amsterdam firm employs in its design work. “The Big Detail,” “Bridged Scales,” and “Beyond the Parametric” are a few of these tools, all of which are meant to encourage active thinking and awareness of specific contextual functions. Two introductory essays lay out the framework behind a new paradigm of architectural thinking, their lighthearted perspective combined with a wariness of stagnation in the architectural field. The gallery of work that follows is presented under a variety of lenses, according to the tool in use, with built examples illustrating how each idea is used in…

A sculptural knot of staircases is set to rise amidst the boxy forms of Midtown Manhattan, as if M.C. Escher decided to get into the real estate business. Vessel is a not just a staircase to nowhere, but 154 interconnected flights woven into an “impossible construction” by U.K. designer Thomas Heatherwick. In a dense city packed with apartment dwellers, this public structure will be a place for exercise and daily constitutionals. New York already has precedent for this sort of thing; in Times Square a striking red staircase to nowhere reaches over the TKTS theatre tickets booth. And closer to Hudson Yards, where the US$150-million Vessel will rise, is the High Line, a popular urban pilgrimage for visitors and residents alike. Such multimillion-dollar trophies – part park, part sculpture –…