Azure-2013-1-2

ET CETERA CETERA ET  THONET BIKE BY ANDY MARTIN  THOMAS BAYRLE FOR  OSCAR NIEMEYER FOR  THE CAVE BY BENJAMIN MAHARAM CONVERSE GRAINDORGE For $,, one can own this brakeless beech ride by Australian Visitors to London’s Frieze Art Fair Architect Oscar Niemeyer never shies For the French furniture com pany architect Andy Martin. It is made might have noticed some impressive from embracing the new. Rather than Moustache, Benjamin Graindorge using CNC cutting and Thonet’s entryways and rest stops en route a building, his latest project is a line devised a sculptural mood lamp, steam- bending process, originally to the various shows and events. The of Converse sneakers, this one with illuminated from within a hollow core. from . andymartinstudio.com wall treatments were courtesy of a bold red tongue that references the moustache.fr Maharam, with U.K. company Rutters entrance to his Ibirapuera Auditorium  SCHLUMP ONE BY J. MAYER H. supplying the carpeting. Maharam in São Paulo. The canvas upper is  BEEHIVE BY JOHANSON DESIGN resurrected patterns based on decorated with the text of his famous German architect Jürgen Mayer H., German pop artist Thomas Bayrle’s quote: “It is not the right angle that To install this felt sound absorber, known for his amoebic forms, shook art pieces from the ’s, digitally attracts me, nor the straight line. It is each hextagonal piece fits together up a Hamburg neighbourhood with printing them on a non-woven solid the sensual curve I find in the moun- and mounts to the wall with magnets. this renovation of a ’s building. substrate. The motif is now part of tains of my country, in the sinuous Designed by Johanson Design of Named after a nearby subway sta- Maharam’s Digital Projects collection. course of its rivers, in the body of Sweden. johansondesign.com tion, Schlump houses offices and a maharam.com the be loved woman.” niemeyer.org.br private university. jmayerh.de COMPILED BY DIANE CHAN  JAN⁄FEB  AZUREMAGAZINE.COM

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IdentIkIt gIorgIo Fontana Arte’s exciting new art director carries on with his own line of vibrant, bIscaro innovative furnishings BY joann plockova Born Vercelli, italy, 1978 location milan and Treviso, italy education 2002 bachelor of industrial design, iuaV university of Venice occupation furniture designer, art director selected exhibits ↑ The sable led lamp has a monobloc form 2012 edition of nine, Ventura with a small, space-saving head, designed by Lambrate, milan Design Week Biscaro for something good, the production 2010-12 new italian Design, traveling workshop he co-founded in 2011. exhibit by the Triennale di milano → Magritte, a lemon/lime squeezer in injection- 2011 represented italian design at moulded plastic. 150th-anniversary celebrations of italy’s unification, Turin 2011 edition of Six, Ventura designing Before knowing design fessor told me about a young, dynamic lighting Lambrate, milan Design Week When i was a child, my father used to bring home company that was hiring. i asked for an interview 2009/10 Salone Satellite, Salone del electronics, lamps, furniture – things i could study, and took some works with me – ugly works – that mobile, milan break, dismantle and reassemble. This affected i had made the previous year. incredibly, they hired my understanding of how things are made, and how me. i was in the engineering department, because selected clients different element combinations could affect the there was no r&D department at the time, and bosa, birex, cb2, Doimo, maison final object and the way i interacted with it. When everything was beautifully unstructured; there were 203, mizar, nuovostudio, Slide you begin to question your surroundings and find so many things to learn. i worked, for example, on out how to solve the problems you see, you start [marc] Sadler’s mite floor lamp, and i was one of giorgiobiscaro.com to become a designer. the first to see the concept for caboche [by Patricia urquiola and eliana gerotto]. foscarini shaped the The universiTY of venice way i see a project, and design in general. To be honest, i learned very little about how design actually works. The school had only been founded The freelance dance a few years earlier, and it was not yet equipped i quit foscarini after less than a year to try a to teach properly. but we soaked in every type of freelance career. What a fool i was, and how much design, from graphic and interior design to ergo- i still needed to understand. my first job was nomics. This was the biggest lesson: never stop creating a prototype for an external alarm horn. learning, because things always change. i spent two weeks collecting all the information i could about sirens, then started designing, then The school of foscarini made a Styrofoam prototype. i sold the result to as i finished my first three years at iuaV, a pro- the company that gave me the brief, without 54 jan ⁄ feb 2013 azuremagazine.com

← the Bundled light fixture, in development for a french brand, is made with cotton fibreboard. ↓ constructed from birch and oak plywood topped in iron, the reprouvé stool, for cB2, pays homage to jean Prouvé. ↗ this prototype chair is named Pollo (italian in almost every Italian magazine and many blogs. for “chicken”). the painted metal frame reminds Two works I made with craftsmen in 2011 and 2012, Biscaro of a cartoonish roasted bird. the Sable lamp and the Torii chair, are also among ↗↗ Perfect for a single bloom, flynn consists my most important pieces. They speak to a future of a 3‑D-printed lattice set in a purple glass vase. where we will produce less, but better. ← the offset stool, for maison 203, is made of Sometimes I feel as if I have worked too much plywood sheets bent and cut into chevrons and in companies, because I’m a perfectionist and screwed onto three legs. always see too many problems in a product I have ↓to create his wood-capped Yalog vessels, in mind. My design process tends to be very long Biscaro used rough branches to form the moulds and articulated, because I see production, into which the glass is blown. com mer cial or even supply chain issues. besides this, I always try to put something more into my projects, something that sets them apart in terms of production methods, materials, behaviours, and relationships with the user. fontana arte In 2012, I took on the artistic direction of fontana arte, which was founded in 1932. It has a great history, yet in the past 30 years, instead of pro moting the original values of innovation and modernity, the company became conformist, sticking with mono-material, monochrome prod- ucts. My goal is to innovate again, contacting good designers, no matter if they just graduated getting a royalty. Today that alarm is one of the or are world famous, and working closely with most sold in europe, and I don’t get a buck for them to build the product together. it – another good lesson about design. In the next collection, I will use nearly 20 different Later I taught in the synthesis lab of Poli tec nico materials: fibres, expanded foams, fabrics, plastics, di Milano, while working as a freelancer at nuovo- glass. I want to push this, because I feel the crisis studio and learning how to devise the communica- has brought about the worst thing for a designer: tion strategy around a product. I was also employed a lack of experimentation. a dramatic change as art director at Disenia, which gave me control is the best thing for fontana arte, and I am lucky over the creative process, because it was the kind enough to be one of the main players in it. Many of high-quality, small-sized Italian company where people will criticize us for turning our backs on the you could learn by doing everything. freelancing in past, but we can’t live in the past forever. Italy is anything but easy – almost half of your earnings go to taxes – but I decided to start my own into the future studio in 2007, because I truly believe in my job I’m also working with other design brands to pro- and all of its different aspects. duce some of my projects – a low table, a bookshelf and a clock for french and Italian companies – first major successes which I hope will be produced in 2013. This work ↑ Lariviera, an armchair for the outdoors, is My Offset stool for Maison 203 was built around between a freelance career and the company life made with a minimal metal frame and vibrant, the idea of redesigning a process more than an is the best job a designer could desire. I will keep gradated PVc cushions. object. even before it was on sale, it was featured doing what I’m doing now – just better. jan ⁄ feb 2013 55

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Project: haus am weinberg firm: UNstUdio, amsterdam soft Ben van Berkel brings his love of twists, bends and all-white walls to his latest residential project in germany curves By mAiri BEAutymAN PhotogrAPhy By iwAN BAAN 58 JAN ⁄ FEB 2013 AzurEmAgAziNE.com

House Profile Location: stuttgart, germany BuiLding size: 920 square metres Lot size: 1,280 square metres structuraL materiaLs: cast concrete, stucco Located next to a vineyard, the three- storey house is perched on a terraced hillside. It takes on remarkably different appearances from every angle. It’s not often you fInd a functIonIng HIstoRIcal vIneyaRd in a suburb, but principal Ben van Berkel, who credits his love for high terrain as a response that’s what adjoins one new family house located on a craggy hillside on the to his own native country’s lack of elevation. “Perhaps because I’m a Dutch- outskirts of Stuttgart. Well-cultivated rows of grapevines fll the nearby man, I’m happy to see any mountain,” he says with a laugh, “even if it’s only lot, while in another direction the site ofers sweeping views of rooftops and a metre high.” distant city lights. The newly built, 920-square-metre cast concrete home, For the client, retaining the big-name Amsterdam frm to dedicate designed by UNStudio, fts into the landscape like a glove, with both volume time and attention to a private residence was a major coup. UNStudio has and roofine responding to the rising terrain. completed such high-profle projects as the Mercedes-Benz Museum (also “We studied endlessly how to capture views of the mountaintop,” says in Stuttgart), the dramatic Erasmus Bridge in Rotterdam, and a luxury JAN ⁄ FEB 2013 59

↑ The most striking feature, visually and structurally, is a load-bearing S-shaped stairway that connects all three levels and guides the organi- zation of the house. ← To maintain the drama of the staircase, UNStudio used cables as a discreet protective barrier. ↗↗ A large fireplace fills part of a wall near the entrance; its facade is make of one piece of locally sourced stone called Jurakalk. ↗ A library provides a solitary alcove, though not an enclosed one. The house is designed to blur boundaries between private and public space. → → UNStudio custom-built a white Corian kitchen table that extends outdoors, its form mimicking the curves of the house. 60 Jan ⁄ FeB 2013 azuremagazine.com



↑ The third floor wellness area, with STUTTGART its egg-shaped bathtub and wooden SECOND FLOOR sauna, offers a sensual experience. SECOND FLOOR  A glass opening on the second level looks down into the wine cellar one floor below. FLOOR PLANS department store in South Korea. “I’m excited to do house projects, but at the same time careful; they can absorb an enormous amount of time  Master bedroom and money,” van Berkel says. However, when the clients contacted him  Walk-in closet  Bathroom after spotting one his best-known houses in a magazine (the VillaNM in FIRST FLOOR  Gallery/library NewYork, which has since burned down), he was intrigued.  Sauna STUTTGART “On the one hand, they wanted a beautiful house, but they also have a  Wellness area FIRST FLOOR keen interest in architecture,” he says. Their specifi cations outlined the  Elevator number of square metres for each room – an attention to detail virtually   Terrace unheard of. Like VillaNM, Haus am Weinberg is defi ned by a central twist,  Lap pool a dramatic departure from traditional construction in which the three-  Dining area storey house literally twists from within, following a series of diagonal   Kitchen    Dog shower movements that allow for just four support elements: an elevator shaft, two  Living area pillars and one inner column. In turn, minimizing structural reinforce-  ment allowed for glazing on all four corners.  Music room  Technical room Interior circulation is organized around an S-shaped stair that begins  Storage at the southern facade of the lowest level, just inside the main entrance.  Wine cellar Partially integrated into the hill, this fl oor includes a two-bedroom   Wine tasting area apartment for guests and the owners’ college-age children, and a climate-  Bedroom controlled wine cellar. The stair curves up to the second level’s living area  Garage    Entrance and open kitchen-dining spaces, where the coveted mountaintop is promi- nently viewed through double-height glass. In good weather, glazed walls on two sides of the dining area open fully, completely blurring the boundaries STUTTGART between inside and out. The stair concludes on the third fl oor with a gallery GROUND FLOOR space, a master bedroom, an ensuite bathroom and a wellness area with sauna and terrace. GROUND FLOOR White surfaces are everywhere, with fl oors alternating between pale oak and slabs of light grey local stone. The kitchen cabinets are lacquered white,  and muted white clay stucco walls unexpectedly sparkle when daylight hits   embedded refl ective stone. “I’m so against normal stucco, especially in such  a special house, so we made it a little shiny,” vanBerkel explains.  Further interior accents reveal what he calls the client’s “secret life.” Above the four-metre-long solid oak dining table, LED lighting circles a mounted stag head between two ram heads. The wild game theme carries   through to the music room, where surfaces suddenly turn dark and brood- ing and stu ed hunting trophies– including a cheetah, a bear, and the heads of a boar and several deer– loom from the walls. “It’s like stepping    into another world of their life,” says van Berkel, “the way a good dream can also turn into a bit of a nightmare.” In contrast, a room adjacent to the kitchen houses a 20-square-metre shower– for the dogs.  JAN⁄FEB  AZUREMAGAZINE.COM



ramping House Profile Location: san francisco it up originaL buiLding size: 150 square metres current buiLding size: 210 square metres Lot size: 93 square metres SFOSL takes on San Francisco’s tight building restrictions and adds an entire structuraL materiaLs: floor to a 1920s row house ramp armor cladding, oriented strand By AndRew BRAiThwAiTe board flooring PhOTOgRAPhy By BRuce dAmOnTe artists fear the blank canvas. Writers dread the empty page. So it comes as no surprise that architects often consider a carte blanche commission, coupled with unlimited resources, an anxiety- inducing, head- spinning proposition. Sometimes, the best assignments come with restrictive parameters – budget, zoning, an existing structure – established at the outset. Indeed, if you’re Casper Mork-Ulnes and Andreas Tingulstad of SFOSL, working on a tricky renovation in San Francisco’s Potrero Hill neighbourhood, you might even fnd that these limitations yield brilliant solutions you would otherwise have overlooked. “Twentieth Street is a great example of a project where we managed to play within the constraints,” says Tingulstad of the residential remodel in question, which began with a British software salesman looking to expand his two-storey home (the ground foor was entirely garage). The two principals – who have collaborated since 2008 and took the name SFOSL in 2012 – char- acterized the house as a bachelor pad: cramped, old and poorly laid out. “The place hadn’t been touched in 40 years, and even the client, Mike, would tell you it was pretty much a disaster,” says Mork-Ulnes. Two main obstacles to revitalization emerged. The frst was the city’s planning department, whose residential design guidelines for Potrero Hill mandated that the facade be preserved. Although the building was not historically listed, the city permit ofce stipulated that because this was one of eight uniform houses on the street, all built by one developer in the ’20s, the design had to ft within the existing block fabric. The best solution was to build upward. Following zoning restrictions that forced a setback of the third foor, to maintain the streetscape’s visual height, the architects managed to increase the foor space from 150 to 210 square metres. This move also led them to relocate the house’s public functions – kitchen, living, dining – to a single space on the top foor. What had been a dining room and kitchen on the second foor became a fourth bedroom and a master ensuite bathroom. An engineered steel catwalk installed of the rear of the new third foor facilitated access to the back garden. This satisfed the primary objective of two important stakeholders: Mike’s dogs, The three-storey house is clad Merv and Roxy, who have heartily welcomed additional access to in Ramp Armor, a paper-based the terraced green space that was transformed by local garden phenolic resin panel used in guru Flora Grubb. skateboarding ramp construction. The second big challenge was the tight budget. “While $170 per SFOSL installed a catwalk for square foot is easy to achieve in other places, it sure isn’t in San  access to the new top floor from Francisco,” says Mork-Ulnes (the frm has twin headquarters, in the back garden. 64 JAN ⁄ FEB 2013

Project: 20th Street reSidence firm: SfoSL, San franciSco JAN ⁄ FEB 2013 65

A crank-operated bifold panel opens to create an overhang above the third-floor patio. San Francisco and Oslo). Fortunately, the client brought his own interest in low-cost materials to the process. The house is clad in Ramp Armor Deluxe, a paper-based phenolic resin panel used in skateboarding ramp construction. The new fl oors are oriented strand board plywood fi nished with a heavy- duty urethane coating by Top Secret that withstands scratchy dog paws. The staircase connecting the two fl oors features the rough texture of parallel strand lumber beams laminated in place. These material choices helped to keep the budget down, while giving the interior and exterior spaces a feeling of honesty and freshness. Even the original Douglas fi r ceiling beams, which were not substantial enough to be retained as fl oor beams, were repurposed by a local furniture maker into a dining table and a custom shelving unit. Nowhere is the ingenuity driven by regulation and budget better illus- trated than with the sunshade that shields the third fl oor’s south- facing glass wall. Large panels, also made from Ramp Armor Deluxe, are mounted atop a custom-built, crank-operated bifold lift. The shade is deployed to control light and ventilation, eliminating the need for air conditioning; in a nod to the planning department, it is perforated in a pattern that replicates the historical block’s geometry. “The planning department told us they really liked that touch,” says Mork-Ulnes The client worked overtime with project manager Greg Ladigin to hand- drill the sunshade’s 21,756 holes, using a simple paper stencil as a guide. After the project’s completion, Mike – now married to Kathryn, who moved To maintain the continuity of the in to complete the property’s transformation from bachelor pad to family existing street facades, the new homestead– gave Ladigin a suitable wedding gift: two Makita power drills. roofline is set back. “Everyone is pulling in the same direction,” says Tingulstad.  JAN⁄FEB  AZUREMAGAZINE.COM

↑ Perforated with  The central stair- → Original beams , hand-drilled case uses parallel were repurposed into holes, the sunshade strand lumber beams custom shelving and blocks out heat and glued into place. a new dining table. glare in the kitchen  On the second floor, 7 2 8 3 9 4 5 1 6 12 10 11 13 and living areas. the master bedroom and Catwalk Lightwell. ensuite bathroom look Kitchen island. Built-in media nook Laminated PSL stair. Transluscent guardrail. out onto the terraced White epoxy coated OSB oor. back garden. Double-pane, multi-slide doors. Skylight above shown as dashed. White epoxy coated deck ooring. Sunshade above shown as dashed. Double-pane windows throughout. UPPER LEVEL FLOOR PLAN Guardrail sided with skate ramp cladding. THIRD FLOOR 2 9 8 7 1 4 3 6 5 10 Lightwell. Concrete patio. Laminated PSL stair. Synthetic lawn patio. Double-pane glass doors Custom sliding barn doors. Clear epoxy coated OSB oor. Landscaped concrete planters. LONGITUDINAL SECTION Double-pane windows throughout. N SECOND FLOOR 0 Existing stair resurfaced with epoxy coated OSB. 1 2 8 4 THIRD FLOOR SECOND FLOOR N  Living area  Bedroom 0 1  Bifold panel  Master bedroom 2  Dining area  Patio 4  Kitchen  Terraced 8  Living area landscaping  Bathroom  Gangway

Project: courtyard house firm: sanjay Puri House Profile architects, mumbai, india Location: rajasthan, india buiLding size: 3,500 square metres Lot size: 7,200 square metres structuraL materiaL: concrete 68 68 JAN ⁄ FEB 2013 JAN ⁄ FEB 2013

it takes a village Inspired by the ad hoc arrangement of traditional settlements, Sanjay Puri builds a house in India made up of many rooms, with courtyard access at every turn By tIm mckeough PhotograPhy By vIneSh gandhI to design a cutting-edge home in the scorching desert of Rajasthan, India, Mumbai architect Sanjay Puri looked as much to traditional Indian architecture as he did to 21st-century forms. With daytime temperatures routinely soaring to 50 degrees, he says the concept for the Courtyard House grew out of a simple question: “How do you battle this crazy amount of heat?” Fortunately, history provided some tried-and-true strategies. “When you look at Indian architecture, which dates back 700 years, people made houses based on an internal courtyard,” says Puri, noting that when rooms are arranged around a common outdoor space it provides protection from direct sun while helping the interior rooms unload hot air. He twisted the courtyard idea to his needs by breaking the individual rooms into 19 unique modules that he embedded in the landscape around a series of courtyards. “We didn’t want to make simple boxes,” he says. “Every room has its own identity, and each one looks out in a diferent direction.” The loose arrangement was inspired by the haphazard way traditional village huts are placed, he says, so the house looks more like a collage of spaces than a single volume. In addition to orienting the main living areas around one massive court- yard and the guest quarters around another, Puri gave almost every room a separate, smaller terrace on the periphery of the 3,500-square-metre building. No room faces south, and all of the windows are deeply recessed under angled roofines, to avoid direct sun. The decision to use concrete as the main building material was never in question. The house sits at the edge of a large cement plant, and the owner ← “each room has its own identity,” ↑ Concrete surfaces, inside and is the company’s chairman. Luckily, the dense material’s natural thermal says the architect, “and each one looks out, provide natural thermal control qualities help regulate the comfort of the living spaces as temperatures rise out in a different direction.” in the extreme heat. during the day and plummet at night. In such an extreme climate, air con- ↖ various peaked volumes jut out ward ditioning is still essential. “You have to have it,” says Puri. “But the energy at one end, and at the other link to one requirements go down tremendously.” of two central courtyards. JAN ⁄ FEB 2013 69

Project: south pasadena residence firm: Koning eizenberg architecture santa monica, california 70 JAN ⁄ FEB 2013

House Profile Location: pasadena, california BuiLding size: 300 square metres Lot size: 2,700 square metres structuraL materiaLs: wood, concrete, cedar cladding box set Inspired by Chinese takeout containers, Koning Eizenberg Architecture creates a unique family home that embraces indoor-outdoor living BY MIChAEl wEBB PhoToGrAPhY BY ErIC STAndEnMAIEr pasadena flourished as a winter resort for rich Midwesterners back in the ’40s, before it was swallowed by the burgeoning metropolis of Los Angeles. Yet it still retains its distinctive character as a tranquil community seeded with architectural innovations, from the frst California bungalows to Morphosis’ fractured addition to Caltech. The latest surprise is well con‑ cealed from the street, on a 2,700‑square‑metre lot surrounded by trees. There, Koning Eizenberg Architecture has created a family compound of white stucco cubes that enclose a grassy courtyard and an outdoor pool. Each contains a single living or sleeping area, and each opens up through ←↑ Sliding glass doors open to sliding or pivoting doors that lead to the next room or to gardens on either the main garden from every room. side. An edgy yellow‑green accent defnes the door frames. The bright green frames are It’s an exemplary model of southern California indoor‑outdoor living, painted with Benjamin Moore’s even though the architects say that inspiration frst came from the white‑ Yew Green 2025-20. cube shape of Chinese takeout containers. The uneven roof lines, which tilt ↑ The uneven rooftops add visual at varying degrees, channel rain to one corner and maximize the exposure of drama, with steep angles that solar panels. Between the four main boxes lie four elongated volumes that allow for effective rain drainage. JAN ⁄ FEB 2013 71



↖ Radiant concrete flooring ↑↑An impressive chandelier is among the house’s energy- made from a giant tumble- saving features. weed, by Kyla Hansen, hangs ← ← ← The hub of activity above the dining table. concentrates in the living, ↑ “The house pulls you dining and kitchen area. through with glimpses of Burnside pendants by what lies beyond,” says the Rejuvenation. owner. “It feels generous ← ← Stairs lead to a loft but intimate.” office, the only upper floor of the single-level dwelling. ← Like most of the rooms, the master bedroom looks out onto the garden. JAN ⁄ FEB 2013 73

AERIAL VIEW Dining Existing Bedrooms area Kitchen building Pool Pool house Living area Bath and Studio storage link the varying forms as one, and internally serve as spaces for bath- rooms and storage. Each is topped with a roof garden and a wooden deck, and each is clad in planes of cedar boards lightly charred to a striking black fi nish. The owners fi rst came to this lot from a dysfunctional spec house, seeking a sense of freedom for themselves and their teenage sons. She’s a painter; he has been a chef, a gallerist and a stock trader, and is now embarking on a law career. “We had admired Koning Eizenberg’s work for a long time, and we gave them a free hand,” says one of the owners. “I had seen Frank Gehry’s Schnabel house, and I thought it was a cool idea to have separate pavilions where we could work at home, the boys could hang out with friends, and my family could visit.” Simple shapes and the inventive use of o -the-shelf materials are key elements for Hank Koning and Julie Eizenberg, who still champion the frugality and earthiness of their native Australia, 30 years after moving to L.A. “The house pulls you through with glimpses of what lies beyond,” says the owner, “and the spaces feel generous but intimate,” The kitchen and family areas are the hub of social activity, spilling onto the lawn, where movies are projected onto a white wall with embedded speakers nearby. The varied angles of the folded roofs give each room its own character. Edison bulbs are casually strung from the ceilings or suspended from a trapeze of knotted cords. One of the owners grew up in a traditional house and so they indulged in a formal dining room, and a powder room decorated with Chinese-inspired fl oral wallpaper. The kitchen is woodsy, with a ceiling of Douglas fi r plywood, a massive oak table that doubles as an eating counter, and a stair of wooden treads leading up to an o ce – the only upper level of the otherwise single-storey house. As local temperatures rise to 40 degrees during the summer, cross- ventilation and warm air are drawn in by fans at the edge of the lawn and chilled in tubes, buried several metres below ground, to cool the interiors. The concrete fl oors have radiant heating, and solar collectors supply hot water and heat the pool. Sustainable, adaptable and free fl owing, the house is a perfect fi t for this family. “Julie loves the element of surprise, and she wanted the house to have layers of experience,” says one of the owners. “The architecture is almost invisible, because everything works so well.” ← Various outdoor  At night, movies are → The pool house is features, such as projected onto a white clad in a translucent a brick pizza oven wall with outdoor polycarbonate that and rooftop decks, speakers embedded glows at night. take advantage of nearby. Pasadena’s mild temperatures.  JAN⁄FEB  AZUREMAGAZINE.COM

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House Profile Location: port hope, ontario BuiLding size: 413 square metres Lot size: 30 hectares structuraL materiaLs: concrete, Zinc, steeL, LaminateD WooD the long in late fall, the farmland on the lakefront road into Port Hope, Ontario, is pristine, even idyllic: golden felds rolling toward a shimmering horizon of water, here and there clutches of tall trees, their leaves a brittle yellow or blazing red. As the main road turns into a gravel lane that winds through an embrace open feld, there is still little evidence that a newly built house, by Teeple Architects, lies straight ahead. Not, at any rate, until one catches a glimpse of the muted green, zinc-clad structure rising and curving up from the scrub and faring toward the lake. Set on 30 hectares, the two-storey dwelling at its highest point overlooks a rocky bluf that drops precipitously to the lake. But this unusually nar- Teeple Architects’ latest residential row, low-lying house really begins sunken in the region’s compact earth at project in southern Ontario celebrates all its north end, with a rectangular lap pool and a whirlpool surrounded by that surrounds it: fields, trees and water a wooden deck and radiant-heated limestone. The pool is kept warm year round because the Danish owner prefers to swim in the dead of winter. BY DANIEL BAIRD From there, the house ramps upward. On one side, an exterior staircase PHOTOGRAPHY BY BOB GUNDU AND leads to a deck that traces the entire length of the house. Part of the top will eventually become a green roof, further connecting the structure with its SCOTT NORSWORTHY surroundings. “This is one of the few houses that actually has a concept,” says principal Stephen Teeple as we wander around the periphery with project architect Luc Bouliane. From a distance, the house appears to rise from the ground like a cresting wave. “It’s about organic growth; it begins ABovE PHoTo BY BoB guNdu in the earth and gradually opens, blossoms, up toward the light,” Teeple continues. “Most houses are just nice boxes. This one connects to every- thing that surrounds it: felds, woods, water.” 76 JAN ⁄ FEB 2013 AzurEmAgAziNE.com

PROJECT: PORT HOPE HOUSE FIRM: TEEPLE ARCHITECTS, TORONTO Clad in zinc, the house rises from ground level and twists toward the lake. A mortar-free retaining wall made of hand-cut marble frames the driveway. The pool is kept warm year round using ge o thermal heating. Inside, the entrance leads to a media room and a sauna. JAN⁄FEB

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↖ The focal point of the house is the sunken living and dining area, which faces onto trees and the edge of Lake Ontario. ↑ A wood-burning fire- place divides the kitchen and living areas. To the right is a breakfast nook for quick meals. The owners plan to build a deck off the kitchen for direct access to the lakefront. → The top floor curves more generously than the ground level, allow- ing for a narrow deck that leads to the pool out back. → → The deck can Bottom lEFt PHoto BY BoB guNdu inside via a dedicated also be reached from stairway. JAN ⁄ FEB 2013 79

SECOND FLOOR SECOND FLOOR  Roof deck   Master bedroom   Master bathroom  Office   Walk-in closet      Exterior stairs GROUND FLOOR GROUND FLOOR  Future deck  Living area  Breakfast nook    Kitchen   Dining area   Main entrance  Laundry    Vestibule and Second Floor Plan - 1:250     side entry  Bedroom     Media room    Sauna  Pool  Car port  Berm Ground Floor Plan - 1:250 ← With no neighbours around, the master bedroom and ensuite bath are unabashedly glazed and surrounded by treetops. The cast-concrete basin is custom made. The main entrance is at its midpoint. A media room, a fully equipped that fully embrace the sublimity of the natural world. Behind the bedroom sauna, a mud room, and bedrooms for the owners’ two teenage boys are is a small o ce and an entrance to the deck that leads all the way back to located along a narrow corridor defi ned by a radiant concrete fl oor tinted the pool. a deep grey. But the house’s real drama reveals itself as the foyer morphs While the house incorporates such energy-e cient elements as rain- into a sunken dining and living room with vein-cut Eramosa limestone water harvesting, geothermal heating, radiant fl oors, and windows that fl oors that run all the way to a fully glazed wall. Next to the living room is provide ample opportunities for passive heating and cooling, it makes an elevated kitchen and a breakfast nook with warm walnut panelling and no attempt to discreetly meld into the surroundings; rather, it provides raw concrete features. The view, from both the kitchen and living areas, is a dynamic, symbiotic addition to nature. Although expansive in size directly through the trees to the lake, by turns complicated and cinematic. and form, it also contains small, elegant touches: a retaining wall at the A V-shaped skylight lets light seep in from above, giving the main fl oor a entrance, made from hand-chipped, mortar-free marble, curves along the full-bodied glow. driveway; and a young birch, rooted within a small courtyard, is now grow- The stairway to the second fl oor is steep and narrow, the steps clad in the ing up through the roof. same warm, striated walnut as the kitchen. Tall windows in the stairwell The only major addition the owners’ plan is an extended bridge from the create the sensation of climbing upward directly from the fi elds. Both the kitchen to the cli above the lake. “Inside the house, you can’t hear the water, spacious master bedroom and the ensuite bath are framed by full-height, so looking at it can be a bit like watching a movie,” the owner notes. “But curtain-free windows that are open to the lake; yet these are intimate on the other side, you can hear waves crashing on the shore. With the deck, spaces, private by virtue of the property’s size and the position of the house, there will be a more direct connection between the house and the lake.”  JAN⁄FEB  AZUREMAGAZINE.COM

Azure_Mise en page 1 12-11-15 14:30 Page1 riobel.ca

Wall Candy Forget dull palettes and damasks. The bravest wallpaper companies are conjuring new motifs with bold graphics and trompe l’oeil photography compiled by elizabeth pagliacolo checker bermondsey square chroma photography by paul weeks This vibrant 3-D embossment, by While it may look retro, this triangle print The multi-hued blurs in this double helix PHoTo BY Lorem iPSum DoLore styled by alanna davey Graham & brown, comes in hot pink, and with a pewter foil finish, by custhom, pays motif by Trove are made up of manipulated paDDle Bench By saMare, courTesy oF klaus, ToronTo such subdued shades as cream, grey homage to modern British architecture. photos of people dashing around Manhattan. and black. $60 per roll, grahambrown.ca $41 per metre, custhom.co.uk Two columns form the full repeat. $13 to $16 per roll, troveline.com 82 Jan ⁄ FeB 2013 azuremagazine.com

PHOTO BY LOREM IPSUM DOLORE Yonkers station ceiling cuben concrete the long passage towards night Graphic designer Simon Page applied Love raw concrete but not up for tearing Part of rollout’s Wanderlust: New York line, Jacob Hashimoto hand-painted and digitally printed a variety of kites and inter- down drywall? Piet Boon’s photorealistic his programming background to this this pattern transforms the skylights and ceiling mosaics of the Yonkers train station paper for the Dutch company nlXl comes wove them. He captured his tapestry in 64 geometric artwork for Flavor paper, with into a kaleidoscope. $10 per square foot, this beautiful, busy pattern for Maharam. $8 per square foot, flavorpaper.com rollout.ca customizable pattern size and colours. in several finishes, including wide blocks photos, editing them together to create and a black version. $295 per roll, nlxl.com; hollacecluny.ca Price on request, maharam.com

london craft festival design works 2 at London’s biggest design event, british taLents prove, once again, they’re wiLd 1 about retro and refined artistry by craiLLe maguire giLLies 3 not long after london wowed the world with its 2012 Olympic extravaganza, it marked another achievement: the 10th anniversary of the Design Festival, which, according to organizers, had 350,000 visitors flling their itineraries day and night for 10 event-packed days in September. There was no standing on ceremony, with emerging talents at Tent London, top-tier manufacturers at 100% Design, and a consortium of hot designers and companies at Designjunction all reinforcing the British love for mixing originality with artisanal craftsmanship. Such up-and-comers as Gareth Batowski (who displayed his arresting sycamore furniture) and Lola Lely (showing her captivating marble Potluck stool, an ink- pigmented wooden cylinder with a useful han- dle) were just two of the budding practitioners who devoted themselves to bespoke. Lee Broom, a master at embedding sar tor ial charm into reclaimed antiques, set up a vintage-y pop-up, replete with old fruit crates, grocery scales, and a sawdust-strewn foor. On show were over 200 Crystal Bulbs, a line of screw-in LEDs etched with a dazzling crystal-cut pattern. For even more English charm, it’s worth exploring the newly minted FAO (Fashion Art Object) online concept shop. Launched at the festival, the site (fao‑shop.com) ofers a well-curated selection from such leading local brands as Another Country; and Bethan Gray, whose spare wooden stool with brogue detailing on a leather top makes a nod to Savile Row. As in previous years, the Victoria and Albert Museum served as the festival hub, flling its galleries with crowd- pleasing displays, including Keiichi Matsuda’s giant Prism, which had one corner pointing down- ward into the museum’s cupola; the installation was powered by crowd- sourced data culled from London news, weather and trafc reports. While visitors could partially see the piece from within the museum by looking up, they were encouraged to view it in detail by ascending a narrow staircase to the top of the dome, a space usually only accessed by maintenance crews. If a trend could be spotted among so much inno- vation and diversity, it would be a modern take on country style that eschews ornamentation for clean lines and fnishes in natural woods, lifted right from the U.K.’s great outdoors. 84 JAN ⁄ FEB 2013 AzurEmAgAziNE.com

4 5 8 7 6 7 into the light Quebec native philippe malouin’s Blur “paintings” are part of the Digital Crystal exhibit at the Design Museum (until January 13). Each piece consists of Swarovski crystals 9 strung on a metal thread, illuminated by LEDs, and spun at high speed via a central motor. philippemalouin.com 1 tasK master 3 hidden gem 5 east meets east 8 divide and conquer Inspired by 19th- century mining Keiichi matsuda’s Prism, made of East London design darling Jasper lamps used in northern England, washi paper with projections of morrison launched a line of cast Easy to assemble and with a sculp- designer David Irwin’s M Lamp for digital data gathered from across iron kitchenware for Oigen Japan, a tur al simplicity, oscar magnus Juniper design is clad in powder- London, was a showstopper. The perfect marriage of Morrison’s mod- narud’s Ship Shape shelves are coated steel and aluminium. It can installation was placed in the V&A ern minimalism and the 160-year-old rendered in folded white metal and operate for up to eight hours on a Museum cupola, so visitors had foundry’s classic simplicity. plain timber. The A-frame design single charge. juniper-design.com to ascend a steep, narrow staircase jaspermorrison.com also works as a free- standing room to reach it. keiichimatsuda.com divider. oscarnarud.com 2 light etching 6 space maKer 4 nature meets nurture 9 maKing a marK London luxe designer lee Broom London’s Truman Brewery was the worked with Cumbria Crystal, the ginger & Jagger’s Earth to Earth site where young designers showed Forget chintz. With its FSC European sole remaining producer of hand- series mixes opulent materials with their wares. Spotted at the show oak frame and button-back detailing, made English full-lead crystal, to natural motifs. Case in point: the were self-taught artisan gareth Gala Wright’s Bosco II sofa for mark create these screw-in LEDs with a Fig Tree Console, by Pedro Sousa, Batowski’s multi- functional furnish- product presents an understated classic crystal pattern etched right with tree branch legs, shown here ings made from locally sourced approach to new British design. into the bulb. leebroom.com in brass. gingerandjagger.com wood. garethbatowski.co.uk markproduct.com JAN ⁄ FEB 2013 85

11 10 13 12 15 10 under the spotLight using a thermal tracking device and Philips LED illumination mounted on a moving monorail, Cinimod studio’s Walk the Light was both beautiful and eerie. A cone of white light followed pedestrians as they traversed a 14 tunnel while multicoloured lights flowed throughout the space. cinimodstudio.com 11 benCh mark 13 doubLe duty 15 take me with you 17 good wood Established & Sons and the Victor ia and Albert museum teamed up to tom dixon’s whimsical Eclectic Local designer Lola Lely played Samuel chan’s Finnieston line, made present 10 bespoke benches to mark doorstop, in black powder-coated around with marble surfacing effects for his company Channels design, the festival’s 10th anniversary. cast iron or copper plate, doubles and colour bleeds for her Potluck remains loyal to his woodworking Fernando brizio showed a playful as a paperweight. it riffs on the u.K. stools, a limited edition series of roots back in Hong Kong, though interpretation made from cork in designer’s iconic Jack “sitting, stump-like seats with handles that the line is produced at the channels the shape of an iberian pig’s hoof. stacking, lighting thing,” launched make them easy to move. workshop in Shropshire, u.K. fernandobrizio.com in the mid-’90s. tomdixon.net thenewcollectivism.wordpress.com channelsdesign.com 12 textiLe sensation 14 t-totaLLer 16 mix master 18 you’re so Fine From her studio in East London, The back and seat pan of Benjamin The customer is a collaborator with russell Pinch, a former product rising irish textile designer Hubert’s clever Pelt chair for de La the Element Vessel, from the London designer with the conran group, Claire-anne o’brien creates chunky espada is made from a single sheet design studio Vitamin. Each piece co-founded pinch design with his cable-patterned knits to drape of plywood shaped like a T-shirt. can be customized by mixing and wife, oona Bannon. He created iona over equally chunky footrests, such Launched at the festival, it has a matching materials such as cut glass, cheval, an elliptical mirror set in as this yellow ciséan Beag stool. solid ash frame and can be stacked turned wood and 3‑D-printed resin. solid oak with Shaker-style joints claireanneobrien.com up to six high. delaespada.com vitaminliving.com and rivets. pinchdesign.com 86 JAN ⁄ FEB 2013 AzurEmAgAziNE.com

17 16 18 19 19 bowed over Benjamin Hubert’s Bow Trestle table, for de La espada, is a prime example of new British design that pairs the natural (solid ash frame) with the industrial (curved steel supports), all 20 in a simple form that is anything but plain. benjaminhubert.co.uk 20 home run The new Belgian brand Llinell showed the statuesque Venus floor lamp, an award-winning design for its World Series line that would look right at home in a photographer’s 21 studio. llinell.li 21 the sound of design At Trafalgar Square, visitors entered the all-black be open sound Portal by Arup and found themselves in an all-white room filled with original sounds created by five artists – proof 22 that good design can be heard as well as seen. beopenfuture.com 22 toP shoP For his Visage mirror, New York designer Joe doucet riffed on the classic spinning top with a cone- shaped base in unfinished walnut and tree ring designs on the brass-hued surface. joedoucet.com JAN ⁄ FEB 2013 87

IIDEX SUPER  TORONTO CANADA FLEXIBLE THE SHEER ARRAY OF INNOVATIVE WORKSTATIONS, LIGHTING AND FINISHES AT IIDEX CANADA SHOWS HOW VERSATILE THE OFFICE HAS BECOME BY DIANE CHAN WITH EVERY POSSIBLE WORKPLACE SCENARIO in mind, Teknion debuted  TAILORED SEATING  SKINNY STACKS two new o ce furniture lines at Canada’s largest contract expo, in a display that was nothing short of inspiring. Against a backdrop of The refined upholstered sides Invited by Keilhauer to design a energetic sketches by artist Wendy Ding, depicting cartoonlike workers of Dauphin’s Atelier seating lend it stackable chair, Tom Deacon drew with retro-modern tech accessories, the o ce manufacturer presented the quality of a finely crafted suit. inspiration from nature. The result is Interpret and Sidewise, both designed by Figure3’s Christopher Wright. Available in three heights, it ensures Loon, an elegant collection of steel The fi rst consists of work surfaces outfi tted with everything from screens privacy in a hotel or office setting. and nylon seats, suited for a café or to mounted cabinets, which attach to a central steel frame, creating dauphin.com a conference centre; it can also be a combination of desking and benching. Sidewise, on the other hand, is fitted with tablet arms. most notable for its storage- equipped recliner, upholstered in bright  ILLUMINATING IDEA keilhauer.com red fabric and designed as a collaborative hub or a spot to recharge. Designed by Todd Bracher and The innovation seen at Teknion was rivalled only by a lighting display engineered by M, the Lightfalls  SUM OF ITS PARTS (somewhat hidden) at the 3M booth. A small iteration of Todd Bracher’s installation uses virtual LED tech- A core frame plus a variety of work Lightfalls installation revealed the potential for virtual LED technology nology to diffuse light across a surfaces come together in Teknion’s to produce dazzling light features while minimizing energy use. For broad surface with minimal wattage. Interpret line, which also accommo- fi nishes, New Wall’s giant murals by Marimekko depicted whimsically A few strategically placed reflectors dates sliding screens and mounted interwoven birds and plants, while softer forms and muted shades are embedded with LEDs, whose storage. The system, by Figure’s dominated fl oor coverings: Weavers Art’s Modern Elements collection light is distributed from one module Christopher Wright, can be installed of rugs, with names like Tulips and Pomegranate, features fruits and to another, creating the effect of in almost any office . teknion.com fl owers in taupes and greys. multiple bulbs. m.com The main attraction, though, was the art installation Special Delivery.  BRANCHING OUT Working with manufacturer sponsors, local artisans took over four  WALLFLOWERS 18-wheelers parked on the show fl oor. Sculptor Scott Eunson paired Three tree-inspired designs make with surfacing company Wilsonart to devise Surface Forms from 2.5- Whimsical illustrations of birds, up J+J/Invision’s modular Urban millimetre-thick compact laminate. His fractal shapes, based on patterns flowers and faces adorn Iso Satakieli, Canopy collection. The organic seen in nature, were CNC cut and suspended to conjure a lacy cumulus a Marimekko mural from New Wall. patterns, in  earth-toned colour- cloud. While it was meant as art, it showed how a basic fi nishing material It measures three metres high and is ways, are composed of nylon with used in countless contract projects can be reimagined as an interior designed for contract or residential recycled content. jj-invision.com design element. environments. newwall.com  JAN⁄FEB  AZUREMAGAZINE.COM

ORGANIC GROWTH To create his intricate suspension piece inside an -wheeler for the Special Delivery exhibit, Scott Eunson designed and CNC-routed Wilsonart’s compact laminate into some  fractal forms, in five sizes. scotteunson.com  FLIP TOP Ideal for classrooms, the versatile  Pivot tables from Nienkämper fold down, thanks to mechanisms in their chrome legs, and store in multiples. Lockable casters enable them to be moved around with ease.  nienkamper.com  SUPPORT DESK Humanscale exhibited Float, a sit-stand table that recently went into production. The ergonomic desk can be raised or lowered to any height in a -centimetre range,  just by pressing down on the surface or tapping a lever, and it supports up to  kilograms. humanscale.com  GRACEFUL LADY Nitzan Cohen designed the She Said stool for Mattiazzi, shown at the Herman Miller stand. The line, in two heights and four solid wood finishes, suits cafés; and it has a counterpart, called He Said. hermanmiller.com  SCORCHED EARTH Depicting life in Arizona’s desert capital, Weavers Art’s distressed silk and wool Phoenix rug, from the Modern Elements collection, is filled with hawks and cactus flowers. weaversart.com  SOFT MODULAR Thanks to its high-resilience foam, Aqua by Palliser is ideal for lounges and lobbies. The sleek sectional has four components, upholstered in fabric or leather, which can be  configured to any space. palliser.com JAN⁄FEB

optical BologNA cersaie effects at cersaie, the world’s largest tile show, 1 ceramics stood in for just about anything, from quilts to wood and concrete look- alikes by catherine osborne 2 last spring, northern italy was rocked by two devastating earthquakes The Paris designer’s mix-and-match concept proved to be a recurring that damaged many ceramic factories in the region, but none as badly as theme, and many other manufacturers aimed to entice buyers with designs that of Sant’Agostino, which lost one of its manufacturing facilities and, that invite self-expression. Refn’s Geometric, for instance, is made up of even more tragically, two employees. Rebuilding the region is still a press- eight versions of one pattern packaged randomly; and Patricia Urquiola’s ing issue, and it was a hot topic at Cersaie in September, where 474 tile Azulej cement tile collection, for Mutina, ofers 27 bold motifs that work exhibitors flled Bologna’s rambling exhibition centre. The show invited best when laid out like patches on a crazy quilt. architect Shigeru Ban to speak about the emergency structures he has Almost every company presented a variation on simulated wood planks built in similarly traumatized places, such as Kobe, Japan; New Orleans; and grey-hued concrete, making the distinctions between one and the next and L’Aquila, Italy. If there is a model of resilience to point to, it would barely discernible. Yet on closer inspection, variety was found here, too. In be Sant’Agostino, which bounced back with an ambitious booth devoted Link, by Keope, the concrete texture features a ghostly imprint of carpeting, to Flexible Architecture, Philippe Starck’s frst-ever line of tiles. The which adds visual softness; while Blend, by Fioranese, is a square grey slab geometry of this dual- textured porcelain collection is simple – a box within edged with planks. Why are these two efects so popular? Tile ofers what the a box – although, depending on how the tiles are arranged, the variations real stuf cannot: lightness, strength, antibacterial properties, and, with an are endless. eye on the future, a much greener option. 90 JAN ⁄ FEB 2013 AzurEmAgAziNE.com

4 5 1 linear works Geometric is one pattern in a 3 collection of four that make up refin’s new Frame series. The 60-centimetre-square tiles come in eight variations, deliberately boxed randomly, so each configuration is unique. refin‑ceramic‑tiles.com 2 mix, patch and match Patricia Urquiola’s Azulej, a cement tile created for mutina, marked a renewed interest in designing tiles that actually look like tiles rather than wood or concrete. The series comes in 27 patterns and has a slight worn-in look. mutina.it 3 glass touch 6 Fondovalle’s Murano, made of double-pressed porcelain in two sizes, comes in six elegant hues, including this Nordic- inspired cobalt 5 past: meet Future blue. fondovalle.it When designer Gio Ponti launched his Triennale tile in 1960, its jigsaw 4 cloud land puzzle shapes were too complex to Domus Academy Design student put into mass production. marazzi Aki Motoyama worked with Brix now offers an inspiring array of to produce Cloud, a cluster of five col our options for building into small, box-shaped tiles that are off unique designs. marazziusa.com kilter from one another, an effect inspired by the loose formation of 6 architonic system clouds. Available in three earthy 7 tones: bone, clay and mud. Philippe Starck’s Flexible Archi tec- brixweb.com ture for sant’agostino isn’t as statement making as it is versatile, with two surface typographies that 8 combine rocky with slightly wavy. The textural differences can be endlessly mixed and matched. ceramicasantagostino.it 7 Fade to grey Like most Italian tile companies, keope offers an array of porcelain stoneware that sports the popular look of distressed industrial con- crete. The Link collection includes 9 such effects as the ghostly imprint of a carpet in pale silver tones. keope.com 8 carpet magic Tile patterns made to resemble Persian carpet are another trend that’s gaining traction. Base by Fap offers ancient, muted tones of stoneware with a lived-in feel that works equally well indoors or out. fapceramiche.com 9 wavelength Designers Domenico De Palo and Alessandro La Spada have ex panded on antolini’s glamorous Natura Collection of engraved stone with Wave, one of seven attention-grab- bing patterns. antoliniusa.com JAN ⁄ FEB 2013 91

SEAMLESS PATTERNS Lea Ceramiche is using Slimtech technology for Diego Grandi’s Studies in Gouache, a series of six classic and repeatable dual- textured patterns, including a loose scribble (shown). The method makes the surfacing extra-thin and super-light. ceramichelea.com  BIGGER IS BETTER The push to go thin and go big con tinues, with such high-tech com pan ies as Porcelaingres of Germany launching slabs that measure three metres long and a mere three milli metres thick. porcelaingres.com  NATURAL ILLUSIONS  CLEAN AND SIMPLE As its name suggests, the Blend Fincibec’s latest innovation, Anti bact, collection by Fioranese brings wood significantly enhances the sanitary and cement into one coffered laying properties of porcelain, and Technica scheme. The collection includes a by Century is the first line to feature wavy texture that emulates the the new technology. fincibec.it texture of cardboard. fioranese.it   HARD AS STONE  OLD IS NEW  AGAIN Using high-definition inkjet technol- Apavisa has come up with one ogy, Edilgres Stonelab by Kale of the most vibrant versions of re creates the look of natural stone, simulated wooden planks, inspired with unique surface variations in- by the aged look of sun- bleached tact. It’s nearly impossible to tell that siding and chipped paint on brick. this is a full-body porcelain tile you’re Called Vintage, the tiles come in six looking at. kaleitalia.com vivid colours, including acid green. apavisa.com  INTO THE WOODS Another plank effect, by Ceramica  SHOWSTOPPER Colli di Sassuolo, brings together Brix’s stunning off-site display the textures of wood and fossilized was housed inside a th- century stone. The eye-popping collection is former orphanage. The installation appropriately called Wow. colli.it showcased the five-millimetre- square I Frammenti, billed as the world’s smallest mosaic tile (available as of this month ). brixweb.com  JAN⁄FEB  AZUREMAGAZINE.COM

DAZZLE ME Dutch designer Marcel Wanders brings his campy baroque sensibility to ceramic surfacing with Minoo for Bardelli, a series of five rich arabesque patterns silkscreened   onto porcelain. bardelli.it  WOOD YOU WANT ME? Caesar’s Root collection, a convin cing oak effect in five shades, allows for the look of wood in spaces where tile is a more durable option, such as restaurants and retail environments. caesar.it  WITH GREAT POWER Cerdisa continues to expand its architectural lines for indoor and outdoor use, with more grey to black shades in various sizes. EC, made with recycled material, is seen here at Milan’s Salone del Mobile – proof that it can handle heavy traffic. cerdisa.biz  THE LAYERED LOOK Woodays mm by Tagina can be laid out on almost any surface, including sand, gravel or grass. Its dens ity makes it ideal for such  outdoor spaces as decks and back- yard poolsides. tagina.it JAN⁄FEB

T:9” kia.ca DESIGNED TO BE ICONIC. T:11.5” When you design your cars to a different beat, people notice. Six red dot wins in four years, J OD M V E J OH
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field trip ToronTo forever Toronto’s Four Seasons Hotel hits the refresh button for a new look in SeaSon that will take it well into the future by Alison GArwood-Jones it took a Canadian Hotelier to show the world how to pull off luxury and service with the Four seasons Hotel chain, started in 1961 by Toronto’s own isadore sharp with a hip motor inn he had hoped to call the Thunderbird (thankfully, the name was taken). Fifty-two years and 89 hotels later – in locales as far flung as Paris, Buenos Aires and shanghai – the company has turned its focus back to Toronto, where it all began, to give the brand’s birthplace the five-star treatment it never received but always secretly wanted. “our last location took over the Hyatt Hotel,” says sharp, now chairman of the board, who has famously compared the arrival experience at the ’70s high- rise on Avenue road to “driving into a garage. We never had the chance to give it our own stamp.” designed by Architects Alliance of Toronto, PHoTos lEFT ANd ToP rigHT BY EvAN dioN Alissa Coe’s porcelain dandelions, the new 55-storey main tower and the adjacent suspended in the triple-height 26-storey residential building opened last october reception area, mark the beginning in the upscale Yorkville district. The main tower PHoTos BY EvAN dioN of a tour de force of Canadian art. houses 217 guest rooms and 42 suites on the first 21 floors, with residential units on the floors above. 96 JAN ⁄ FEB 2013 AzurEmAgAziNE.com

↑ Dbar, in the lobby, is named after chef Daniel Boulud. Yabu Pushelberg’s open concept makes it an ideal venue for seeing and being seen. ← Size and floor level differentiate the entry-level rooms from the suites. All are out- fitted with iPads, Etro amenities, espresso machines, and Geneva docking stations for smart phones.  A floating marble staircase ↑ Ceilings in the entry lounge leads up from the main-floor were deliberately compressed, lobby to Café Boulud on the to heighten the effect of the second floor. Intricate metal soaring reception area. Warm screens define the public spaces walnut cladding and plush seating and form intimate enclosures. lend a luxurious residential feel. In a stroke of serendipity you would never expect fluff, as you’ll discover if you sit there long enough. arrived,” he says. Head back, mouth agape is the from government officials, city plan ners encour- The furniture and interiors are the work of the only way to take in the triple-height volume, warm aged head designer Peter Clewes to make the acclaimed local firm Yabu Pushelberg. Taking as a walnut cladding and veil-like metal screens that main tower significantly taller than the residential point of departure the grand hotels of yesteryear, define the space, which he reveals were inspired one, to create a compositionally stronger state- which relied on chandeliers and soaring ceilings by the precise geometric links on a luxury men’s ment. Both buildings are clad at the base in an to heighten the sense of arrival, the designers set watch band. elegant dark grey Spanish slate, and sheathed Floating over the reception desk are five giant about modernizing the experience for today’s porcelain dandelions being unseeded by an traveller. “The first message we wanted when you above in a semi- reflective glass that catches the arrive,” says Glenn Pushelberg, “is the feeling of a changing cloud patterns more subtly than mirrored im agin ary breeze. Handcrafted by Toronto artist deftly curated by Yabu Pushelberg’s art consultant, Yabu, adds, “We opted for delayed gratification,” the corners, emphasizing the towers’ simple, PHOTOS BY EVAN DION PHOTOS LEFT AND TOP RIGHT BY EVAN DION glass. The balconies have been streamlined into plush, quiet residential space.” His partner, George Alissa Coe, these are the kickoff to an art journey ethereal presence against the sky. explaining how they consciously compressed the James Robertson, who commissioned more than ceilings in the entry lounge, so that when you turn  original works by  Canadian artists for the While the exterior soars, the interior envelops public spaces and private guest rooms. the corner and head for the reception area the sky and surrounds you with the luxurious comforts of home, including extra-wide armchairs and sofas opens up and the orchestra of elements hits its If viewing the art makes you hungry, stop by the sunken Dbar, around the corner from reception, highest note. “That’s when you know you’ve really strewn with pillows that staff members regularly JAN⁄FEB

field trip ToronTo For the Yorkville Avenue entrance, ↑↑ Architects Alliance struck a balance between Yabu Pushelberg created an etched glass commercial and residential design with an all-glass skin porte cochère, while Claude Cormier and square balconies tucked in at the corners, creating riffed on the area’s Victorian roots with a a dramatic composition on busy Bay Street. supersized period fountain on a so-large- ↑ The Four Seasons hotel and residences stand next it’s- pixelated Persian carpet. to a Victorian fire hall that was rebuilt in 1890, after it ironically burned to the ground. and take in the casualness and theatricality of relaxation pool of the zenlike spa that fills the segue between the contemporary glass towers yabu Pushelberg’s open concept space, specifically entire ninth floor and part of the eighth. The and the Victorian fire hall and the beaux arts designed for people watching. Then head up the gathering of these services into a separate, visually yorkville library just down the street. floating marble staircase for lunch or dinner at café prominent block creates a clear destination for Next to the fountain, cormier designed a “rose Boulud – designed by isadore sharp’s wife, rosalie guests and locals alike. garden,” set to open later this year. low hedges of Wise – and indulge in michelin-starred chef Daniel At the main entrance to the hotel and residence, yew, boxwood and barberry are fashioned in the Boulud’s signature new mediterranean cuisine. on yorkville Avenue just east of Bay street, montreal shape of a giant rose, which can only be discerned A trip to the fitness centre or spa in this hotel landscape architect claude cormier has designed from above, with paths between the petals for doesn’t mean heading underground to a dark, a whimsical public space that nods to the area’s people to circulate in, as in a maze or labyrinth. This nondescript basement. A light-filled nine-storey Victorian roots. An oversized copy of a period space is cormier’s play on gertrude stein’s axiom “ function block” on the northwest corner of fountain, painted classic “parlour room” burgundy, “A rose is a rose is a rose.” meaning: things are what the main tower offers panoramic views of the city, sits on a heated carpark set with red and grey they are – except when they’re not. PHoTo lEFT By ArAsH moAllEmi whether you’re running on the treadmill in the granite pavers arranged in the swirling patterns eighth-floor gym, attending a reception in one of of a so-large-it’s-pixelated Persian carpet. in look → Entry-level rooms from $495 per night, one- the event spaces, or floating on your back in the and scale, these elements work as a historical bedroom suites from $605. fourseasons.com 98 JAN ⁄ FEB 2013 AzurEmAgAziNE.com



Design File Design File bedr bedroom furnitureoom furniture beD anD Stylish, multi-functional models with hidden storage, room- dividing head- beyonD boards and other extras bY diane chan 1 2 3 5 4 6 7 1 area 2 naidei 4 dune 6 Volage by magnitude by Poltrona frau by eQ3 by cassina in this modular system by belgian This bed with built-in nightstands beneath the mattress of this platform Philippe Starck’s bed incorporates designer alain gilles, a straight folds up and morphs into a sofa. a bed, upholstered in any fabric from his KTribe lamps, in a range of headboard bookended by curved daybed version comes with a storage the eQ3 range, the wooden base finishes. They can be affixed to the sections creates a room divider, drawer under the mattress. contains hidden storage. eq3.com headboard, which comes covered in delineating a separate bedroom zone, poltronafrau.com fabric or leather. cassina.com such as a workstation or a bath. 5 Wildwood an aluminum and steel lamp, a bench 3 Wall bed by Lago 7 campo and bedside tables complete the by california closets anchored to Wildwood’s oak head- by bonaldo collec tion. magnitude.be ideal for compact spaces, such as board (with optional glass sides), This bed, in six sizes, incorporates a guest room or a home office, this fabric-covered shelves do double storage below, accessed via a lifting system allows you to fold the bed into duty as bedside tables and storage mechanism. The blanket-stitched the wall, concealing it behind a wood pockets. lago.it headboard, in a choice of 100 fabrics veneer or melamine panel. and 35 leathers, doubles as a californiaclosets.com backrest. bonaldo.it 100 jan ⁄ feb 2013 azuremagazine.com