Table of contents for Issue 2, 2020: Small Spaces, Smart Solutions in DESIGNLINES

As I’ve mentioned before, I am, dear readers, a small-space dweller. Have been for a long time, and probably always will be. There are socio-economic reasons for this, of course, but I also now know that it suits me. That took some time to learn, what with family and friends regarding my space with sympathy, and hard-to-shake “more is more” and “keeping up with the Joneses” thinking. Indeed, those of us with less than 1,000 square feet could use some encouragement, so I’ve polled the three architects featured in this issue for advice. They not only design small spaces but live in them, too. “The obvious benefits of small-space living,” says Tim Mitanidis, who resolved a client’s loft in the Junction (page 60), “are mostly centred around supporting a more…

Every week, Ja Architecture’s Nima Javidi and Behnaz Assadi and a revolving group of designers, architects and more gather at Forno Cultura’s Queen West location. Conversation is unfixed and touches on everything from the chairs they’re sitting on to Iranian politics. The interior likewise contains multitudes: the “alternative baking space” was formerly a condo sales centre, a mechanic’s garage and maybe even a house. And with retail and a bakery, it’s still a shared space. Go to dlm.ag/CoffeeWithJaArchitecture to read our conversation with Ja Architecture Studio about casual roundtables, finding new projects and popular design culture.…

Tilt-A-Whirl Eschewing legs altogether, Vondom’s plastic Roulette armchair rests, spins and rocks on its shallow convex base. Available in both matte and lacquered finishes. $1140, at ARD Outdoor Furniture Study in Contrasts With its enveloping, widely-set mesh, the aptly named Basket armchair cocoons sitters while giving them plenty of breathing room. Available in two sizes and colours. Call for pricing, at Kiosk Space Case Resting on an aluminum frame wrapped in two-toned, handwoven synthetic wicker, Juper’s metre-wide cushion has room enough for two. $1300, at InsideOut Patio Nay-Symmetry The Rafael lounge armchair’s irregular angles and uneven slats affect a thrown-together look, but the brushed teak, broad metal staples and generous upholstery make it anything but. With cushion, $6500, at Suite 22 Need more outdoor inspiration? Head to dlm.ag/patioloungers for an…

ROBOT TAKEOVER The Cafelat Robot gets its name from its Iron Giant-y look, not for any coffee-loving sentience. It still pulls a proper demitasse of espresso on a tiny footprint, though. $450, at idrinkcoffee.com GROW OP With a selection of more than 45 biodegradable pods, Click & Grow gardeners can harvest everything from parsley to piri piri peppers beneath its built-in grow light. Available in black or white. $260, at Best Buy SOUPÇON-SIZED Canadian brand Porter & Charles’s offers small ovens with powerful convection, microwave and grill modes, making them efficient kitchen workhorses. From $1500, at Euro-Line Appliances DOUBLE DUTY Intended to serve two people, Muji’s diminutive Juicer Mixer sticks to the brand’s trademark minimalism while featuring both a blender and a mill head suitable for grinding coffee. $70, at Muji À LA…

Northern Spirit Save for a twist of citrus, Spirit of York largely sticks to Nordic tradition, loading its Aquavit with dill and anise-y caraway. $50, at the LCBO, spiritofyork.com Rum Runner More solo sipper than daiquiri filler, Kinsip’s Dark Waters Rum is laden with orange marmalade and oak. Plus, its art deco label is a standout. $60, kinsip.ca Pinky Swear Six months in Niagara wine casks lend Willibald’s Pink Gin its rosé hue and red fruit aromas. Estate-produced honey sweetens the deal. $40, at the LCBO, drinkwillibald.com…

Some spaces are deceptively large. You just need the right tools to unlock them. For Anahita Azrahimi and Diederik van Liere, that meant a radical rethink of their 106-square-metre loft on the east side of Roncesvalles. “It’s not a small space, but it felt small because you couldn’t live efficiently,” Azrahimi says. The creative couple (she’s an artist and the director of the Toronto Outdoor Art Fair; he’s head of data science and engineering at Wealthsimple) purchased the unit in 2012, drawn to its high ceilings, abundant natural light and raw palette of exposed metal and concrete, as well as the character of the building and the charm of the neighbourhood. But nearly 10 years and two kids later, they had entered a new phase of their lives, and the…

Bang & Olufsen Toronto Private residence or showroom? This immersive outpost for statement-making highend electronics combines the atmospheres of both. Within its luxurious living-room setting, you’ll discover TVs and speakers more akin to sculpture than technology, while the kitchen island doubles as a wireless headphone display. Art lovers will be drawn to the BeoVision Eclipse television with its customizable soundbar, as well as the hexagonal modules of BeoSound Shape’s wall-mounted speakers. 100 DAVENPORT RD 416 935 1919 BEOTORONTO.COM Bay Bloor Radio This long-standing Toronto institution is a mecca for audio- and videophiles. BBR’s custom design department advises on residential, corporate and professional installations. The Sonos One smart speaker provides voice-controlled music, available in five limited-edition colours drawn from the palette of Danish furnishings brand HAY. Panasonic OLED TVs are tuned…

AM Studio AM’s versatile custom lighting studio is home to intricate and imaginative fixtures handmade in Toronto. The gallery is aglow with Swarovski crystal, metal and glass fused, blown and drawn into dramatic sculptural forms. Find shapely porcelain pendants, linear sconces or staggering plate and orb chandeliers designed in collaboration with glass artist Karli Sears. The showroom also showcases ready-made beauties from Bomma, Lasvit and Siemon & Salazar. 1270 CASTLEFIELD AVE 416 783 4100 AMSTUDIO.CA Artemide Artemide’s Distillery shop is dedicated to the Italian lighting brand recognized for its iconic collaborations with renowned designers. Its sleekly futuristic lineup includes founder Ernesto Gismondi’s Discovery pendant, a vertical ring whose transparent interior fills with soft light. Also on hand: Bjarke Ingels Group’s wall-mounted Alphabet of Light illuminated letters and numbers in graphic…

JF & Co. This trade-only showroom specializes in fabric and drapery from such high-end brands as MissoniHome, Scalamandré, Ashley Wilde, Pindler and Maxwell. JF&C’s equally impressive wallcovering collection features sumptuous silks, grasscloth, paper weaves, cork, screen-printed novelties and digital prints that are sure to enliven any room. A sweeping drapery hardware line and decorative tapes, tassels and trims for those finishing touches are also available here. 326 DAVENPORT RD 416 238 5254 JFANDCO.CA Kate Thornley-Hall This local designer’s trademark style combines contemporary graphics and colour with antique furnishings. KTH collaborates with artists, transforming their work into home furnishings, wallpapers, decorative flat-weaves and custom handwoven wool and silk rugs: “art you can walk on.” Patterns include butterflies and bees, decorative florals and traditional kilim designs with a twist. A new toile…

1925Workbench This charming maker-studio builds custom handcrafted wooden doors and furniture in white oak, walnut, poplar, fir and pine, all finished with brass, stainless steel or heavy metal hardware. Highlights include patented single-track bypass barn-door hardware, walnut slab doors with transom-like cut-outs and nearly five-metre-tall rolling or hook ladders. Here, it’s a true love of craft: solid wood and traditional techniques. 198 THIRTIETH ST, ETOBICOKE 416 878 1869 BY APPT ONLY 1925WORKBENCH.COM ADH Fine Hardware ADH offers tried-and-true solutions – in traditional and contemporary styles – from Baldwin, Emtek and Rocky Mountain. Unlock your creative side with stylish jewelled knobs by Matthew Studios, leather loop straps by Scrim or custom forged bronze handles by Hamilton Sinkler. Or go the minimalist route: tiny knurled pulls by Vesta or barely there designs…

Pascal Paquette has loved skateboarding since he was 14, drawn to the freedom, camaraderie and challenge involved. The exercise, too. “One of my best pals growing up,” he says, “was the son of Joanne McLeod of Participaction’s BodyBreak. I took those mini episodes very seriously.” Paquette, now fortysomething, is a fine artist and street artist. His work exists in innumerable locations, both here and abroad, and in various iterations; there’s his photorealistic rendition of a Thonet chair near King and Parliament, and 16 other murals across the city. Many of them are abstract: graceful arcs, lines that abruptly start and stop, elegant detailing, messy gestures – creative expressions that skaters can surely identify with. In fact, the two have a lot of common ground. “Urban exploration is deep at the…

Rosemary Poole What impressed you most while writing the loft piece (p. 60)? The level of patience involved. The homeowners are close friends with the Creative Union architects and discussed renovation plans with them for five years before demolition began. What creative way did you overcome tight quarters in your own home? Instead of upper cabinets, we installed one long open shelf for dishes and glassware. Keeping things on display prevents us from accumulating objects we don’t need or use every day. Simon Lewsen What was your major takeaway from writing the Johnson Chou home feature (p. 66)? Chou and Stadtmueller have created a home that is simple but never boring. When you strip away visual distractions, you focus attention on elemental features like volume and light. What creative way…

Craig Race’s home will make you do a double take. At a glance, the facade’s shape is no different than other Leslieville Edwardians. Look closer, though, and you’ll notice its arching cedar cladding and uneven, curved face. The unconventional design is made possible by the side walls, which do all the load-bearing, and a well-placed steel beam. It’s not just for show. By cantilevering the facade outward, Race created more square metreage for his growing family on a small footprint while smoothly reconciling the setbacks of the neighbouring houses – making for a home that, at third glance, fits right in. CRAIGRACE.COM To read about the home behind the facade, go online to dlm.ag/freshfacadeforward.…

Long before she began her studies at Parsons School of Design, Lani Adeoye sketched a form – one which remained persistent in her mind. It had the visual lightness of a rattan basket and the energetic curves of vines: organic shapes evoking rhythm. Today, dialling in from Lagos, Nigeria, Adeoye is seeing those architectures come to life. Since founding Studio Lani in 2015, the Nigerian–Canadian designer has offered her contemporary take on traditional West African silhouettes, earning her emerging talent nods from around the world. Working between Lagos, Toronto and New York City, Adeoye draws on memories of her Yoruba culture for her designs, explaining how she became particularly hooked on the iconic form of the West African talking drum, which takes a prominent role in celebrations and events. “I…

Flour, water, salt, eggs: restaurateur Janet Zuccarini has always seen the potential in things, be they pizzas, pastas or buildings. With Gusto 101, she transformed a mechanic’s garage into a buzzy Italian spot that enlivened a then-derelict stretch of Portland Street. Now, with humble building materials – steel, terracotta, glass and wood – Zuccarini is transforming Corktown. Despite the name, Gusto 501 is not an East End reincarnation of its West End counterpart. “This is about progressing and pushing boundaries,” says Zuccarini, who gave architecture studio Partisans carte blanche for the project. Boszko & Verity Inc. built it. From the street, immense glass sheets framed by three storeys of weathering steel beckon passersby to gaze inside at the equally dramatic interior. A floating blackened steel and walnut staircase winding its…

“It was the worst layout we looked at,” says Bhavesh Mistry of the 62-square-metre condo he and wife Reena purchased in 2018. Their real estate agent didn’t even want to show them the unit after it failed her pre-screening, but they were undaunted. Bhavesh, now an art director, is an engineer by education, and Reena, a multidisciplinary designer, has a master’s in architecture. Both work full-time and have a graphic design side-hustle called Humble Raja, creating contemporary coasters, prints and playing cards infused with their Indian heritage. “We could see the place’s potential,” says Reena, “and before we got the keys, we had made detailed plans and drawings.” What they liked: the eight-year-old condo’s West Queen West location. What they didn’t like: just about everything else. The living area, next…

As a young architect in the 1980s, Johnson Chou visited Le Corbusier’s Notre-Dame du Haut chapel in Ronchamp, France, and was overwhelmed. The forms – heavy walls made of raw masonry – were striking because of their simplicity. Le Corbusier had placed a window at just the right spot to bring a ray of sunlight onto the pulpit. “It was so beautiful, it made me cry,” Chou recalls. From then on, he was a committed minimalist. In 2001, he founded Johnson Chou Inc., a Toronto firm specializing in elemental, pared down buildings – the kind that evoke a sense of awe rather than dazzling you with colour or ornamentation. Chou’s home in Woodbine Heights is a near-total renovation of a once-gabled house that he has redesigned with his partner, architectural…

Advice from a Caterpillar Refined and cozy, this Rosedale boutique caters to the design-loving parent. Personalize your nursery with bed cushions and printed linens from artist-turned-designer Caroline Z Hurley, poufs and woven baskets from D.A.R Projects, and the Eza collection of porcelain mugs capped with zoo animals. The adjacent home-concept shop boasts rattan stools and bamboo loungers from Indaba, mirrors and micro-shelves from Ferm Living and linens from France’s Autumn. 8 PRICE ST 416 960 2223 ADVICEFROMACATERPILLAR.CA BB Buggy Find everything that stylish soon-to-be parents want and little ones need at BBB, including cribs, rockers and bassinets, beds, bookshelves and changing tables. With its slim side rails, slender spindles and elegant turned legs, Oeuf’s Sparrow crib will add Scandinavian warmth to any nursery, while the family of cotton elephants that…

ARD Outdoor ARD Outdoor has all the upscale patio furnishings and accessories you’ll need to transform your backyard or balcony into a resort-inspired retreat, including newly added European line Vondom. Seating abounds – sectionals, loveseats, accent chairs and canopied daybeds – in colourful Sunbrella fabrics. Cantilevered umbrellas and Tuuci parasols pair with dining tables in teak or powder-coated aluminum. Brighten your nights with a Dekko concrete firepit and ambiance lighting. 3019 DUFFERIN ST 416 551 6055 ARDOUTDOOR.COM Casualife Seeking furniture for outdoor entertainment spaces, exterior family rooms and private oases? Casualife’s on-staff designers excel in space planning and will navigate you through wares made from teak, aluminum and woven resin. Look for luxe daybeds, woven loungers with sunshades, and poufs with weather resistant resin weave on aluminum frames that perform…

It’s early January and gh3’s architecture office is quiet, the designers working before computers in the darkness. Enter Sylvia Lee (executive and creative director of Jeff Goodman Studio) and her installation crew, who proceed to drill through the street-facing wall. Up go four copper branches, the longest cantilevering more than a metre out. Spiraling around them, all golden angle–like, are 29 hand-blown glass “leaves” lit from within by LEDs. The fixture floods the office with springtime ambiance, making the architects blink and passersby ogle. Paired with a glass “pebble,” the inventive piece (called Daydream Under the Penny Vine) is Lee’s first lighting project. Based in a 613-square-metre facility in East York, her five-person team typically busies itself reproducing its late founder’s glass vessels. Every summer, though, Lee makes good on…

Building – and then knocking over – block towers is fun. It’s what makes Spin Master’s Jenga-like Jumbling Tower game so successful, and – at least in part – what pushed the growing entertainment company and game manufacturer into a six-storey, ’90s-era office tower downtown. Corporate greige is a poor fit for a toy workshop, though, so Anthony Orasi, partner of iN Studio Creative, pitched a top-to-bottom rebuild with a giant Jumbling-block staircase at its heart. iN Studio couldn’t just stack lengths of timber to build it. Situated above Toronto’s PATH, the floor would not bear the weight of a solid wood staircase, so Orasi decided to hang it from the second storey. To lighten this load, the project’s millworker, MCM, built dozens of steel frames clad in white pine…

OPTICAL ILLUSION Thanks to calculated shading and elegant geometry, the Brenta collection from Vives Cerámica boasts visual depth beyond its physical shape. $12/sf, at Mettro Source BAKED GOODS Available in six patterns and four earthy hues, 41zero42’s mix-and-matchable Biscuit series lends variable dimension for a backsplash that’s anything but cookie-cutter. From $14/sf, at Céragrès DIAMOND DISTRICT Matte black, unfussy and vaguely floral, Atlas Concorde’s Diamond Night pattern should satisfy minimalists in search of some restrained flourish. Also available in matte white. $8.25/sf, at Ciot SPLIT PERSONALITY The even, pale tone of Baldocer’s Arkety series mimics concrete, but with varying shades and patterns – including embossed reliefs – the look is anything but uniform. $4.50/sf, at Olympia Tile+Stone NO LUSTRE LOST The oh-so-subtle gradient of Ceramiche Refin’s Vetri series gives each glass-look porcelain tile uncharacteristic depth,…

Royal Canadian Mead is using design to rehabilitate a drink with 90 centuries of baggage. After being introduced to modern mead, RCM co-founders Alex Yurek, Scott Friedmann and Sean Hazell were convinced that the versatile, honey-derived brew would blow up like craft beer. But there was one problem: “When people hear mead,” says Hazell, “they either have no idea what mead is or they think it’s a syrupy Viking drink.” Mead isn’t inherently sweet (or exclusively for warriors). It can be dry and effervescent, like RCM’s crushable Feels Like Friday; made from Bath, Ontario, wildflower honey, it defies mead’s saccharine reputation. And Hazell, RCM’s branding guru, didn’t lean on bees for the labels. Instead of hives or honey, theirs are decked out with abstract flowers – a nod to the…

California Closets CC’s customized organization and storage solutions maximize the potential of your rooms and closets. Think: Murphy beds, garage workbenches, tailored wardrobes with adjustable shelving, baskets and pullout hampers. Go beyond utilitarian and appoint a family room, library or home office with high-gloss smoke or champagne slab doors and hardware pulls in graphite or gold. Media centres featuring cubbies, integrated lighting and concealed wiring keep lived-in spaces tidy. 1400 CASTLEFIELD AVE 416 342 1717 (ALSO: 158 DAVENPORT RD 416 342 1717) CALIFORNIACLOSETS.COM Komandor Organization and style permeate Komandor’s offerings: fully customizable closets and doors, aluminum partitions, interior millwork and accessories. This Mississauga-based manufacturer uses European panels from brands Krono and Egger in an array of colours, finishes and even 3D textures to create efficient spaces for bedroom to kitchen…

Caesarstone Explore Caesarstone’s proprietary quartz slabs and consult a pro about their many applications. Sixty-two varieties are showcased with helpful graphics explaining how edges may be trimmed for desired effects. Caesarstone furnishings by top designers, including quartz-topped wire stools by Snarkitecture, dot the minimalist space. New in countertops: 2019’s Empira White, and industrial manufacturing textures recalling oxidized steel, poured plaster and raw concrete. 350 CALDARI RD, CONCORD 416 479 8400 CAESARSTONE.CA Cambria Gallery Cambria’s Corktown gallery showcases natural stone surfaces in over 160 designs spanning from pale neutrals to rich jewel tones. See the brand’s synthetic lines on display in kitchen and bath vignettes. The quartz collections feature luxurious new showstoppers with bold charcoal veins zebraing across white backgrounds, or wood-like striations of resplendent tan and walnut-brown veining. 91 PARLIAMENT…

Amati Canada AC’s focus is squarely on kitchen and bathroom fixtures. Among the 50-plus brands in store are faucets by Blanco and Hansgrohe, rain showers by Aquabrass and Dornbracht, commercial grade sinks by Elkay, elegant free-standing soaker tubs by Porcher and therapeutic bath systems by BainUltra. Also here: minimalist fixtures from Riobel, Philippe Starck’s wall-mounted toilets for Duravit and extraordinary faucets from Graff. 105 DONCASTER AVE 905 709 0881 AMATICANADA.COM Appliance Canada Find the latest innovations in ultra-premium appliances here, like Thermador ovens that have a seven-minute preheat (the fastest in the luxury oven segment) and integrated fridges with advanced features like eco-mode and automatic door close. Consider flush-faced fridges by Monogram and flush-mounted cooktops by Bosch for the ultimate seamless look; Fisher & Paykel dishwashers offer the convenience of…

Allan Rug Company ARC’s newly renovated 1,300-square-metre showroom boasts a staggering selection of versatile contemporary flooring solutions, from carpet and area rugs to hardwood, cork, laminate and luxury vinyl. Here, you’ll find contemporary solutions perfectly suited to home and office environments – such as extra wide hardwood planks – as well as custom and handmade rugs in modern and traditional designs (by Missoni, Stanton and Nourison) that can be installed right away. 103 MIRANDA AVE 416 787 1707 ALLANRUG.COM Amala Carpets Amala’s house-designed artisanal rugs made with vegetable-based dyes in Nepalese wool and Thai silk pop against this whitewashed industrial showroom. The six-generation family business works directly with the craftspeople who harvest and weave its creations using sustainable methods. Zee Silk makes for an environmentally friendly carpet with shimmering hand-reeled…

Century Architexture Loft living without the cost and hassle of bricklaying: CA’s seven-millimetre-thick pre-engineered brick veneer wall panels affix to a mesh backing, making them a cinch to install. Locally hand-cast from gypsum to replicate the look and feel of century-old reclaimed brick, they’re incredibly convincing. The showroom’s own backsplashes, bathroom walls and a media room exemplify a variety of uses for the manufactured-on-site panels. 34 JUTLAND RD, ETOBICOKE 416 503 3889 CENTURYARCHITEXTURE.COM Farrow & Ball Britain’s F&B offers a medley of handcrafted wallpapers showcasing the rich pigments it is best known for, as well as an expansive selection of paints ranging from contemporary neutrals to heritage tones. Chromologists will relish the latest hues from F&B’s collaboration with London’s Natural History Museum. Covetable metallic print wallpapers with shimmering gold, silver…

Haworth Haworth’s affinity for the “resimercial” (commercial–home hybrid) model defines its showroom. Discover adaptability with pops of colour and texture in their dashing task chairs, desk sets and storage options, courtesy of design stars Marcel Wanders, Jasper Morrison and Patricia Urquiola. Find that perfect vibe with innovations from Pablo lighting, Cappellini, BuzziSpace and Janus et Cie. Task chairs with digital knits – bringing fashion to furniture – will liven up any boardroom. 55 UNIVERSITY AVE 416 363 3486 HAWORTH.COM Humanscale This LEED Gold–winning HQ houses a wealth of ergonomic and responsibly made desk chairs and LED task lamps. QuickStand Eco effortlessly creates an adjustable sit–stand workspace out of any surface, while OfficeIQ, an activity tracker integrated into chairs and desks, reminds users when it’s time to move. Check out chrome-free…