Innholdsfortegnelse for September/October 2023 i AZURE

When Sandi Young tapped Auckland architect John Irving to design her home on New Zealand’s northeastern coast, she wanted a space that would reflect her outgoing and welcoming personality yet also serve as a place of quiet sanctuary. Nestled into the undulating coastal landscape of Te Arai, the project, playfully dubbed Sandiland, more than delivers on this ask. First and foremost, Irving sought to design a building that embodied respect for the natural beauty of its context. Past a tree-lined approach, the low-slung structure emerges as a collection of five cedar-clad volumes scattered among the dunes and topped with a striking planar roof. These “pods” responded to Young’s desire for intimate spaces that she could retreat into; they house the home’s more introverted areas, including a painting studio and private…

In an era where athleisure wear and denim dominate our closets, it may seem that formal attire has all but left the workplace. But a well-fitted suit never goes out of style. For more formal office spaces, Keilhauer’s latest launch, designed by long-time collaborator EOOS, offers an aptly dressed-up solution. And just like its name suggests, the Tailored collection, which debuted at NeoCon 2023, feels contemporary and refined — but never stuffy. Featuring four product families that range from conference seating to occasional tables, Tailored was conceived to be effortlessly mixed and matched to curate cohesive and functional workspaces. “With this collection, the idea was to design something warm and sophisticated by having furniture archetypes as the starting point — one product in each category for the different rituals in…

WRAP Normal Studio’s relaxed lounge chair for Muuto lays a padded jacket (offered in textiles from Kvadrat and Rohleder) over powder-coated steel. The design’s oversized cushioning conceals its minimalist frame to create a chair that both looks and feels like a floating cloud. The gathering of fabric on the armrest — which recalls gentle smile lines — is a standout detail. CAPE Offered as a loveseat and in two- or three-seater configurations, Jehs+ Laub’s design for Davis Furniture evokes a hug with relaxed, curved arms that drape outward to invite groups in. The sofa’s simple steel frame is available in over 30 powder-coated colours, while its stitching is nearly invisible except for the strong French seam that runs along the edge to add a bit of couture flair. DOVE Darran Furniture’s…

For nearly two centuries, Shanghai’s residential alleyways — or lilongs — have been spirited hives of culture and community. Initially a haphazard response to an influx of rural migrants and foreign immigrants (from Europe, Japan and America) during the late 1800s through the mid-1900s, the narrow one- or multi-storey dwellings are an integral part of the urban fabric and an archetype that belongs solely to the city. Cloistered behind ornately carved wooden or stone doors, the homes — which often double as storefronts, grocers, tailors and other family-run businesses — feature small internal courtyards for social gatherings and combine traditional Chinese spatial arrangements and details with imported Western architectural elements. “Many of the artifacts and architectures from this part of history are still visible in the area but are slowly being…

We all know it too well: The warmer months in many major North American cities are overtaken by countless construction projects — infrastructure tweaks that divert cars and buses onto clogged detour routes, cacophonous building developments that cloak us in dust. All of it is necessary. Some of it is downright incredible. In Toronto, the undisputed crane capital of North America (current count: 238), the perpetual campaign to retrofit and reimagine the urban realm is giving shape to some of the city’s — and the world’s — boldest developments. Photographers Ryan Walker and Vid Ingelevics have been documenting one of them for a while now: the renaturalization of the Don River on the city’s East End, which will see the river’s mouth reconnected with Lake Ontario. A vibrant quartet of…

Sofas 1 Wrinkled Link Challenging the convention of what a sofa can be, Eindhoven design studio Raw Color developed Link as a practical piece of art that can support rest. An expansion of an existing design, this new one has a removable wrinkled cover. Materials Injection-moulded foam, quilted fibre Dimensions 72 H × 248 L × 105 D Manufacturer Sancal, sancal.com 2 Supermax Antonio Citterio updated his iconic design from 1983 with more generous proportions, extra padding in the kidney-shaped seat, a larger sitting cushion and grosgrain piping. Materials Tubular metal (in multiple finishes and colours), polyurethane foam, goose down Dimensions 68 H × 234 L × 127 D Manufacturer Flexform, flexform.it 3 Coquille Taking inspiration from the protective nature of shells, designer Simone Cagnazzo appointed this sofa with a…

What is remarkable about how women architects approach livability? That is the question at the heart of “Reconceptualizing Urban Housing,” an exhibition within the Venice Biennale–adjacent “Time Space Existence” show at Palazzo Mora. The answers, as expected, are manifold. Spearheaded by the European Cultural Centre, the presentation is a collaboration between nine female-led firms. Each one works on human-centred developments that carve out opportunities for the creation of better spaces within multi-unit residential projects — and quite literally, in the case of Heather Dubbeldam. With her In-Vert Apartments, the Toronto architect proposes slicing into existing low-rise rental buildings to slot in plant-filled, inverted balconies and topping the whole thing off with additional tiers. This gentle densification accomplishes two needed goals: hacking neighbourhoods for the incremental insertion of more housing units…

On the occasion of an anniversary, it’s natural to think of the past, of the most significant memories, stations along your journey, achievements and flops, but especially of the extraordinary people you have met. There are many of those moments, public and private. Thirty-eight years and 300 issues of Azure is a long time, and our Editor, Elizabeth Pagliacolo, points out some of the most significant milestones that have made Azure unique and allowed it to stand out in our industry’s vast media publishing panorama. My thoughts have gone into the past a lot recently, far and close, but now I can only think of the direction Azure needs to take next: a new path of discovery, where we carry in our backpack everything that made us — our identity, our…

COLAB Through telltale shifts in pedagogy (namely, the ways in which Gen Z has been educated using technology, working more flexibly and gathering more informally), U.K. studio Pearson Lloyd saw coming changes to how we co-create that will require employers to ready themselves for an evolving workforce. The design firm’s multi-piece CoLab collection for Senator provides an interesting solution, with a kit-of-parts for seating, zone definition and collaboration. Setups include tables with variable-height tops for standing and sitting that can be reconfigured to support large or small groups. Most exciting is the “spine,” a functional object that provides not only power distribution but also a casual, supportive structure for leaning or perching during conversations or solo work. MANILLE Named after the French card game, the Manille outdoor seating series by…

You might not anticipate major scientific innovation in Long Island City, better known for its arts and culture scene. Just a couple blocks from MoMA PS1, however, a recently completed lab facility designed by Perkins&Will marks a notable development in the area’s burgeoning life sciences industry. Innolabs, a 25,000-square-metre adaptive re-use project, faces the street boldly and creates a striking counterpoint to the historic neighbourhood. A slender black steel and glass addition provides a muscular contrast to the white historic facade of the original structure, driving home the former office building’s unexpected second life. “There are two compelling reasons why adaptive re-use of older buildings is viable for labs — one is that it’s generally less expensive than a new build, and the second is speed to market,” explains William…

As I cross the Ambassador Bridge from Canada, the Detroit skyline unfolds to my right. Past downtown’s tight cluster of 19th- and 20th-century skyscrapers, the Renaissance Center asserts a dramatic and slightly isolated presence. The knot of gleaming tubular forms designed by John Portman features a commanding 73-storey tower at its centre; it’s the tallest building in the city and in the state of Michigan. A couple of streets to the north, SHoP Architects’ ongoing redevelopment of the former Hudson’s Department Store site by billionaire Dan Gilbert — will rise to nearly the same majestic height. I’m driving past it. Just northwest of downtown, the evolving Core City is an entirely different milieu. As in much of central Detroit, the urban fabric is a patchwork. Driving up 16th Street, I…

The plan was to meet Walter Hood at the Scarpa Garden in the Central Pavilion. But when he arrived, and as we gazed from the doorway into the crowded little courtyard transformed with scaled-up versions of his basket-weave pavilions, we instead decided to walk over to the installation. But that, too, was a popular spot, so Hood, the landscape architect whose firm is based in Oakland, California, began to speak to the group of us gathered, his backdrop a historical timeline of Phillips, a 405-hectare rural agricultural settlement in South Carolina. It was once a plantation; in the 1870s, those who were formerly enslaved there, now freedmen, purchased 10-acre parcels and founded the Phillips Community. And Hood marvelled at the beautiful logic by which the people — known as the…

Architectural Glass and Resin 1 Ivory Flora By pressing dried botanicals between sheets of resin, 3form brings the outdoors in. Three biophilic patterns — including Anahaw Palm, shown — are offered in two panel sizes (1.22 by 2.44 or 1.22 by 3.05 metres) and can be ordered in understated neutrals or vibrant colour treatments. 3-form.com 2 Dichroic Coated with layers of different metallic oxides, Nathan Allan’s shimmering glass changes colour based on viewing angles and lighting conditions. Panels are offered in a variety of finishes, with options including a striped pattern and a mottledtexture. nathanallan.com 3 ViviGraphix Gradiance Sandwiching graphic interlayers between sheets of glass, Forms+Surfaces balances privacy and openness. Five new patterns — including the painterly Ascension, shown — can be customized in myriad colours and extended across multiple…

BEAM Channelling the 1970s in a way that’s less “mom’s basement” and more late-era Mad Men, Nienkämper’s lounge seating allows for mix-and-match configurations of burnt sienna and mustard yellow upholstery. When creating arrangements of several chair and table modules, the design’s exposed wood base becomes a central track linking everything together. TANGRAM The beloved rainy-day game of tangrams inspired this checkerboard pattern from Designtex. One twist: The vinyl upholstery features triangles in both solid and striped patterns. Its six colourways include Colorwheel (shown), which draws on the full rainbow spectrum to create a super-saturated focal point. RALIK This vivid Arper collection by Ichiro Iwasaki features seating and work-station modules that lend themselves just as well to colour coordination as to power-clashing. Alongside plenty of convenient details — removable backrests, attachable…

Brian Wooden could teach us all a lesson in knowing thyself: The Nashville-based street artist, who grew up skateboarding and immersed in graffiti culture, always wanted to work in animation and fine art. Later on, as a student at the Savannah College of Art and Design, he found himself approaching realistic portraiture in what he calls a “soft, painterly way.” But, he says, he knew this path wasn’t true to his self. “I wasn’t having much fun — it was just a little too serious for me,” he says. “So I made a hard transition one day and started going back into more illustrative work.” He returned to his passion for street art, composing massive outdoor wall murals with abstracted cartoon characters; his work is riotous, filled with movement and colour.…

“The office landscape is no longer the classic, straight-forward grid organization where everyone works, but rather a highly creative landscape,” says Ben van Berkel, co-founder of Dutch architectural practice UNStudio. In response to this shift — which has only been amplified with the rise of remote and hybrid scenarios — van Berkel and his team at UNSx, the experiential design arm of the firm, have developed Panorama for Italian manufacturer Fantoni. Described by the designers as “human-centric micro-architecture,” the all-encompassing toolset is intended to carve out flexible, efficient and comfortable set-ups that are organized into three configurations: Collaboration, Social, and Learning & Focus. With silhouettes that were inspired by the mountain range that surrounds Fantoni’s factory, the 57 components of Panorama are offered in three bold colourways, as well as…

Hemmed in by a tangle of railway tracks and storage depots, the Copenhagen neighbourhood of Jernbanebyen finds itself slightly off the beaten path even though it lies close to the city centre. emerged as a haven for exploring new ways of living, from a community food hub and garden to indoor–outdoor co-housing, making it fertile ground for an ambitious redevelopment. This scrappy, rapidly evolving context also makes a fitting — and fittingly temporary — home for the Living Places prototype, an experiment in decarbonized living. In between, trees and productive gardens are interspersed with public benches. It’s an ambitious test bed for healthy, socially oriented and low-carbon future communities; the homes boast substantially better air quality than the Danish average, and only a third of the embodied and operational carbon footprint.…

Where We Grow Older Increased lifespans and a growing aging population are reshaping the way we think about architecture. In this film (the last in a three-part series by the Canadian Centre for Architecture), director Daniel Schwartz presents case studies of two distinct approaches to senior living: Alí Bei, a government-run housing project in Barcelona that embeds its residents in city life, and Carehaus, a developer-led co-housing initiative for seniors and their caregivers in Baltimore — the first of its kind in the country. Interviews with experts, residents, caregivers and activists reveal vital lessons: At Alí Bei, for instance, life expectancy exceeds the city average, keeping turnover rates lower than predicted. The Caring City In the post-industrial world, cities are better designed to optimize productivity than to meet our basic…