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Get Inspired / DL Dispatch

Happy Holidays from Designlines

Get Inspired / Toronto Design Week

Designlines Loves: The Top 100 Designs of Toronto Design Week

Get Inspired / Toronto Design Week

Two Outdoorsy Architects Create an Urban Lodge

Events / July 12 - 14 2019

The Toronto Outdoor Art Fair Returns

What to Buy / ANONY

We Love Anony’s Made-in-Toronto Phase Light

Events / To October 2019

DX Canadian Emerging Designer Exhibition Honours StudioAC

Get Inspired / Issue Preview

Our New Look: 5 Questions for Art Director Cristian Ordóñez

Get Inspired / Spaces

Garden Circle House Lets Nature Take the Lead

Get Inspired / Eat Here

Thor Espresso Bar Has That Nordic “Wow” Factor

Get Inspired / Spaces

A Modern Home Gets an Ordered Yard to Match

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[post_title] => Submit to Designlines [post_excerpt] => [post_status] => publish [comment_status] => closed [ping_status] => closed [post_password] => [post_name] => submit [to_ping] => [pinged] => [post_modified] => 2017-03-23 13:18:23 [post_modified_gmt] => 2017-03-23 17:18:23 [post_content_filtered] => [post_parent] => 0 [guid] => http://dl.newbox.ca/?page_id=274 [menu_order] => 0 [post_type] => page [post_mime_type] => [comment_count] => 0 [filter] => raw ) [4] => WP_Post Object ( [ID] => 42973 [post_author] => 19 [post_date] => 2019-07-16 09:38:13 [post_date_gmt] => 2019-07-16 13:38:13 [post_content] => Husband-and-wife Rick Galezowski and Maggie Bennedsen are both architects — he started his own practice, Great Lake Studio, last year, while she is a senior associate at Kohn Shnier. But over the last two decades, whenever possible, they’ve taken sabbaticals to cycle around the world, including a two-and-a-half-year tour from Canada’s Arctic to the bottom of South America.

Lately, though, they’ve shed their nomadic ways to focus on life at home with their five-year-old son. Which is why, in 2015, when the pair bought an old teardown near Ossington, they used the re-build to capture what they love most about life in the saddle — an immersive connection with nature.

Galezowski and Bennedsen achieved this with a series of indoor-outdoor relationships that become increasingly bucolic over the home’s three storeys. The ground floor is the most urban, with a book-lined library adjoining a south-facing porch. “It’s all about engaging with the social atmosphere of the neighbourhood,” says Galezowski. “We have coffee there in the mornings and look out at the street.”

In contrast, up a short flight of stairs (each storey is split-levelled, following the natural slope of the site), the kitchen overlooks a wilderness-inspired backyard. “We tried to create a campsite downtown,” says Galezowski. “There’s a fire pit and picnic table. When the paper birch trees are in bloom, they’re densely green.”

The lush backyard is also appreciable from the second-storey master bedroom overlooking the foliage. A second bedroom faces the street, yet still has a rustic vibe. That’s because the couple designed their son’s bed as a tree fort. It not only looks cool, but also saves floor space below for a larger play area (the whole house is a compact 170 square metres).

Even Galezowski’s office, located between the two sleeping spaces, connects to the outdoors. It doesn’t have a window, but sits beneath two skylights for all-day sun. And, the third-floor living room, with a cedar-clad ceiling, pot-belly stove and windows that seem to only frame the sky and the tops of trees, feels just like a cliff-top cabin.

“There’s a sense of urban amnesia up here,” says Galezowski “You forget where you are.” On clear evenings, the family uses the adjacent rooftop deck to indulge their love of astronomy. “Through a telescope, you can see the rings of Saturn,” he says. It’s a big adventure into space, without having to leave the city. Originally published in our Best New Homes issue 2019 as Natural Order. [post_title] => Two Outdoorsy Architects Create an Urban Lodge [post_excerpt] => [post_status] => publish [comment_status] => closed [ping_status] => open [post_password] => [post_name] => two-outdoorsy-architects-create-an-urban-lodge [to_ping] => [pinged] => [post_modified] => 2019-07-16 13:16:50 [post_modified_gmt] => 2019-07-16 17:16:50 [post_content_filtered] => [post_parent] => 0 [guid] => https://www.designlinesmagazine.com/?p=42973 [menu_order] => 0 [post_type] => post [post_mime_type] => [comment_count] => 0 [filter] => raw ) [5] => WP_Post Object ( [ID] => 43619 [post_author] => 19 [post_date] => 2019-07-16 09:05:51 [post_date_gmt] => 2019-07-16 13:05:51 [post_content] => For one weekend, Nathan Philips Square turns into the largest open-air art market in the country, with over 360 emerging and established artists showcasing and selling their work to the public. Meet local talents like Moira Ness, whose blunt black-and-white photographs of empty GTHA streets, taken at night, won her best in show this year. Visit Toronto Outdoor Art Fair for information on participating artists, programming (tour the grounds with interior designer Tiffany Pratt this Friday). Look for free copies of our latest issue at the event and visit our Instagram on Friday for some on-the-ground coverage. Where: Nathan Phillips Square When: July 12 - 14 [post_title] => The Toronto Outdoor Art Fair Returns [post_excerpt] => [post_status] => publish [comment_status] => closed [ping_status] => open [post_password] => [post_name] => this-weekend-toronto-outdoor-art-fair-returns [to_ping] => [pinged] => [post_modified] => 2019-07-16 13:16:33 [post_modified_gmt] => 2019-07-16 17:16:33 [post_content_filtered] => [post_parent] => 0 [guid] => https://www.designlinesmagazine.com/?post_type=events&p=43619 [menu_order] => 0 [post_type] => events [post_mime_type] => [comment_count] => 0 [filter] => raw ) [6] => WP_Post Object ( [ID] => 43678 [post_author] => 19 [post_date] => 2019-07-16 09:00:03 [post_date_gmt] => 2019-07-16 13:00:03 [post_content] => Toronto lighting designers Anony, a favourite local studio, do a balancing act for their latest release, Phase. Inspired by kinetic hanging mobiles, this celestial chandelier displays circles in three lunar forms: a sphere, a disc, and a folded semi-circle. Weighted and built from the bottom up, our love affair with this luminaire is more than just a phase. $7370 AT ANONY [post_title] => We Love Anony's Made-in-Toronto Phase Light [post_excerpt] => [post_status] => publish [comment_status] => closed [ping_status] => open [post_password] => [post_name] => anony-toronto-lighting-phase [to_ping] => [pinged] => [post_modified] => 2019-07-16 13:16:08 [post_modified_gmt] => 2019-07-16 17:16:08 [post_content_filtered] => [post_parent] => 0 [guid] => https://www.designlinesmagazine.com/?post_type=what&p=43678 [menu_order] => 0 [post_type] => what [post_mime_type] => [comment_count] => 0 [filter] => raw ) [7] => WP_Post Object ( [ID] => 43802 [post_author] => 19 [post_date] => 2019-07-15 15:57:22 [post_date_gmt] => 2019-07-15 19:57:22 [post_content] => The Design Exchange (DX) has crowned architects StudioAC the winner of this year's RBC Canadian Emerging Designer Competition. The design museum is hosting a celebratory exhibition of the firm's solid portfolio -- along with work by five other finalists -- until October. Designed by StudioAC, the installation walls display images and maquettes of upcoming and completed projects (think a gem-like Toronto condo building and the pared-back rooms in the Annex Hotel). “Our exhibition showcases all of the design work we have dreamt up since the beginning – from the smallest pieces and projects that were never built to work that has received recognition among our peers," they said in a statement. Designlines readers will recognize a soaring Candy Factory Loft conversion and this curvaceous east end reno at the summer-long exhibit. [post_title] => DX Canadian Emerging Designer Exhibition Honours StudioAC [post_excerpt] => [post_status] => publish [comment_status] => closed [ping_status] => open [post_password] => [post_name] => dx-canadian-emerging-designer-exhibition-honours-studioac [to_ping] => [pinged] => [post_modified] => 2019-07-15 15:57:22 [post_modified_gmt] => 2019-07-15 19:57:22 [post_content_filtered] => [post_parent] => 0 [guid] => https://www.designlinesmagazine.com/?post_type=events&p=43802 [menu_order] => 0 [post_type] => events [post_mime_type] => [comment_count] => 0 [filter] => raw ) [8] => WP_Post Object ( [ID] => 43582 [post_author] => 19 [post_date] => 2019-07-10 09:02:21 [post_date_gmt] => 2019-07-10 13:02:21 [post_content] => By now, we hope you’ve gotten your hands on the latest issue of Designlines. Not only is it packed with newness – new homes, new studios, new designs – it has also been completely redesigned by Cristian Ordóñez, an art director, designer and photographer. Since he's the reason we've been tossing the word "new" around the office so often lately, we thought we'd ask him a few questions about our hot-off-the-press visual identity.

Designlines: You took on a cover-to-cover redesign of the print magazine. What kind of homework did that involve? Cristian Ordóñez: I worked together with the Designlines team to learn about DL’s audience and identity, and to brainstorm new ideas. We also explored the limitations and advantages of our printing materials – including the typography and layout. Then we flipped through stacks of other magazines to get inspiration -- and that informed the way the new DL looks and feels. DL: Our logo and cover are looking snazzy. How did you change them? CO: Respecting the magazine’s history was important. However, we wanted the redesign to be as approachable as possible. And so, I made the wordmark lower-case and introduced full-bleed images on the cover. It's a friendlier look overall. DL: Let’s talk fonts. How did you choose them? CO: We are now working with Graphik, a sans serif typeface, and Archive, a serif typeface, which react to the magazine’s content in different ways. Neither one is brand new or classic (Graphik was released in 2009, and Archive in 2013). In fact, with so many typefaces out there, I was careful to avoid trendy or new fonts because they can get boring fast. In contrast, the fonts I chose have characteristics from both contemporary and well-know typefaces, which gives them readability and longevity. [caption id="attachment_43601" align="aligncenter" width="1300"]

Photo of Cristian Ordóñez's studio courtesy of the designer.[/caption] DL: What was your approach to our home features? CO: I wanted to allow the photography and content to breathe; to be generous with white space. You'll notice that every feature has a unifying element within it. They all [features] work together within the same line to express that cohesive look and feel. DL: As a designer, what do enjoy most about working in print? Are you also inspired by digital? CO: I have always been influenced by the digital space. But other printed materials, photography and the world around us are influences as well. For example, seeing the houses we report on changes the way I design certain features. Everything is connected. For example: all of the content we produce for print needs to work in the digital space as well. Take the new wordmark; we needed to think about how it would function online. All of our content had to be responsive, including the new logo. [post_title] => Our New Look: 5 Questions for Art Director Cristian Ordóñez [post_excerpt] => [post_status] => publish [comment_status] => closed [ping_status] => open [post_password] => [post_name] => 5-questions-cristian-ordonez [to_ping] => [pinged] => https://www.designlinesmagazine.com/whats-inside-our-best-new-homes-issue-out-now/ [post_modified] => 2019-07-10 09:29:08 [post_modified_gmt] => 2019-07-10 13:29:08 [post_content_filtered] => [post_parent] => 0 [guid] => https://www.designlinesmagazine.com/?p=43582 [menu_order] => 0 [post_type] => post [post_mime_type] => [comment_count] => 0 [filter] => raw ) [9] => WP_Post Object ( [ID] => 43528 [post_author] => 6 [post_date] => 2019-07-10 08:46:56 [post_date_gmt] => 2019-07-10 12:46:56 [post_content] => In the latest Best New Homes issue of Designlines, we shared a residential space that has recently inspired us – a stairwell with sapele curves and views for days. It was just a taste of Heather Dubbeldam's latest biophilic design, and because Garden Circle House has so much flavour, we thought we'd show you how the whole home comes together around this show-stopping feature, and connects to its surrounding environment. Biophilic design, in architecture, incorporates natural materials (including light and vegetation), views and other experiences of the natural world into the modern built environment. This means not only being incredibly sensitive to a site, but, inside, simulating the environment in ways that promote well-being. So how did Heather Dubbeldam and her team do this?

The two-storey house is in Toronto's Bennington Heights neighbourhood, not far from the lush grounds of Mount Pleasant Cemetery and the Beltline Trail. Clearly it was important to Dubbeldam's clients – a family of four – to maximize views of the greenery and inject their new home with the calm the area affords. Another ask: sustainability. And so it begins outdoors, with some serious curb appeal, where robust native plantings in the front yard and overhangs soften the locally-sourced brick, stone and wood cladding. The low-slung house (built by Mazenga) responds to the site and its context by mimicking the scale, proportions and local building traditions of the neighbouring homes.

At the back, a tiered ipe deck and lap pool are surrounded by old growth trees; large windows and floor-to-ceiling sliding doors open the house up to the outdoors, bringing in natural light and visual cues from the environment.

Inside, the airy house's nature-inspired palette reveals itself, connecting indoors to out with a careful selection of materials. Open plan, partitions and millwork on the ground floor provide spatial definition.

A cut-out in the kitchen wall allows views from inside the kitchen out towards the living room and the backyard while the breakfast bar separates zones of functionality.

Here's another look at how the kitchen and family room meet inside Garden Circle House, not far from the large sliding doors that lead outside.

A two-sided fireplace, with its subtly veined grey limestone and stained oak slats surround, divides the informal family room and kitchen area with the more formal dining space at the front of the house.

A double-height lightwell in the foyer illuminates the path to the heart of the home. Beams of light produced by architectural cut-outs and lighting dance on the walls.

Finally, the curved staircase in the centre of the home that we're so obsessed with. Centrally located and spanning three storeys, it’s capped with an operable skylight, bringing light and ventilation deep into the house’s core. Made of sapele (by Berman Stairs) and curved in response to the horseshoe-shaped corridor up top, the staircase champions another design twist – a rounded pane of glass on the first landing enabling views to a hidden ground-floor study – which makes it an exceptional feature, not just a portal from one floor to another.

And here we are at the very top of the stairs, where the private quarters reign. Here, further nods to the natural world abound, including more stunning millwork, biomorphic light fixtures and room-spanning wallpaper featuring flora, fauna and atmospheric motifs. Whether indoors or out, the family here always benefits from the soothing forces of Heather Dubbeldam's bioliphic design. [post_title] => Garden Circle House Lets Nature Take the Lead [post_excerpt] => [post_status] => publish [comment_status] => closed [ping_status] => open [post_password] => [post_name] => gardencirclehouse [to_ping] => [pinged] => https://www.designlinesmagazine.com/whats-inside-our-best-new-homes-issue-out-now/ [post_modified] => 2019-07-10 09:29:58 [post_modified_gmt] => 2019-07-10 13:29:58 [post_content_filtered] => [post_parent] => 0 [guid] => https://www.designlinesmagazine.com/?p=43528 [menu_order] => 0 [post_type] => post [post_mime_type] => [comment_count] => 0 [filter] => raw ) [10] => WP_Post Object ( [ID] => 41941 [post_author] => 13 [post_date] => 2019-07-02 10:37:08 [post_date_gmt] => 2019-07-02 14:37:08 [post_content] =>

It’s not every day you walk into a cafe and your first impression is, “Wow, look at that millwork!” But the 65-square-metre Thor Espresso Bar on John Street, just north of Queen, is not an everyday cafe. Toronto’s become a coffee city, and with roasters like Stereo and baristas like Bruce Ly (Voodoo Child, Neo Coffee Bar) and Raichel Neufeld (Pilot Coffee Roasters), there are good cups to be had, but not a lot of good design – pleasant, sometimes, but coffee spaces rarely rise to the level of fascinating.

We believe Thor’s metallic crystal, jutting out from an exposed brick wall with its menu projected above a Deep Nocturne Corian bartop will get other coffee shop proprietors thinking. In 2015, Patrick Tu and Tom Junek, owners of the first Thor near the base of Bathurst, were talking with regular customer and principal at Phaedrus design studio David Grant-Rubash about opening another cafe. Junek’s favourite bottled water at the time was Icelandic Glacial, with its jagged, crystalline top; according to Junek, they all thought, “Wouldn’t it be cool to have facets like this?”

The first iteration was Odin on King Street East, which opened in 2016. Expressed in wood and ivory-coloured Corian, it looks like a skeleton being slowly fleshed in. Thor goes further, forging its Nordic homage from a combination of brushed, polished and mirrored aluminum. Sebastian and Christoph Paus of Paus Inc. are clearly woodworkers to watch. All that beautiful millwork is accented with black Faz side chairs by Vondom and a contrasting Douglas Chunk wood pedestal table from Stylegarage. And the coffee at Thor (made with their Modbar machine) is just a good excuse to hang out in a great space.

Originally published in our Small Spaces 2019 issue as Thor Espresso Bar

[post_title] => Thor Espresso Bar Has That Nordic "Wow" Factor [post_excerpt] => [post_status] => publish [comment_status] => closed [ping_status] => open [post_password] => [post_name] => thor-espresso-bar [to_ping] => [pinged] => https://www.designlinesmagazine.com/pilot-coffee-prince-edward-county/ [post_modified] => 2019-07-08 09:47:39 [post_modified_gmt] => 2019-07-08 13:47:39 [post_content_filtered] => [post_parent] => 0 [guid] => https://designlinesmagazine.com/?p=41941 [menu_order] => 0 [post_type] => post [post_mime_type] => [comment_count] => 0 [filter] => raw ) [11] => WP_Post Object ( [ID] => 41969 [post_author] => 13 [post_date] => 2019-06-25 09:05:33 [post_date_gmt] => 2019-06-25 13:05:33 [post_content] =>

Inspired by 17th-century French topiary form and layering, the spiralling arrangements of evergreens and perennials in this Queen West yard by Plant Architect contrast with a neat composition of concrete and steel planters, walls and platforms. The graphite-grey brick home (designed by the late Paul Syme) provides a perfectly uncomplicated backdrop to the textured garden, which uses several techniques to create privacy in the context of this bustling neighbourhood.

In the front yard, a deep planting bed holding a towering ailanthus tree is edged with weathered steel and exposed fasteners, keeping curious passersby (and their pups) at bay. The Corten steel, which matches the building’s cedar window frames, forms the adjacent “bridge,” which is gently sloped to create separation from the sidewalk edge. Textured with raised patterning to prevent slippage, this bridge spans the root system of a multi-stem birch tree that gently screens the inside of the home from outside views.

Originally published in our Small Spaces 2019 issue as Plant Architect.

[post_title] => A Modern Home Gets an Ordered Yard to Match [post_excerpt] => [post_status] => publish [comment_status] => closed [ping_status] => open [post_password] => [post_name] => plant-architect-ordered-yard [to_ping] => [pinged] => [post_modified] => 2019-06-25 15:14:32 [post_modified_gmt] => 2019-06-25 19:14:32 [post_content_filtered] => [post_parent] => 0 [guid] => https://designlinesmagazine.com/?p=41969 [menu_order] => 0 [post_type] => post [post_mime_type] => [comment_count] => 0 [filter] => raw ) ) [post_count] => 12 [current_post] => -1 [in_the_loop] => [post] => WP_Post Object ( [ID] => 18328 [post_author] => 14 [post_date] => 2015-12-02 15:49:52 [post_date_gmt] => 2015-12-02 20:49:52 [post_content] => Best wishes for the holidays, from all of us at Designlines. We’re taking a short break, but will be back on January 4. Meanwhile, here’s some year-end reading: