Masa café and bakery in Bogotá, by the Colombian–American practice Studio Cadena, proves – once and for all – that you don’t need opulent materials to build something spectacular. The bakery’s most distinctive feature is its textured concrete shell, which gives way to massive triangular windows as pointy as sharks’ teeth. This accent is every […]

While there are lots of sweet details in this 157-square-metre, second-floor hard-loft conversion in a former confectionery building in Toronto’s West End, the most remarkable are the barrel-vaulted corridors. Illuminated by strips of warm LED lighting, these otherworldly portals leading to and from the main space buffer the loft’s open-concept living area from outside noise. […]

Architect Jean-Maxime Labrecque's site-specific artwork for a Montreal residence wins in Architecture: Temporary and Experiential Installations.

The Koan Sliding System is modelled on the screen partitions one sees in East Asian – particularly Japanese – interiors. Andrea Destefanis and Filippo Gabbiani of Shanghai firm Kokaistudios wanted to create a lightweight, visually discreet product with high durability. Their system, which comes on fixed or sliding panels, uses three materials: aluminum for the […]

If Bill Gates can drink sewage water purified by the Janicki Omni Processor, perhaps Torontonians are ready for a public bath at their local wastewater treatment plant. University of Waterloo student Liyang Zhang proposes just that in her thesis exploring the cultural understanding of cleanliness, class and citizens’ relationships to human waste in urban spaces. […]

Splashy yet restrained, Jorge Pizarro’s thoroughly contemporary update of a 130-square-metre family home passed down over three generations brings it up to the minute. In a quest to find its true essence as dictated by its structure and functions, the architect stripped away the Madrid residence’s former divisions and defined three new spaces: the nave […]

The first-ever winner in our inaugural Adaptive Re-Use category, Idea Exchange | Old Post Office in Cambridge, Ontario, gracefully marries old and new.

Vaughan Metropolitan Centre Station, the northernmost terminal of Toronto’s recent subway extension, was designed by Grimshaw with Arup Canada. A highlight of the ovoid building’s interior is the integrated public art that serves as its vaulted ceiling – a scintillating feature, designed by Paul Raff Studio Architects, that not only enhances the commuter experience, but […]

Planar House, a modernist dwelling in the municipality of Porto Feliz, Brazil, near São Paulo, is a study in horizontal design. Architect Marcio Kogan of the Brazilian firm Studio MK27 set the entire building program – playrooms, mechanical rooms, ensuite bedrooms – beneath a flat, low-slung roof. The most private spaces are deep within the […]

The Autonomous Travel Suite – the brainchild of Steve Lee of Aprilli in Toronto – is a mobile hotel room. Equipped with sleeping, working and washroom amenities, the self-driving electric vehicle will pick up travellers at their front door (or the airport) and take them wherever they want to go. Lee envisions a chain of […]