Here it is. Our little Christmas tree for this year is full of shiny disco balls! The holiday season has always been an opportunity to use our decorating creativity and I thought it would be neat to see how Ottawans decorate their trees for the holidays, so if you'd like to be featured on MOOT during the holiday season, send your picture to designer@m2jlstudio.com.
Thank you for reading and commenting on MOOT! Happy holidays!
I recently met one of the architects from James Colizza Architects Inc who are currently finishing a really neat modern project in Hintonburg consisting of four singles homes and a semi-detached building. I believe most, if not all, are already sold too. I added some pictures from the architects with some street view images for comparison. What an improvement! The ugly brown fence and poorly maintained sheds are gone and the lot will now house six families as opposed to one car. I'll have to go check it out myself at some point, in the mean time enjoys these photos!
photos: James Colizza Architects Inc | Google Map
The third night of the Trends in Design series was really interesting. This time the speaker was Julian Goss, program chair of the industrial design department at the Ontario College of Art and Design. He's also a teacher, a consultant, a designer and a very fun speaker to listen to.
After giving us a bit on info on his background, he started with sculpture in Glasgow, he walked us through the history of design, highlighting the major eras of industrial design from the 50s until today as well as where we might be heading. According to Goss, globalization has impacted design in general. It was also interesting to find out that from the outside (he's originally from Scotland) Canada is "the most awesome and confusing country" when it comes to design and "NAFTA decimated product design". Nevertheless, companies such as RIM, Cervélo and Teknion are great Canadian companies that deserve a bit of the spotlight.
Last week EQ3 and Azure magazine launched a new partnership between EQ3 and designer brands such as Herman Miller, Alessi, Stelton, Vitra, Pablo and Design House Stockholm. I had a chance to check it out during the launch party at EQ3 Byward, there were some neat items on display including iconic pieces and great gift ideas as you can see in the photos below.
It will be interesting to see what can be purchased through EQ3+. Vitra, for example, has a lot of neat items including cute mini Panton chairs for kids. This is great news for Ottawa's design community and the design savvy since iconic items will now be more accessible in Ottawa
Last year I blogged about how McDonalds is modernizing the look of its restaurants on M2JL STUDIO Blog. Well it seems like it's now happening in Ottawa. I took this picture a couple weeks ago at the McDonalds on the corner of St-Laurent Blvd and Bourassa St. You can see a fireplace on the left side. There was a lounge on the other side. It would be neat to design a modern McDonalds restaurant. I would use a bit more color. 
Last week I attended the second night of the Trends in Design series at the Central sale center. George Dark, a landscape architect and urban designer was the speaker for the night. There was a great turnout (I believe it was sold out) and the finger food was delicious!
Dark gave a lot of neat examples on how cities are evolving, discussing what people are doing and can do to improve our cities. One of the points to consider is who we're building the cities for. The rules have changed, people are not looking for the same thing as before. The younger generation tends to put location at the forefront of their needs as opposed to the size of their house. What I retained from the presentation is that a sense of community and a constant interaction with nature are very important factors for the future of cities. This was illustrated with the presentation of projects such as the somewhat controversial gumwall in Seattle. It's a little nasty (at least for me), but I get the point that it brings people together. In fact, one of the attendants told me about the mini Inukshuks project in Ottawa. She built one just for fun near the Ottawa river and when she came back there was a series of them.
Dark also showed neat examples of projects aimed to make the city greener. One of my favorites is the Guerilla Gardening project, which has been going on for 5 years in Toronto as a way to embellish the city and allow visual beauty to "bring the joy back". All in all it was a very inspiring presentation with great ideas.
The next presentation will be about Industrial Design by Julian Goss on November 25 in Ottawa. Stay tuned for more
For those who read the Ottawa Citizen last spring, I wrote an article on the Slow Home project, which spread like wild fire to many newspapers all over Canada (that was cool). Ottawa has recently been getting some attention on the Slow Home website. John and Matthew, as well as several participants recently redesigned a little townhouse for some Ottawa residents. Check out the video sessions below.
For more details on the project, check out Slow Home's online workshop section here.
Habitat for Humanity-NCR received the biggest donation thus far: a nice home in a great neighbourhood. Called the Gift Home, it was completely revamped with the help of many local professionals in the building trade. Listed for $1,17M, the money will help build about 10 new low-income houses. For those like me who missed the tour there is a little video on it, and Design Ties posted some great pictures here.
I'm really happy I got a chance to attend the Rapture Ball last week to celebrate the North American launch of THANN all-natural hair, skin and body care, as well as 10th anniversary of ARC The.Hotel. There was a great turnout. Over 400 people (according to THANN's blog) including TV personalities such as David Clemmer from Style by Jury,Shannon Kook-Chun and Cory Lee from Degrassi, as well as R&B Singer JDiggz.
The menu prepared by the ARC's executive chef Jason Duffy was Thai-inspired as a nod to the product line. It's too bad I didn't get to try everything, but the mango salad and the soup shooter were really good :) There were also delicious mini cupcakes from Thimble Cakes and plenty of signature cocktails inspired by the THANN collection. Live models were wearing THANN clothing sold in their high-end boutique in Asia.
The event was presented by Blackbook Lifestyle and sponsored by Porter Airlines, Effen Vodka, Bombay Sapphire, Alize, Bacardi, The Small Winemakers of Ontario, Steam Whiltle Brewies, VOSS Water, Angie's Models and Talent, Models International Management, BODE Spa. Consequently the gift bag had awesome items and gift certificates!
I was happily surprised with this event and am planning to check out the ARC's Lounge during their Thursday Grey Goose Cocktail Hour at some point. Hopefully the DJ will be back, I really liked his set.
Check out more photos of the event here, here and here.
Last Friday was also the book launch day for Building 22, a magazine created by students highlighting the work of a select few from the Azrieli School of Architecture and Urbanism at Carleton University. I believe this is their second edition. Last year's magazine was sold out.
This year's editor is Christopher Bretecher, a master student currently focusing his thesis on abandoned buildings. There was a great turn out at the event. I also got to meet architect Andrew Reeves from Linebox Studio who sponsored the event, along with Mikaza Home, Stantec Architecture, the Ottawa Regional Society of Architects (ORSA) and Mags & Fags. Reeves, who blogs about the Mini House project has another great project coming up now that the mini house is completed. I also got to meet the owner of the Murray house and just might get to see the famous roof top next summer.
I went to check out the Ottawa Home and Design Show on Friday. I was curious to see the Fab 4 Design Showcase by Kiersten, Luc, Jane and Suzanne I had been hearing about. They did a great job.
I also particularly liked Luc's nicer alternative to the default black curtains for his booth. He used Whooshi-like curtains to create his space. It's a simple and cost-effective solution and gives an ethereal feel to the space.
Two items that caught my eyes were MOOOI's pig table from Modern Light, a new store in Ottawa that I still have to go check out, and the hand crafted coconut ice container from Artfrik Home, also new in Ottawa.
It's great to see improvement in the Ottawa home shows over the past year. It's also really neat to know that I had something to do with it (so I've been told). Let's keep raising the bar so Ottawa can compete with the likes of the IDS show in Toronto and the Salon de l'Habitation in Montreal! There's nothing better than a little friendly competition to elevate the design standards in the city and present good design to the public. There's a lot of great things on the way for Ottawa's shows (stay tuned for more). I'll be working on some features for the upcoming Ottawa Home and Garden Show in March next year. By the way, if there's something you'd like to see at the show don't be shy to send me an email and let me know :).
I was recently made aware of a neat new building development project by Centertown Citizens Ottawa Corporation, a non-profit social housing provider. Located between the museum of nature and the 417, this rental housing complex, called Beaver Barracks, is a multi-phase / multi-building project on the site of a former air force barracks, demolished in the early 90s after which the lot was left vacant.
The two-phased project includes several energy efficient and green features such as a geothermal heat pump system (said to be the largest residential geothermal unit in Canada to date), low-flow water fixtures, energy Star appliances, energy efficient lighting systems, a community garden, a green roof, composting and recycling stations.
Argyle apartments
Catherine Mixed Use Building
Catherine Mixed Use Building
Stacked Townhouse Building B
Metcalfe Mixed Use Building
There's even photo blog updating readers on the construction process. The Metcalfe building is almost ready and the foundation for the stacked townhouse has already been poured. CCOC is planing to be handing over keys to 160 units at the end of this year and is currently accepting applications.
It’s great to see such projects in the city, and it's definitely a nice add-on to the area. Based on Loom's knitnut, a former tenant of CCOC, the landlord is really good and caring too, which makes a huge difference in the sustainability of this kind of project. It will be interesting to see the completed project with the green roof.
photos: Beaver Barack | ottawa.ca | ccoc
The first night of Trends in Design had a great turn out despite the rain, the crazy traffic and the construction mess on Sussex street. The night began with an introduction by David Wex of Urban Capital, then canada.com editor Lara Ceroni spoke about the fashion trends for fall 2010 and beyond, followed by a short fashion show by Schad + Shadblü with great music (I just wish the fashion show lasted a little longer).
David Wex, who came up with the idea, is hoping to repeat this event on an annual basis and expand to other areas of design such as automobile design. I can see this taking off in Ottawa. Wouldn't it be cool if in a couple years from now well known experts from all over the world would come to discuss various design topics with the public here in Ottawa? I'm glad to see this happening in Ottawa.
Lara Ceroni, the editor for ellecanada.com was fun to listen too and has a great sense of humor. The fashion trends this fall are Restraint, Cocooning, 50s Inspired Styling, Neo-Lady, Minimalism, Rebellion, Smart Shopping and Military. She showed some examples for each and explained what it entailed. The future of fashion and is likely to be centered around two main themes: The "Art of silence" and the "Flight of fancy". It was very interesting. There's still a chance to hear Lara's presentation in Toronto on the 20th of January if you missed the first one.
At the end of the event, there was a neat little gift bag on our way out including the latest edition of Azure Magazine, the latest edition of Ottawa Shopping Magazine, a rebate letter from Schad + Shadblü, a gift certificate to SAAB Salon Spa and a ticket to the upcoming gift show.
I also had a chance to chat with some people from Urban Capital and Central, a great bunch with great plans for the future. I'm looking forward to the next evening with George Dark, Head of Ottawa's Downtown Urban Design Strategy who will be talking about designing cities.
source: Urban Capital
I'm really excited about this! Urban Capital is organizing a series of interactive lectures to discuss the evolution of design. For the next couple of months a series of five lectures regarding design trends in the city building, architecture, fashion, interior design and industrial design will take place in Ottawa and Toronto.
The schedule for the five lectures are as followed:
NIGHT 1 | SEP 16 2010
Fashion Trends by Lara Ceroni, editor at ElleCanada.com
NIGHT 2 | OCT 28 2010
New Thinking in Designing Cities by George Dark, Partner at Urban Strategies Head
NIGHT 3 | NOV 25 2010
Where Industrial Design is Taking Us by Julian Goss, Program Chair of Industrial Design Department at the Ontario College of Art & Design
NIGHT 4 | JAN 27 2011
Architecture in Our New Century by Robert Claiborne, Design Lead at Cannon Design Lead Architect
NIGHT 5 | FEB 24 2011
Interior Design Thinks Small by Cecconi Simone, Partner at Cecconi Simone Interiors
The lectures are open to the public and tickets are available for purchase at Urban Capital and the proceed will go to support Philip Beesley’s Hylozoic Ground, Canada’s entry to the Venice Biennale 2010. Of course I have to go. I'm looking forward to see this.
The first lecture will take place at Shad Boutique (512 Sussex Drive) where senior editor Lara Ceroni for ElleCanada.com will talk about the trends in fashion and where it's going, followed by a Fall/Winter 2010 fashion show. It will be interesting to see if what's presented during the show follows the fashion trend forecast for fall/winter 2010-2011 as per Cosmoworlds. The four themes for the upcoming seasons are "Body performance", "Trady Twist","Rustic Root", "Dark Poetry".
Body Performance : A ballet dancer style express by skintone palettes with fleshy tones, plastery pastels ans talcy mauves with some tonic accents, luminous coral, and graphic contrast of black and white.
Trady-Twist: The Retro English style of this theme is evoked by muted tones, luminous camel, greenish-blues, taupey-gray, rich burgundy. Add British cakes colors: cupcake pink, acid marmalade, electric anise, milky blueberry.
Rustic Roots: The range of green is omnipresent complete by two industrials colors: grayed and pinkish cement. A palette of autumn reds with different grape tones. The accent is on materials associating rusticity and refinement: compact or boiled wools, tweeded flannels, quilted linig and patches and sportswear fabrics like cotton/polyalide foamback.
Dark Poetry : A poetically nocturnal palettes with deep black, slate gray, inky blue and deep purple completed by flaming garnet, blushing pink and hallucinogenic green. Flashes of copper and gold.
Images : Urban Capital | Cosmoworld
