The corner of the building acts as the face, while the main entrance is now the mouth. The eyes are adorned with enormous blue eyelashes. On either side are two giant arms made of tubular rainbow fabric. Overhead, a second vaguely owl-shaped creature appears to pop up out of the roof, waving its arms. The rest of the facade is covered in a brilliant paint job by Brissonet.

On Instagram, the artist explains that the rainbow arms came from damaged sheets from Delta Hotels. Her father installed the plywood for the windows and helped mouth the puppet mouth, while local artist Philippe St. Denis helped paint, glue, and cut the puppets, and fabricated a rotating mechanism for the head on top to allow it to spin (its nose even twirled!). For the performances, the puppets moved and spoke to a live soundtrack of violins and drums. The theme of the show was digestion, hence the giant mouth.

“Puppet making, painting, laughter, a broken nose, and a concussion, it all happened far so quickly!” says Brissonet. “This project was the definition of a collaborative effort and would have been impossible to do alone. I was so fortunate to have the support of my family, blood and otherwise to help me. This process was so special, but far too short. All this effort for only two 15 minute shows. It felt like the Monks making mandalas out of sand, only to be blown away soon after it was finished. It has taken a minute to digest all of the blood, sweat, and love that went into this piece. My psychic intestines are still full.”

“I love to paint but most of all I love to create an experience, this is where I can reach full satisfaction of my work, when I appreciate interaction and when a piece of art is moving. I’ve always been fascinated by automated marionettes and folk art. I think it is the best art on the planet, especially when it can reach the imagination of children; nothing touches my heart more. This is the beginning of a new era, who knows what dreams can come true? Maybe one day we can transform an entire city into puppets, bringing it to life like never before!”

About Artist Danaé Brissonet

Danae Brissonet is an international artist from Quebec, Canada known for incredible public murals, masks, illustration, and puppetry. Her work is often inspired by colorful folk art from Mexico, Puerto Rico, India, Spain, and Morocco and invites the viewer to consider the power of symbolism, myth, and metaphor.

The post Montreal Puppet Mural Turns a Street Corner into a Ravenous Monster first appeared on Dornob.

Trend forecaster WGSN, which influences designers across multiple industries, instead backed a shade they call “neo mint,” which takes inspiration from a fusion of nature, science, and technology. This invigorating shade is subtle enough to easily work into many interior design color palettes — so much so that WGSN felt confident enough to call it a great contemporary alternative to gray, providing a semi-neutral option that still feels rich and vibrant.

In one recently renovated Montreal home, mint is the color that greets you from the very beginning. Naturehumaine Architects blended the shade with gray and natural wood tones for the facade, and the effect makes every other house in the area look drab in comparison. The green-painted section is a cantilevered addition, offering the clients a whole new bedroom, to boot.

Inside, use of the color gets even bolder. Within an otherwise neutral space, a minty central staircase acts as a striking sculptural focal point. The simplicity of the hardware-free cabinetry, gallery-like walls, and sleek fixtures lets this element shine, while the whitewashed wood brings in just the right amount of texture. Best of all, it’s all warmed up by natural wood floors and beams. The only other pop of color in the home is the cheerful yellow tilework surrounding a tub in the children’s bathroom.

Granted, the architects call the accent color they’ve chosen “sage green,” but it’s really more of a spearmint. The effect is the same no matter what you call it, of course, and “Victoria Residence” is undeniably a great example of how strategic use of color can dramatically transform the feel of a space.

The architects add that “the design concept is defined by the transformation of the house by integrating three structural architectural elements. First, the addition of Victoria’s bedroom on the back facade forms a cantilevered box attached to the facade, secondly by creating a new balcony on the front facade, and finally, in the heart of the house, a new staircase articulates and organizes the functions of the house. These three elements are distinguished by the use of a unique color in a sage green shade, which, depending on the light intensity and the changing exposure during the day, presents a wide variation in contrasts and shades.”

“In the heart of the house, this touch of color on the stairs attracts the attention and becomes a playful and geometric element. The monochrome staircase is designed as lightweight structural work, composed of steel blades and painted cabinetry panels. It defines the playground area in double height by extending the color applied to the floor. Also, this central space is surmounted by a large skylight that brings light to the heart of the house as well as to all of the surrounding service rooms, particularly the bathrooms, which are equipped with large glass imposts.”

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A native of Montreal, Laramée chooses outdated encyclopedias and obsolete dictionaries as his artistic media. Using a unique combination of carving, sandblasting and hand-coloring, he transforms their pages into realistic topographical scenes, some inspired by real places and others the result of pure imagination. He doesn’t necessarily plan them in advance, either, instead waiting for inspiration to strike and working intuitively to “uncover” the landscapes contained within.

Laramée’s concept for the “Bookwork” series is based on the idea of cultural erosion, which manifests itself physically as the layers of rock and sediment we see in each piece. The artist says he’s fascinated by the way cultures emerge, become obsolete, and are replaced by new ones, with entire histories displaced and destroyed. Noting that we’re constantly told that paper books and libraries will soon suffer the same fate, he questions whether new technologies will really change humanity for the better.

He adds: “When I was younger, I was very upset with the ideologies of progress. I wanted to destroy them by showing that we are still primitives. I had the profound intuition that as a species, we had not evolved that much. Now I see that our belief in progress stems from our fascination with the content of consciousness. Despite appearances, our current obsession for changing the forms in which we access culture is but a manifestation of this fascination. My work, in 3D as well as in painting, originates from the very idea that ultimate knowledge could very well be an erosion instead of an accumulation. The title of one of my pieces is ‘All Ideas Look Alike.’ Contemporary art seems to have forgotten that there is an exterior to the intellect. I want to examine thinking, not only ‘what’ we think, but ‘that’ we think.”

“So I carve landscapes out of books, and I paint romantic landscapes. Mountains of disused knowledge return to what they really are: mountains. They erode a bit more and they become hills. Then they flatten and become fields where apparently nothing is happening. Piles of obsolete encyclopedias return to that which does not need to say anything, that which simply IS. Fogs and clouds erase everything we know, everything we think we are. After 30 years of practice, the only thing I still wish my art to do is this: to project us into this thick ‘cloud of unknowing.’”

With more than 30 years of artistic practice under his belt, Laramée has many works in his interdisciplinary portfolio, including theater writing and directing, music composition, musical instrument design and crafting, scenography, painting, literature, and more. At the same time, he has deeply studied anthropology, with fieldwork covering “ethno-musicography of the Fetish ritual in Togo” and “oracular imagination among healers in the Peruvian Amazon.” Ultimately, all of these threads come together to influence each one of his unique artworks.

The post Guy Larameé Carves Incredible Landscapes Out of Stacked Books first appeared on Dornob.

The interactive installation was first created by Lateral Office and CS Design in collaboration with EGP Group for the sixth edition of Luminothérapie (“Light Therapy”) in 2015 at the Place des Festivals in Montreal’s Quartier des Spectacles. Since then, it has traveled to Chicago, Boston, Scottsdale, and other cities around North America, bringing a whole lot of fun along with it.

There’s more to “Impulse” than a dozen glowing see-saws, which range from 16 to 24 feet long. Up to four users can climb on at a time, swinging up and down to activate sequences of light and sound. The installation’s initial aim was to draw more people to Montreal’s main arts district during a time of year when it tended to be underutilized.

The designers took inspiration from a pretty unexpected source, too, explaining: “Inspired by the iconic cover of the Joy Division album Unknown Pleasures, as well as Steve Reich’s serial, minimal music, which plays with repetition, rhythm, and syncopation, [the] ‘Impulse’ project explores how architecture can visualize sound.”

Envisioned as a “dynamic, interactive landscape,” the installation responds to the movements of its users, making the public an active participant in how it looks and works. LED lights and a “pool” of sounds are stored within a micro-controller in the base of each see-saw, which in turn is activated by the speed, rhythm, and intensity of its motion.

The designers add: “The Place des Festival in the Quartier des Spectacle is transformed into a space of urban play through a series of 30 interactive acoustic illuminated see-saws that respond and transform when in motion. The seesaws, of two lengths, form units of light and sound that can be activated and played by the public to create a temporal, ever-changing event. ‘Impulse’ embodies ideas of serialism, repetition, and variation to produce zones of intensity and calm within a large public space.”

“When not in use, the see-saws stabilize to the horizontal and remain at a lower glowing level. When activated by users and inclined, the see-saws, wired to LED lights and a speaker, will augment in light intensification and emit a sound sequence. The 30 see-saws shift along the length of the Place des Festival in plan, while their vertical motion creates a dynamic light and sound wave. ‘Impulse’ is an ever-changing urban instrument.”

All that basically creates a constantly changing light and audio show that active users and passersby alike can enjoy. It’s certainly livening up the Garment District, where it will remain in place through the end of January. It’s also fun to see its previous incarnations, like the snowy scenes in Montreal. Check out more photos at the Lateral Office website, or on Instagram.

Photos courtesy of Alex Ayer (Garment District) and Chiara Isserlis (Montreal).

The post 12 Glowing See-Saws Brighten Up New York City’s Garment District first appeared on Dornob.

In his work, Leonard Cohen dissected the human body, soul, and spirit in a way that only a handful of artists have been able to do. Although the idea for A Crack in Everything was set into motion two years prior to his death, the exhibition is still a tribute and critical homage to an artist who inspired many — an artist who, like all great artists, inspires even in death.
Leonard Cohen: A Crack in Everything will run until April 9, 2018 at the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal. It’ll then be travelling to various cities around the world beginning in June of 2018.

The post Leonard Cohen and the Creativity of Collective Experiences first appeared on Dornob.

Located in the revitalized Plateau Mont-Royal neighborhood, which is popular among young families and single professionals alike, La Géode slots into the existing urban landscape without overwhelming its surroundings. The subdued brick helps it blend into a neighboring apartment building on one side and a corner store on the other to avoid changing the architectural character of the community. The architects wanted to work with the concept of “soft densification,” which entails keeping families in major cities during periods of significant growth.

Walk through that geometric corridor, and you’ll not only find that the building’s general aesthetic transforms into something softer and brighter, but you’ll also discover a hidden void that functions as a private, protected courtyard for residents to enjoy. Full of lush greenery, this courtyard feels organic and alive, and it provides a healthy place for children to play in amidst the surrounding urban sprawl. The element of surprise and the feeling of having discovered something unexpected make this space all the more beautiful.

ADHOC incorporated an existing alley into the design to make room for the courtyard without having to sacrifice any space inside the building’s five residential units. Without it, these apartments could easily feel dark and isolated, and they’d only receive natural light from the windows overlooking the heavily trafficked streets below. Not only does the courtyard flood these living spaces with daylight while preserving privacy and offering more serene views, but it also eliminates the need for dim interior hallways.

“A narrative spin has nourished the inspiration of the project while supporting the architectural concept that valued an open central heart and a peripheral organization. This concept is inspired by the geode; a hollowed mineral mass whose interior is covered by crystals.”

“The geode, under an austere and protective external appearance, conceals a true crystalline treasure. It reveals a natural form of staging that stimulates inspiration around the notion of contrast. This concept is exploited through the project at different levels. The exterior of the building is very sober, characterized by a modest materiality.”

“The headers in the brick layer and the openwork masonry in front of the windows and loggias reflect the mineral roughness and protective aspect of the geode. The inner courtyard reflects its crystalline and blazing materiality. The courtyard then became an urban oasis for the inhabitants who can share and talk together, developing a strong social sense of belonging.”

La Géode is expected to become the first multi-unit building to achieve LEED v4 certification in Canada thanks to low impact building strategies, energy efficiency, and the use of sustainable materials. Of course, this standardized measure of sustainability in architecture is performance-based and calls for measurable results throughout a building’s life cycle.

The post Montreal Apartment Facade Hides a Real Gem first appeared on Dornob.

From October 16th to 25th of 2017, Montreal hosted the World Design Summit (WDS), where over 30,000 professionals from fields like architecture, graphic design, media, real estate, and industrial design came together to agree on a framework for how design could improve the world. Anyone who’s been through design school has heard this kind of idealism before, but there is something different about the WDS. The breadth of topics covered in its lectures, panel discussions, and workshops underlines the need for multiple solutions in a world faced with multiple challenges. There’s something for everyone, because everyone must be engaged.

About 50 organizations came together to formulate a 10-year international action plan for tackling the major issues facing the world through design. The three-page Montreal Design Declaration explains the value of design as a driver for innovation, an agent of solutions, an expression of culture, a facilitator of change, a progenitor of intelligence, a manager of risk, a provider of resiliency, and a catalyst for growth. The declaration also establishes actions that could be taken to create a “world according to design,” such as design advocacy, the development of design metrics and standards that everyone can understand, design policies that can be implemented by all levels of government, improved design education, and design that is responsive to context.

The WDS is where we can see some of these ideas come to fruition. Of the summit’s 500 exhibitors, I focused on the three that most embodied its ideals.

SmartPixel.tv specializes in the design and manufacturing of interactive display solutions for numerous industries, including real estate, finance, hospitality, tourism, marketing, and sports. In the real estate industry, interactive displays are used by developers to showcase their properties prior to construction, whereby prospective clients can see a new home and its surrounding views before committing to it. These displays are designed for collaboration between multiple users, with features that give developers interactive options when selling to potential clients. For instance, a sun slider shows how natural light will enter a new home, while real-time three-dimensional interior design selection of materials and finishes gets the client engaged in the aesthetic right alongside the designer. Then the three-dimensional renderings of entire neighborhoods show clients what their new community will look like.

Touchscreens have been used in real estate for years now, but the ability to physically show someone a space before it’s been built is an applicable way to advocate for design. Most designers are used to looking at renderings and digital visualizations, but bringing that to non-designers in a context where design is particularly important to them is a significant step forward. It’s not enough to tell someone what their new home will look like with charts and mood boards. You have to (at least digitally) take them into the future, and give them the power to shape it to their liking.

While there many software programs that help teams collaborate, they often lack the intuitive visualization that facilitates design-based thinking in business and academia. Nureva creates software and interactive hardware that allows teams to collaborate on large projects on a wide scale. The software, called “Span,” mimics the visual organization of a wall full of images, sketches, and sticky notes and presents them digitally on the hardware, which takes the form of a canvas. The canvas can be anywhere between 40 and 200 feet in size, and it can be installed on a wall and used exactly like a whiteboard. The whole setup is the digital manifestation of the accumulated disorder that already exists on most people’s desks, except it takes up much less physical space. Used in the context of an architecture firm, a client could reschedule a meeting and watch a senior architect produce quick changes in real-time (without having to scribble any barely legible redlines for a junior architect to interpret). It would save time, money, and paper and improve communication all around.

At the city level, URBEN BLU designs and builds self-cleaning automated toilets for dense urban spaces. Most people would agree that using the restrooms in a park or urban plaza is not always the most appealing option due to poor maintenance, vandalism, and an overall lack of cleanliness. Thankfully, URBEN BLU’s restrooms all have programmable opening hours, self-cleaning floors, automatic disinfection dispensers that activate after each flush, vandal-proof components, and fireproof garbage bins. The bathrooms also adhere to the requirements of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), meaning each stall has the mandatory five-foot diameter of space needed for turning wheelchairs and grab bars next to the toilet. All of the fixtures in URBEN BLEU’s projects, such as the hand dryers, soap dispensers, and faucets, are non-contact. It’s not just a bathroom, but it’s also street decor that can be easily integrated into any location or building. Having to use the restroom in public is an experience that everyone has to go through, and it’s nice to see that there are urban toilets being made to address the public’s concerns.

It’s not that design is all that the world needs, but it is something the world cannot do without. Everyone expects their surroundings (and everything in them) to be well-designed. As someone who appreciates good design, I love that no matter who I am talking to now, I am always preaching to the choir.

The post The World According to Designers first appeared on Dornob.

There is something to be said for the clean-lined aesthetic of a metal-centric retrofit of a warehouse space – but does form take on a life of its own, or still serve a function?

This project in Montreal by Jean-Maxime Labrecque certainly has a few unique twists, but what sets it apart from similar interiors is, in part, the fact that most photos show someone actually occupying the spaces.

In some cases, this shows off neat functionality, like a sleek metal surfacing concealing a huge and useful walk-in close, or what it might be like to sit at this table or lean on that counter.

In others, it perhaps reveals more than the architect wished to share – how uncomfortable those benches might be, or the comfortable nature vs. awkwardness of bending over to get something out of certain cabinets.

“‘Inhabitable sculpture’ project, which received two awards at the Grands prix du design 2011, is the result of four years of work executed by numerous fabrication and installation teams. Two premises were established by the client at the beginning of the project: ‘a space that people will find cold’ and ‘living in an art gallery.’ All designers hope, sooner or later, to obtain such a commission, which enables them to avoid subjecting their work to the obvious sacrosanct ‘warmth’ obtained through wood.”

“In response to the owner’s request, the space was emptied of what the developers of the housing project had planned for her small 800-square-foot housing unit. Once the space was reduced to its original industrial concrete walls, floors, and ceilings, a delicate multifunctional sculptural piece of furniture made of raw aluminum, inspired by Donald Judd’s work, was installed. Its combined modules fulfil all of the dwelling’s functions: bed, walk-in closet, bookshelf, sofa, counter, stools, kitchen, and storage.”

“A special attribute of this complex object is a room within the room generated by a system of suspended sliding doors attached only at the top. The resulting ‘corridor of arches’ gives access to the walk-in closet.”

“Two other interventions complete the main area’s aluminum functional sculpture. A technical glass block contains appliances, storage, and the water heater, and an old concrete vault houses the bathroom. Although small in size (10′ x 10′), the bathroom is entirely finished in black. The full-height and -width mirrors on one of its walls create a surprising sensation of ‘absorbed vastness.'”

The post Inhabitable Sculpture: Ultramodern Montreal Loft first appeared on Dornob.