Bevel: Canadian Interiors Conversations

“The world is terrible. The world is fantastic. Both statements are true.” This is a line that opens one of the chapters of Stefan Sagmeister’s new book, and its pragmatic, no-nonsense tone is a perfect indicator of what readers will be presented with: a fact-driven exploration of human progress throughout the ages. Yet the book’s title, Now Is Better, reveals where Stefan’s heart lies and what his true intentions are: to in his words “foster radical positivity” and nudge audiences towards choosing “gratitude and positivity over pessimism and despair.” I am in the same camp as Stafan, believing that despite the unrelentingly negative content being force-fed to us in our daily news cycles, things are actually much better now than they used to be, and we would all do much better if we were able to keep that somewhere in our active minds. That theme, coupled with the tools Stefan uses to explore and preach it – communication design, his stock-in-trade – is what compelled me to chat with him for this episode of Bevel. His pieces blend classic art with quantitative data analysis by rendering complex data sets into geometric symbols and then literally inserting them into nineteenth-century oil paintings. Because Bevel is an audio podcast, we don’t talk about individual pieces directly, but instead I use Stefan’s overall mission as the starting point to explore topics such as communicating “truth” in a post-truth age; how a communication designer measures the effectiveness of a message; why design is compared more to art than science; and even touch on the question of ownership as it relates to the visual arts. Stefan Sagmeister formed his New York-based firm in 1993 and his work is in museum collections around the world. He’s also designed for a diverse roster of clients including album covers and packaging for bands such as the Rolling Stones, the Talking Heads and Jay-Z, so I even indulge a bit and ask him about the state of album design.

Chatter is exploding about advancements in AI. Every industry is sitting up and taking notice, including, of course, the A&D industry. These creatives are intrigued not only by how AI can help design teams by not only reducing overall project lead times, but also expanding creative discovery by memorizing insights from thousands, if not millions, of previous project data. Software such as DALL-E 2, Midjourney, and Stable Diffusion are seen as tools to speed up sketching and other ideation processes, producing a plethora of renderings for comparison and further development. Advocates praise how AI-enhanced technologies will simplify many routine office and design tasks, replacing current software products and freeing designers to concentrate on other aspects of their business. Yet there are critics urging caution, as debates are emerging around what, if any, regulatory interventions governments should take to protect from potential fraudulence and exploitation. In this episode of Bevel we hear from Andrew Lane, co-founder of digby; George Foussias, Creative Director of mood.designlab; and Mark Cichy, Director of Design Technology at HOK, who gathered for the latest INSight session hosted by Canadian Interiors and Black Bread + Jam to explore issues that range from hopeful to concerning, and delve into compelling, real-world examples of how creative industries are already leveraging these emerging technologies and what they mean for the future.

It is a well-known fact that the media loves trends reports. After all, they give us so much to report on: experts providing clairvoyant insights into what they think will happen in the near future; pointing out observable changes in people’s behaviour; identifying key drivers, challenges, threats and opportunities that are influencing industries; and so on. All professions and industries employ trends reports, and the interior design industry is no exception. For example, just recently the American Society of Interior Designers (ASID) released its 2023 Trends Outlook report, examining societal shifts and economic trends impacting the design profession and the role of design in addressing issues in our world. There is a lot of good content in that report, but I decided to take its release as an opportunity to “peek behind the curtain” as it were and speak to its author to get an understanding of how such a document is created. That author is Dr. Michael J. Berens, a writer, editor and researcher with 30 years’ experience in research and knowledge management, over 14 of which as the director of research and knowledge resources for ASID. In this episode of Bevel, I enlist Dr. Berens to help unpack the nuts n’ bolts of conducting a survey and the approaches to different types, for example industry metrics surveys versus trends surveys. We discuss how a trends analyst handles paradigm shifts like COVID-19, which literally came out of nowhere, and how often does “fallout” become “trends.” I also tap into some bigger philosophical questions: for example, where do value-based assessments like “what should happen” fit into reporting “what is happening”? Lastly, we all know that trends report are tools or preparation, but I ask: can they also be tools for challenging one’s own perspective? Preparing for the future is one thing, but how do “trends” help those who want to create the future?

Robotic automation has changed virtually every industry. Their ubiquity has moved from the assembly line to the house, from multi-axis manipulator arms to cute little vacuums and many other examples in between. I say “virtually” every industry because there is a major one that still lags far behind in embracing the precision, reliability and endless potential of robotics and automation: the making of buildings. Given how this is an industry notorious for inefficiency and waste – problems put into stark relief thanks to the pandemic – one must wonder why are we not seeing robots on the jobsite or in the design office? One reason is access to training. In this episode of Bevel, I enlist David Correa, an associate professor at the University of Waterloo School of Architecture and a partner at experimental design collaboration llLab, to help explore how limited access to robotics education is slowing down an industry already sluggish to adopt the exceptional potential this technology has for the built environment. We examine why there is no school in Canada (and very few worldwide) that has a dedicated program to explore how robotics integration could transform the building industry; how very few have courses or studios that actually engage research in architecture or construction using robotics; and discuss in what ways this deficiency is harming the A&D profession.

When you hear words like “blockchain” do you immediately conjure up images of Minecraft, that video game your 14-year-old son plays all day? Or when you encounter the phrase “metaverse” do you instantly hear Keanu Reeves utter his famous “Woah!” line from The Matrix? Don’t feel bad, you’re not alone. To many, they feel like buzzwords that gamers and tech savants love to throw around on their discussion boards. But in fact, they are foundational pieces of a larger tech shift that we are in the midst of and may not even know it. The new frontier, being called web3, is ditching a previous internet dominated by companies that provide services in exchange for personal data, and instead wants to “decentralize” ownership to build interaction, community, and return power to the creator. Why should you care? Because there’s a lot of money at play. J.P. Morgan predicts the metaverse will be a $1 trillion market. Undoubtedly much of that will be purely for entertainment. But there will be another part emerging around productivity and expanding the physical realm, which is where design firms come in. In an effort to make some sense of all this, for this episode of Bevel I joined forces with my friend and fellow podcaster Arnaud Marthouret, creator of the Single Servesseries, and sat down with Tessa Bain and Andrew Lane, co-founders of the Toronto-based firm Digby, to unpack the meaning and interconnectedness of things like NFTs, augmented reality, the metaverse and understand why web3 represents more opportunities than just being an avatar running around in a cartoon universe.

Ask a designer what the role of a designer is, and you will get as diverse a spectrum of answers as you will designers. Is it one of creative expression or rigorously conducted research? Is it engineering over artistry, or vice versa? Can it be everything, all at once? Many designers will chafe even at that, saying not taking a position is part of the problem of our times. Designers taking a position, at times referred to as authorship, has always been fertile ground for debate between critics, theorists, educators, and practitioners. There are designers who shy away from authorship because they think of themselves of problem-solvers, not a brand. Then there are those who believe designers are not merely mediators, not just part of an agency that suggest various options to the client, but in fact need a strong voice and make decisions – an attitude that could be seen as in opposition to the prevailing sentiment that design is all about collaboration. A collection of interviews and essays by editors Louise Schouwenberg and Michael Kaethler in a new book titled The Auto-Ethnographic Turn in Design (2021, Valiz) gives me a good opportunity to explore these issues. In this episode of Bevel, I chat with Michael (our first returning guest to the series) about making sense of phenomena in design described as auto-ethnographic and how, if at all, authorship fits into the discourse. “Auto-ethnography gives an authority to the designer as someone with something to say and a means to say it,” says Michael in one of his essays. It “situates the designer at the heart of the research and connects this position to the culture of design and the broader cultural realm.” Michael Kaethler is a sociologist of design whose work focuses on the transmission, production and embodiment of knowledge in art and design-oriented practices.

When small and midsized design firms try to strengthen their firms, they tend to fixate on the “Practice of Design”: doing better work. However, the work itself isn’t the problem. Getting stronger requires a shift of focus to the “Design of Practice.” This foundational philosophy is expressed early and often in Rick J. Linley’s new book, titled Scoreboard Your Practice: 7 Numbers to Understand Your Design Firm’s Financials. His focus on the “Design of Practice” is more than just a clever turn of phrase: it is a pillar around which Rick weaves and distills lessons learned from over 30 years of serving in the trenches of the architecture and design profession, culminating in his role as Principal/COO of Smith Carter Architects and Engineers Inc., a 200-person, multidisciplinary design firm (now part of Architecture49). In this episode of Bevel, I tap into Rick’s experience and his courage to shine a light on realities of the business of the design industry that tend to not be discussed often but should if professionals want stability and success in their careers. We take an unvarnished look at some of the biases that have invaded the psyche of many privately held, small and midsized design practices such as the bias for growth, cost versus value and how Full Service is a dangerous myth. We discuss the cold hard truth that good work is essential but not sufficient to ensure financial success, and the embarrassing fact that leaders of design firms often don’t understand their numbers. Now working with principals of emerging and evolving design firms through his consultancy Strong Practice Strategies, Rick unpacks the four overarching results he sees as necessary to make a firm strong: 1) optimized financial risk, 2) optimized profitability, 3) optimized cash control, and 4) optimized firm value. “These four priorities represent the most significant part of a shift from the Practice of Design to the Design of Practice,” says Rick.

“As the nature of designing and making physical objects – particularly products for workplaces – continues to evolve, the way we approach that work needs to evolve with it,” said industrial designer Lee Fletcher this spring while announcing the launch of a new venture, called Fletcher Scott Studio, based in Toronto. Lee is a founding partner in Fig40, a product design studio also based in Toronto and in which he is still actively involved with partner Terence Woodside. But with Fletcher Scott Studio, he is, in his own words, “looking for a pause in process, and an expansion of the liminal space between a design brief being given and the design work beginning. How can we point the juggernaut of development in a better direction, one that reworks the way we make things so we can keep making them?” Lee’s extensive experience in both manufacturing and consulting has enabled him to take the lead in reconciling all the goals for a given project and the complex, sometimes conflicting, needs of clients, users, and the community. As a result, his work has won many international design awards and he has sat on various juries for design competitions. In this episode of Bevel, I sit down in a rather noisy environment with Lee to explore what he is trying to do with Fletcher Scott Studio. In his own words, his goal is “to draw other voices into the process, to make the process more transparent while remaining unwavering on the goals to be achieved.” He admits this will increase time but not necessarily cost, and more importantly, “will bring greater clarity to the goals and a higher chance they’ll be met.” We speak at length about how this will require a shift in approach and about “dismantling expectations” (client-designer, vice versa, designer-end user, etc.) into constituent parts, then reassembling them like Lego into something that works better for everyone, designer included. We unpack the sometimes thorny topic of authorship and even talk about how task chairs were essentially over-designed for people who ended up barely using them. Lee was educated in both Canada and the U.K., achieving an MA in Industrial Design from Manchester Metropolitan University. His work centres on designing manufactured objects with empathy, using an approach that seeks to understand the broader context the object is made and used in. He is a professional member of the Association of Industrial Designers of Ontario and teaches Industrial Design at Sheridan College.

Designers have been drafting design manifestos (DM) for over a hundred years with varying degrees of success and fidelity in their professional practices. According to author Alexandra Franzen, a DM is “A written statement where you publicly declare your intentions, opinions and vision,” yet despite such a succinct characterization there appear to be gaps in understanding when it comes to the features which distinguish an exemplary DM and the function it serves (if any) in contemporary professional design practices. These days, designers’ websites seemingly prefer short generic statements that mix their approach to design with lists of technical aptitudes and team biographies. Is this a more client-focused mission statement as opposed to a manifesto? What is the difference between them? Have manifestos been co-opted into what is really a branding exercise with the intent to sell but somehow still come off looking like they are deeply caring? Perhaps it’s a bit of both. In this episode of Bevel we meet up with Bulent Akman during Clerkenwell Design Week in London to unpack the current state of DMs and try to set the record straight on their proper form, function and value. We discuss some of the design industry’s most influential DMs by heavyweights such as Adolf Loos, Walter Gropius, Dieter Rams and Jasper Morrison, and then examine the particulars of what a DM should include, who should write it and when. Bulent is an instructor and communications specialist with over 20 years of experience teaching digital and integrated marketing communications. He recently led a course in writing design manifestos for the School of Form, part of SWPS University in Warsaw, Poland.

Anyone who has spent a considerable amount of time in Toronto has on some level developed a relationship with public transit. But then there are those who have spent a really significant amount of time in the city, someone like me, who has spent their whole life here – was born here, grew up here, has gone through the various stages of life here – those people have an intimate relationship with public transit, specifically the TTC: we develop associations with details such as going through turnstiles, sounds and smells of waiting on platforms, the feeling of subway seats, different tile colours of the stations, and on and on. And it is important to point out that these are all design elements. Poetics aside, the one thing all of us engaged in this relationship agree on is that public transit needs to be better, and we need more of it. Which is why any time there are announcements about investments being made in transit infrastructure it is met with enthusiasm. Hence the excitement that is growing around the Metrolinx Ontario Line, for which construction officially started earlier this year, and why I reached out to Greg Parsons, because it is he and his team at Dexd that are responsible for the DS-09 Subway Design Standard – an important sounding document that will have a serious impact on our future experiences with the Ontario Line. On this episode of Bevel, we discuss how Dexd got involved with Metrolinx to develop the Subway Design Standard; what some of the main interior design features will be; and how an interior designer fits into a project as large and with so many moving parts as public transit. Greg has over 25 years of interior design experience across Canada and globally, with deep specialization in commercial mixed-use, healthcare, and transportation sectors. An active educator and mentor, committed to helping develop and grow the next generation of designers, Greg has an innate curiosity about human behaviour and an enduring belief in our collective responsibility to transform space that positively impacts and shapes our experiences.

There was a time in the mid- to late-20th century when arts critics held serious power in swaying the consumption habits of the general public. Film and music were two realms in the popular press where this was particularly notable, with critics such as Pauline Kael and Roger Ebert for film or Lester Bangs and Robert Christgau for music writing reviews and essays in publications that many believed could “make or break a career.” Then as the early 21st century saw the internet unleash a tidal wave of content, where value is measured by clicks, criticism morphed from an elite field of intellectual exploration by a small number of knowledgeable experts to a democratic phenomenon where analysis is aggregated and averaged, and the lines seem blurred between true expertise and the random opinions of the masses. In this episode of Bevel, I sit down with Ian Chodikoff for a wide-ranging conversation about the state of architecture criticism in the popular media, and touch on topics such as what it looked like in the age of Kael, Ebert and Bangs; whether the internet has democratized or diluted criticism; what is working now with the discipline, what is not, and what it has to do to not only survive but be relevant. Ultimately, as the profession of criticism continues to evolve and journalists struggle to find a place, we examine whether there is a future for professional architecture criticism. Ian Chodikoff is an architect and leader in the culture of placemaking whose career includes teaching, writing, exhibitions and research. He regularly consults with municipalities, real estate developers and various cultural organizations. Ian was a former Executive Director for the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada and editor for Canadian Architect magazine. He is a Board member of two associations, one of which provides affordable housing. Ian is currently guiding communications and business development for a Toronto architecture firm.

There is ‘saying,’ and there is ‘doing.’ Both are important, and in many cases one can’t happen without the other. But eventually the latter must happen, otherwise the former has been abandoned and rendered meaningless. We all saw the slow emergence of conversations about diversity in representation kicked into high gear during the summer of 2020, as companies and organizations queued up to give their official Statements on Diversity and Inclusion in the face of intense scrutiny coming from social upheavals. And deservedly so, for while Canadian workplaces may appear more diverse than ever before, that appearance belies the reality that diverse representation is commonly found at the lower end of company hierarchies, with clear gaps in positions of influence and power at senior leadership levels. What is interesting is how design industry professionals think of themselves as having progressive and inclusive mindsets baked into the very nature of what they do. However, a homogeneity within design leadership coupled with a fear of even engaging in these conversations has slowed the acceptance of ways to increase and advance diversity. Yet the reality is, if done for the right reasons, these actions can directly impact business sustainability and ultimately its profitability. In this episode of Bevel we sit down with Ian Rolston, founder of the design equity consultancy firm Decanthropy, to explore the myriad of complex issues imbedded in any conversation about representation in the design industry. We discuss what must happen to move the needle from talk to action, and zero in on three key areas: design education, professional practice and the role of advocacy. Ian is a creative soul, thought leader, design professional and speaker, inspired by connecting humanity to what matters most. His insights, studio workshops and project collaborations focus clients on leading with one’s sense of humanity to inform the design process, shift thinking and transform ROI to reimagine new possibilities for the spaces we live in.

Architects and interior designers specify thousands of architectural and interior products, building materials and related goods, representing billions of dollars in sales. But how these goods and products register on the radar of creative professionals and ultimately get specified is a major part of the industry that rarely gets discussed. Design firms have both formal and informal procedures when working with product industry representatives, and like everything else these days, things are changing due to a combination of both internal and external forces. In this episode of Bevel we sit down with George Foussias, Design Director of Interior Design at Lemay and unpack the evolving relationships between design leaders and product representatives and explore best practices for developing mutually beneficial ones. Additionally, we address industry changes when it comes to supply chain management and how firms are working with industry partners to adjust; building a community in the face of an increasingly automated transactional setting; and we touch on the topic of a “materials library” and its viability moving forward when looked at through the lens of environmental sustainability and this post-COVID trend of ditching office space. As design director for the Toronto studio of Lemay, George draws on over 20 years of local and international experience to promote design excellence. His extensive knowledge and drive are reflected in the over 30 international design awards he has earned for is thoughtful, dynamic and engaging design solutions for the residential, entertainment and hospitality markets.

“What is Canadian architecture? The question has often been posed, with no single satisfactory response. Understandably so, as Canada is not only vast but geographically and climatically diverse across its provinces and territories,” says author Leslie Jen in the introduction to her new book, titled Canadian Architecture: Evolving a Cultural Identity. In it, she explores several significant building projects in urban and rural environments that influence our interactions with each other and the communities in which we live, reflecting a multiplicity of architectural languages, regions, and building types seen in this country. In this episode of Bevel we sit down with Leslie to discuss the importance of regional vernaculars and how they interconnect to create a national architectural language. We also name-drop a few architects featured in the book whose work enhances cities and landscapes across Canada’s geographically varied expanse. But we also go beyond just geography to explore issues of growth, designing for health and aging, plus growing ecological challenges, as well as other pressing questions facing Canadian architectural firms moving into the future, such as inclusion and the effect the pandemic will have on how architects design. Leslie Jen is an architecture and design journalist based in Toronto, where her consultancy practice includes writing, editing and curating for several design magazines, architectural firms and arts organizations. For nearly 12 years, she was the associate editor of Canadian Architect magazine. She was named a Fellow of the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada (FRAIC) in 2016.

Although we have been in the COVID trenches for what seems like an incessantly long period of time, there now appears to be light at the end of this tunnel. With vaccination rates on a speedy incline and phased re-openings across the provinces, things are slowly returning to normal. But we’re not out of the woods yet, and even when the pandemic is officially declared over its effects will be long-lasting. Which is why we are sitting down with Johanna Hoffmann, CEO of Oomph Group, to discuss why your space planning, project management and procurement skills are urgently needed now; and what it will take to get your firm through the crisis by finding creative ways to generate revenue and other stop-gap solutions that while not necessarily permanent, will help you not only stay on your feet but continue marching on even after normalcy returns. A creative marketing and business development leader, Johanna is known for her ability to integrate inventive marketing tactics with business development strategies to drive results for AEC firms and organizations. She has held executive marketing and business development positions with global leaders such as B+H Architects, Forrec Inc. and Stantec, where she established global marketing and BD infrastructures, devised strategic BD strategies to meet KPIs and revenue targets, and led successful market entries into Asia, the Americas and the Middle East.

“Architecture is not the result of finance capitalism but rather is finance capitalism” / “Just as architecture has helped produce finance capitalism, finance capitalism has helped produce architecture.” Those two passages appear early in Matthew Soules’s new book, titled Icebergs, Zombies, and the Ultra Thin, which serves as an indictment of how finance capitalism changes not only architectural forms, but the very nature of our cities and societies. The impetus for this book arose from the 2008 global financial crisis, which revealed, among other things, the damage done by unchecked housing speculation. Yet in the ensuing years, says Soules, the use of architecture as an investment tool has only accelerated heightening inequality and contributed to worldwide financial instability. We rarely consider architecture to be an important factor in contemporary economic and political debates, yet Soules – an associate professor of architecture at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver – demonstrates how unoccupied ultra-thin pencil towers rising in our cities, or cavernous "iceberg" homes burrowing many stories below street level, function as wealth storage for the superrich, while communities around the globe are blighted by zombie and ghost urbanism, marked by unoccupied neighborhoods and abandoned housing developments, issues on which the discipline of architecture is largely mute.

From their inception, both architecture and filmmaking have been forms of representational art. The closer one looks at these respective disciplines, the more their overlapping attributes become glaringly obvious. Both manipulate time, space, movement, light, colour and sound; in the case of cinema, to reinforce the narrative of a film; and in the case of architecture, to manifest the ideas behind a design. They both engage the viewer, one by projecting moving images while the viewer is still, the other by being still while the viewer moves. Both architecture and film play an important role in influencing how we physically and imaginatively interact with the world around us. It is these seemingly obvious correlations that then raise a multitude of questions: how is architecture and design explicitly handled as subject matter in films? What kind of content clicks with audiences? How can film technology and techniques help architects bridge the gap between representational images of their work and a qualitative perception of space and architecture? In this episode of Bevel we tap Kyle Bergman to help explore these and similar questions. Based in New York City, Kyle founded the Architecture & Design Film Festival (ADFF) in 2008 and serves as its festival director. He has always recognized the strong connection between architecture and film and ADFF provides a unique opportunity to educate, entertain and engage people who are passionate about the world of architecture and design.

With a new United States president in the White House already signalling a recommitment to the Paris Climate Agreement, environmental issues are encouragingly back to the top of many design and manufacturing agendas. For some companies, it always had been, as evidenced by the recently released Corporate Social Responsibility Report from Humanscale, one of the leading designers and manufacturers of high-performance workplace products with an aim of making a net-positive impact on the earth, and who signed a pledge back in 2017 to uphold the Paris Agreement. In this episode of Bevel, we chat with Jane Abernethy, Chief Sustainability Officer at Humanscale, and in our wide-ranging conversation we touch on topics related to material and supply chain transparency; COVID’s impact on furniture waste; and how the human element fits into the equation of responsible sustainability.

“When you start to deconstruct or question design, all sorts of questions emerge: How does design affect our behaviour, our use of resources, our choices and freedoms to participate in social, political or economic decision-making, and the extent to which we feel we have agency over our lives?” That is a point raised by Jan Boelen, a curator, educator and researcher in art and design who has been the head of the Master’s department of Social Design at the Design Academy Eindhoven since 2010. Jan is one of the co-editors of a provocative new book titled Social Matter, Social Design, a collection of essays that explore uncanny, even disconcerting connections and assumptions about design, and challenge designers to incorporate a more nuanced and complex reading of how the social is intertwined with the material. In this episode of Bevel, we chat with Michael Kaethler, a sociologist of design whose work focuses on the transmission, production and embodiment of knowledge in art and design-oriented practices, and is a co-editor of this new book.

What role does film play in shaping experimentation in architecture? How can film be used to document and archive different projects in the context of architecture school? Can film be used to make an architectural argument? From experimental thesis projects that use film as a means for discourse to shorts documenting the processes and dynamics of collaborative design studios, in this episode of Bevel we partnered with the Toronto Society of Architects to chat with student filmmakers, recent graduates, and faculty about the role of filmmaking in architectural education. About the Panelists: Vineetha Sivathasan is a graduate of the Masters of Architecture program from the University of Toronto's John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design. She currently works at Kohn Partnership Architects, where she is continuing her path to become a fully licensed Architect in Ontario. David Correa's research looks at biological structures and processes as a source of insight for the development of new fabrication processes and advanced materials. The research aims at the critical use of technology to develop innovative and high-performance design solutions. Peter Kwak/Wayne Yan: KandY Films is comprised of University of Waterloo Architecture Graduate students Peter Kwak and Wayne Yan, who met during their undergraduate studies at the same institution. Michael Yoshimura is a CG Artist based in Toronto. Michael received his Bachelor & Master of Architecture from the Azrieli School of Architecture & Urbanism. Alistair Grierson is an intern architect currently working and living in Toronto. He studied at Dalhousie University in Halifax and holds a master’s degree in architecture from the University of Toronto. Shabaan Khokhar is a photographer and cinematographer in the GTA and Waterloo Region with a Master of Architecture from the University of Waterloo.