Bevel: Canadian Interiors Conversations

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.

Design is interdisciplinary by nature, therefore it is no surprise that design education is similar and provides a variety of platforms for students to learn different knowledge and skills from, and then apply those skills to solve design problems.

That said, anyone watching the state of education can see that it is evolving at a rapid pace. Today’s parameters are much less defined and what is expected from both students and teachers is being re-evaluated.

While today’s classrooms are undoubtedly molding the design workforce of the future, the question exists: is that workforce evolving alongside the corporate world? Or put another way, are modern graduates prepared for what is expected within the professional design world? Is the curricula of design education aligned with what the industry is looking for?

In this episode of Bevel, we chat with Anna Stranks about these topics. Anna is both principal of her firm STUDIO A Design Collaborative and an instructor of Interior Design in the Faculty of Applied Sciences and Technology at Humber College in Toronto.

The COVID-19 crisis has forced corporate culture to radically adjust ways of working.

The question facing us now is what will happen when the pandemic winds down and we emerge from quarantines? What’s likely is that awareness about workplace health and safety will be strong, and this awareness will have a direct impact on the design of physical environments, most notably, the surfaces we touch and how we interact with people after this prolonged period of social distancing.

In the wake of the pandemic, the connection between the physical environment and wellness will be under more scrutiny than ever before. Questions will be asked, like: is the air in this building filtered? Are there proper hand-washing facilities? How many surfaces do I need to touch and how clean are they? Will meeting rooms be replaced with video-conferencing rooms?

While open office designs will likely no longer be desirable, for most companies, a complete redesign is not realistic either. Which means post-pandemic, we'll be challenged to rethink how we behave, utilize and design traditional workspaces.

In this episode of Bevel, we explore these issues further with Dyonne Fashina, principal of the Toronto-based award-winning firm Denizens of Design.

Because of wide-ranging governmental policies created to enforce social distancing measures in efforts to contain the spread of COVID-19, some of the swiftest casualties have been the regular stops on the trade show circuit.

Many show organizers either cancelled or postponed their events, but some of them were re-imagined as online or virtual entities. While a virtual trade show is seldom a desirable substitute for the real, in-person experience, it does offer several benefits for attendees including streaming and archived keynotes, panels and technical sessions. And from the exhibitor side, there is an argument to be made that going virtual democratizes access, since costs related to space rental, construction, transportation and so on and are no longer tied to physical exhibition space.

Today we speak with Jeff Forrest about his experience with just such a situation, when his studio STACKLAB participated in virtual programming put on by the Isola Design District, a satellite event connected to the prestigious yearly Salone del Mobile.Milano, the physical version of which was cancelled for 2020.

Interior design is a profession based on ideas meant to eliminate barriers between ourselves and our built environment, so it is wonderfully positioned to benefit from a mining of design inspirations that come from other industries, thereby breaking down conceptual barriers to create new forms, introduce emerging typologies, weave in themes, and more.