Announcement of the 24th annual Best of Canada Awards winners
Excerpt of announcement :
“Things change quickly in our modern times, and those changes create waves that spread out in all directions, pushing things forward or out of the way. The challenge is to learn how to anticipate, match and then ride that wave, or risk being swept under. As you can imagine, the wave of which I speak is COVID-19, and like many other industries in Canada the interior design industry had to react quickly and make decisions: do we hold our breath and hope the wave passes over our heads, or do we learn to surf. While the intensity of the wave appears to be dissipating and things are slowly returning to a more recognizable state, there is still debate as to whether it has fully hit shore and everyone is safely out of the water yet.
The metaphor of the wave and its impact extends to the 24th annual Canadian Interiors’ Best of Canada Awards, the country’s only design competition to focus on interior design projects and products without regard to size, budget or location. Submissions from interior designers, architects, interior architects, decorators, and crafts persons were less in quantity than in previous years, but that can be expected. What has not decreased is the impressive quality of the work being produced by Canada’s exceptional design talent. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the ratio of projects designed before the pandemic hit is much larger than those completed during, suggesting that there are many surfers still out in the water, finding their way back to shore. We look forward to seeing them in upcoming Best of Canada competitions.
The two categories of Projects and Products require distinct judging exercises, which were held on separate days, both at the Teknion Toronto Collaboration Hub and with Teknion’s support. A stellar group of designers stepped up to tackle the daunting task of reviewing the submissions and selecting this year’s cream of the crop. For Projects we recruited: Karen Mak, joint CEO of dkstudio Architects Inc.; Ian Rolston, founder of Decanthropy; Toon Dreessen, president of Architects DCA; and Isabelle Talbot, principal of Ray. On the Products side, three judges put their expertise to work analyzing material from an impressive list of candidates: Catherine Chong, professor in the Bachelor of Industrial Design program in the Faculty of Applied Sciences & Technology at Humber College ITAL; Eiri Ota, principal at UUfie; and Andrew Sun, principal of Atelier SUN.
[…]
Congratulations to all 23 winners!
Hospitality
- 81: Rundle Bar
- 121: Café Kawa & Garo
- 131: Bō
- 165: Major Tom
Institutional
- 72: Maanjiwe nendamowinan
- 73: Christ-Roi Elementary School
- 116: Saint-Jean-Eudes School Library
- 169: University College Revitalization
- 180: Network Child Care Centres (Project of the Year)
Office
- 15: Wallace Walk Studio
- 133: ONESPAN
- 149: Innovative Orthodontics Dr Voudouris
- 171: First Gulf Head Office
Residence
- 11: House on Bracondale Hill
- 56: Waxwing Residence
- 199: Gallery House
Retail
- 45: Joe Fresh Flagship
- 61: All Eyes on Me (AEOM)
- 62: Permission
- 107: Alchemy
Single Detail
- 52: Duo Café
PRODUCTS
- 103: Catty (Judges’ Pick)
- 161: Swing like no other “
To view the original announcement…