Grab a copy of our recent 2024 AZ Awards issue to read upon this year’s winners and finalists, or sign up for a full-year subscription to access cutting-edge stories, in-depth interviews and exclusive coverage of contemporary architecture and design all year long. Skip past the paywall and stock up your summer reading list with an all-access subscription — now at 40% off!

Cash in on our Summer Flash Sale and use promo code SAVE40 at checkout to save 40% now!

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We are also excited to present our new website: conference.azuremagazine.com, which will be continuously updated as new speakers are confirmed.

For now, here are some highlights from our roster:

Dr. Kongjian Yu, Founder of Turenscape

Kongjian Yu is the landscape architect commonly credited with the innovation of the “Sponge City” concept, a resiliency practice that he embraces through the many award-winning projects completed by his Beijing-based firm, Turenscape. His research has been adopted by the Chinese government as a guiding theory for nationwide ecological protection and restoration campaigns. 

Named one of The 10 Most Innovative Architecture Companies (by Fast Company, 2021), Turenscape is a winner of multiple AZ Awards, including for Fish Tail Park in Nanchang City, Quzhou Luming Park, and Tongnan Dafosi Wetland Park – all restorative landscape designs that transform formerly industrial areas into thriving green spaces for all of the public to enjoy.

Michael Sørensen, Partner and Design Director at Henning Larsen

Michael Sørensen is a Partner and Design Director at Henning Larsen and co-leads the firm’s U.S. design studio in New York City. With 20 years of experience leading projects from Henning Larsen’s offices in Copenhagen and New York City, Sørensen has been at the helm of several award-winning projects throughout Scandinavia, Europe and North America. He oversees the design process of complex projects across the United States and Canada – including large-scale masterplans and urban designs, built-to-suit flagship offices, mixed-use projects and higher education facilities – navigating stakeholder groups and spearheading project teams to prioritize high design ambitions within the parameters of scheduling constraints and budgets.

Recent award-winning projects include the Downsview Framework Plan in Toronto, University of Cincinnati’s College of Business, and the Minneapolis Public Service Building. Bringing Henning Larsen’s DNA to life, Sørensen leads co-creative design processes defined by research and dialogue to drive innovative, inspiring spaces and places for the communities they serve. 

Rasmus Astrup, Senior Partner and Design Director at SLA 

As Partner and Design Principal at the renowned Danish nature-based design studio SLA, Rasmus Astrup spearheads the studio’s largest and most complex international projects. He is a leading specialist in nature-based design, sustainable landscape architecture, and integrated climate adaptation and has led SLA’s most forward-looking and award-winning projects. His perpetual emphasis on creating the best possible places for life – all life – is continuously manifested through inspiring and green urban spaces with living ecosystems that help create robust cities that put all things living – people, animals, and plants – first. 

Astrup is the recipient of several major international honours, among them the 2021 World Landscape of the Year Award. Not only is he a design innovator, Astrup is also an articulate communicator – and has for more than a decade been a sought-after lecturer and debater at forums world-wide. 

Janna Levitt, Co-Founder at LGA Architectural Partners

Janna Levitt co-founded LGA Architectural Partners, believing buildings can serve as connectors between culture and people. Her projects often implement transformative cultural and environmental agendas developed with diverse collaborators. As Partner-in-Charge, she has led projects throughout Ontario including Laurentian University McEwen School of Architecture, the University of Waterloo School of Architecture, the MabelleArts Park Pavilion, and the Visitors Centre Pavilion at Promontory Park, by the Don River in Toronto, Kitchener’s Central Public Library, and the Kiln Building Redevelopment at Evergreen Brick Works. Levitt also leads the firm’s research projects, currently focusing on rehousing Toronto’s YellowBelt with the University of Toronto’s Daniels School of Architecture.

Joey Giaimo, Founding Principal at Giaimo Architects

Joey Giaimo founded Giaimo in 2015 with an approach to architecture that sources the value and characteristics of existing buildings and spaces. With over 25 years of experience in architecture and heritage conservation across Canada, he has led numerous adaptive reuse, restoration and retrofit projects that have been honoured with the Lieutenant Governor’s Ontario Heritage Award for Excellence in Conservation, the Canadian Architect Awards of Excellence, and Canadian Association of Heritage Professionals Awards. For over seven years, he has been an instructor in the Department of Architectural Science at Toronto Metropolitan University, where he leads the heritage conservation course and studios on adaptive reuse. 

Kelty Miyoshi McKinnon, Partner at PFS Studio

Miyoshi McKinnon is a landscape architect and Partner at PFS Studio, a Vancouver and Toronto–based landscape architecture, urban design, and planning firm. Specializing in public projects that merge cultural, social, ecological, and climatic concerns, she is committed to the creation of rich, innovative and meaningful public spaces that are much-loved by their communities. Kelty’s projects span from highly urban block sized cultural precincts, mixed use developments, streetscapes, and public plazas to naturalized parks and waterfront design. Some of her current projects include the West End Waterfront Vision Plan, Chinatown Memorial Plaza, Jericho Lands, and the Vancouver Art Gallery in Vancouver; as well as several plazas, streetscapes and parks in Seattle.

Lindsey Wikstrom, Founding Partner at Mattaforma

Architect Lindsey Wikstrom’s forward-thinking work weaves together ideas of care, ecosystems and the positive influence that design can have in society. Intertwined with her built work, Lindsey speaks publicly, publishes and exhibits her research. In 2023, she published her book Designing the Forest and Other Mass Timber Futures (Routledge 2023), with a foreword by Kenneth Frampton. She was also the organizer and moderator of Material Worlds, a speaker series hosted by MoMA’s Emilio Ambasz Institute that invited experts from around the world to envision the future of the most ubiquitous materials on earth. Most recently, the research was exhibited at The New York Skyscraper Museum and University of Texas at Austin. Wikstrom has taught at Columbia GSAPP, Cornell AAP, Syracuse University, and Yale School of Architecture. She holds an M.Arch from Columbia University, where she was awarded the Charles McKim Prize, Visualization Award, and Avery 6 Award. She is also the recipient of the SOM Prize.

Pat Hanson, Founding Principal at GH3*

Under Pat Hanson’s leadership, gh3* has established a reputation for design integrity across a range of typologies and through all scales of practice. Exemplary projects include the internationally-recognized Kathleen Andrews Transit Garage in Edmonton, Toronto’s Storm Water Facility in the new west Don Lands, and the Boathouse Studio on Stony Lake, Ontario.

Hanson is an expert communicator of compelling design visions that are both environmentally and socially sustainable. She is a strong and insightful advocate for the potential for built form to rise above the merely functional, to integrate the pragmatic with the poetic, and to achieve an aesthetic impact that brings pleasure to everyday uses. For over 30 years, she has led clients and interdisciplinary design teams through complex programs, negotiating extensive public consultation processes to achieve internationally-recognized built work.

She currently serves on the Waterfront Toronto and University of Toronto Design Review Panels and is a past senior advisor for Building Equality in Architecture Toronto (BEAT). She has lectured on the work of gh3* in Europe and North America, and has taught at University of Toronto and University of Waterloo. 

Sheila Boudreau, Principal Landscape Architect + Planner at SpruceLab

Sheila Boudreau is Principal Landscape Architect + Planner at SpruceLab, an Indigenous and women-owned and operated planning and landscape architecture firm with offices in Toronto, Hamilton, and Edmonton. She has over three decades of experience in both the private and public sectors following degrees in Landscape Architecture and Fine Art (University of Guelph), and a Master of Arts in Planning (University of Waterloo). 

Boudreau established SpruceLab in 2020 to be collaborative and nature-based with a community focus. Its intention is to prioritize Indigenous voices where possible – to honour her Mi’kmaq ancestors in this work. She founded Earth Tending, an Indigenous paid training program focused on green infrastructure, as well as Dbaajmowin, an Indigenous-led artists collective (both supported by the SpruceLab team). She belongs to numerous professional organizations, including the Canadian Society of Landscape Architects, and is a member of the 2023/24 Task Force on Housing and Climate (supported by Smart Prosperity Institute), and was a co-lead for Climate Risk Initiative’s net-zero training module on governance for Engineers Canada. She is currently writing a book on the importance of nature for cities, for OwlKids press.

Susan Carruth, Partner at 3XN

Susan Jayne Carruth is a partner at Copenhagen-based architecture firm 3XN, and the Head of Operations for the firm’s research arm, GXN. 3XN/GXN is renowned for projects that completely rethink the possibilities of sustainable architecture, in Denmark and beyond. 

An architect and researcher, Carruth has over 17 years of experience across practice and academia. Prior to joining 3XN/GXN in 2018, she was Head of Research and Sustainable Development for White Architects in Denmark. Her leadership at GXN spans consultancy and research, including the strategic development of the behavioural design research cluster, sustainability and innovation consultancy, and project managing international architectural projects. She also heads up the firm’s internationally renowned behavioural design cluster.

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• AZURE Talk session on Thursday, June 20 at 6:30 pm – Bargmann will deliver a presentation on her inspiring career at George Brown’s Waterfront Campus. This talk qualifies for one Structured Learning Hour.
• The 2024 AZ Awards Gala on Friday, June 21at 6:30 pm – Bargmann will join AZURE as Guest of Honour for the reveal and celebration of this year’s AZ Awards winners and finalists.

Tickets for both events are on sale now at Early Bird pricing. You save more with our bundled offer.

A leader in the design and building of regenerative landscapes, Bargmann is also a rigorous, adventuresome educator in the University of Virginia’s lauded School of Architecture. She founded D.I.R.T. studio in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 1992 to execute projects with the passion, vision, and the unflinching honesty that defines her distinctive style. Bargmann’s work hews to themes of economy of means, neighbourhood connections, respect for site histories, and above all a love of the landscape — specifically, the existing and often former industrial landscape. Simplicity of form, use of existing materials, and deliberate restraint are hallmarks of her evocative and authentic landscapes.

The Vintondale, Pennsylvania, treatment ponds in fall.

“Unearthing the raw ingredients of design from waste and wastelands defines my life’s work,” Bargmann has said. She seeks “a larger canvas, namely, post-industrial cities and regions. There exists massive potential and sublime beauty in places that may seem, at first blush, to be trashed. Sites, neighbourhoods, entire cities — they are full of energy waiting to be recognized, released, and given new form.”

Urban Outfitters Site, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Photo by Barrett Doherty, courtesy of The Cultural Landscape Foundation.

Among projects that Bargmann has played a major role in: the Vintondale Reclamation Park in Vintondale, Pennsylvania, a 35-acre site in coal country designed as a “natural filtration system” that addresses polluted mine runoff; and the Urban Outfitters Headquarters at the U.S. Navy Yard in Philadelphia, where reused materials, including concrete chunks, brick, rusted metal, and other materials combine to create a beautiful landscape that also reduces greenhouse gas emissions.

Detroit’s Core City Park. PHOTO: Prince Concepts / The Cultural Landscape Foundation.

Park(ing) Detroit. PHOTO: Prince Concepts

AZURE recently wrote about Bargmann’s current role in revitalizing numerous sites in Detroit through her collaboration with Prince Concepts. She created a “misfit forest,” a parking lot planted with a porous landscape, a 743-square-metre park – “a bona fide urban woodland under a leafy canopy of 87 trees, including flowering dogwoods and locusts” – and more.

A “misfit forest” front’s Detroit’s Caterpillar building in Core City. PHOTO: Jason Keen

In addition to the numerous national awards she has received over the years for her work with D.I.R.T., Bargmann became the inaugural recipient of the Cornelia Oberlander International Prize in Landscape Architecture in 2021. The jury noted that Bargmann has been “a provocateur, a critical practitioner, and a public intellectual. She embodies the kind of activism required of landscape architects in an era of severe environmental challenges and persistent social inequities.” Through her works established and evolving, Bargmann continuously pushes the envelope of landscape design and how landscapes, cultures, and built fabric go hand and hand.

The 2024 AZ Awards is presented by Alumilex, Cosentino and Keilhauer and sponsored by Colombo Design America and Technogym. Gala sponsors are George Brown College’s Brookfield Sustainability Institute, Dark Tools, Landscape Forms, Scavolini and Vogt.

Media Partners: Archello, ArchDaily, Archilovers, Archinect, Archiproducts, The Architect’s Newspaper, Architonic, Bustler, Design Week Mexico, v2com newswire and World-Architects.

The post Julie Bargmann is the Guest of Honour at the 2024 AZ Awards Gala appeared first on Azure Magazine.

Whether you are a print or digital subscriber, you can activate your free MyAZURE+ account by connecting your subscription on azuremagazine.com and start reading the magazine online. Follow the simple steps below and start reading!

Not a subscriber yet? Explore our subscription options here to become a MyAZURE+ member and get the full magazine experience online.

Step 1 – Register for a MyAZURE account – Simply fill out the registration form on azuremagazine.com/login

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• To access your dashboard, click on the MyAZURE icon on top right-hand corner of the screen:

• Select Existing subscription under the Upgrade to My AZURE+ option

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If you don’t find your account number, use your email address.

If you are a Digital Only subscriber, use the email address at which you receive your digital issue.

Activate your account now and enjoy your exclusive online access!

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Get a copy of our latest issue, celebrating projects that centre social good, or, better yet, subscribe to a full year of inspiring content! Don’t miss your chance to immerse yourself in the latest cutting-edge architecture, innovative interiors, groundbreaking product design and industry trends.

Head to our shop and use the promo code SAVE40 at checkout to save now!

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In the lead up to the Human/Nature conference, Azure has launched a Call for Proposals for a series of one-hour, CEU-accredited workshops. Sessions will address the intersections of design and climate change and aim for solution-oriented strategies for mitigation, resilience and human flourishing. Our call for proposals closes at 5 pm EST on January 15, 2024 has been extended until 10 pm EST on January 18, 2024!

Any practitioner or multi-disciplinary group with proven results and/or viable approaches to mitigating climate change through design. Projects we are interested in learning about include — but are not limited to — landscapes that mitigate the effects of rising temperatures and superstorms, housing projects and interiors that are both inclusive and sustainable, as well as product lines that are carbon neutral.

Solutions: We are looking for panel sessions that present proven solutions – and the processes through which the solutions were achieved. Sessions should also be geared toward presenting viable approaches to future problems that will arise from global climate change.

Multiple perspectives: Panel sessions should be as multidisciplinary as possible and include the voices of practitioners (architects, urban planners, designers, etc) alongside those of clients, community members, artists, activists, policy-makers and other relevant points of view.

Engagement: Panel sessions need to engage attendees in meaningful ways, whether they are shaped as panels with prompts for group discussion or hands-on workshops.

More information about the conference is available here. You can also download the Human/Nature Call for Proposals at this link. Have questions? Feel free to get in touch with us at conference@azureonline.com.

The post Human/Nature: Call for Proposals Extended! appeared first on Azure Magazine.

In San Francisco, a house tucked into the neighbourhood fabric rises to a peaked roof that mimics its peers yet stands out with an uncanny floating appearance. In the U.K., a garden suite hews to the confines of its footprint while boasting a capacious character, its butterfly roof containing an array of soothing spaces. In Pune, India, a house for the families of two brothers delineates rooms for privacy between the two households while offering them generous-hearted volumes where they can come together. And in Basel, an apartment building conjured from an old warehouse provides its residents with vibrant spaces indoors and out — and the surrounding area with a jolt of energy.

At Azure, we’ve by turns celebrated and interrogated the house. We’ve marvelled at technical and aesthetic feats performed in residential architecture, and we’ve presented alternatives that embrace urban densification: multi-units, mixed-use developments, laneway suites and so on. As a profession, architecture cannot repudiate the house; it is too foundational in both culture and imagination. But it can bring the level of artistry concentrated on single-family houses to more democratic types of dwelling that certainly need it.

This conversation plays out in our profile on Brian MacKay-Lyons, who has made his name over 40 years by holding up as worthy of praise the humble vernacular of traditional East Coast buildings. His houses are almost pure in their adherence to an economy of materials; they seem inevitable to their landscapes. Now that MacKay-Lyons has completed Queen’s Marque, a major mixed-use development on the Halifax Harbour, we can see how his ethos applies to a larger public scale.

Can the house still be a lab for working out problems, with solutions that can be applied to other realms? In our January/February 2024 issue, we present projects where the answer is a resounding yes.

SPOTLIGHT: Pushing the Envelope

The latest cladding systems that combine high performance and sophisticated aesthetics, including Texoversum’s carbon-fibre facade.

Cersaie’s Delights

The most compelling trends – including “Built Form” with its illusions of stained glass, by Ceramica Vietrese – that emerged from the Bologna tile fair.

Site Visit to Stockholm

A mass timber pavilion in Stockholm by Henning Larsen welcomes patrons into a sloped cathedral for dining.

Insights from Leading Design Brands

How the leaders of Audo CPH, Tolix and Ligne Roset (helmed by Olivier and Antoine Roset) are gearing up for new chapters.

The post Out Now: The Jan/Feb 2024 Houses Issue appeared first on Azure Magazine.

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In the meantime, we’re saying farewell to 2023 with our hot-off-the-press January-February 2024 issue, as well as our annual round-ups of the year’s best interiors, products, and public spaces, plus homes and architecture projects.

And if you’re still hunting for the perfect gift for the design lover on your list, it’s not too late to take advantage of one of our special subscription bundles.

Happy holidays!

The post Happy Holidays from Azure! appeared first on Azure Magazine.

Azure will be there, too! The AZURE Talks return for Trade Day, on January 19. Here’s a look at our roster:

The One Image, at 10:00am

Azure Senior Editor Stefan Novakovic moderates this talk with architecture photographers Ema Peter and Younes Bounhar that delves into the many ways to successfully capture the essence of a project for publication. Over the past 12 years, Peter has worked with firms across North America, her images having been published in Azure, Architectural Digest, Objekt International, Dwell, Wired, The New York Times and many more. One half of Doublespace, Younes Bounhar has covered projects by firms as diverse as MacKay-Lyons Sweetapple, Zaha Hadid, KPMB and FBM; the last’s splendid Cabot Cliffs’ cabins project in Cape Breton is shown above.

Interior Design and the Changing Climate, at 12:00pm

How can interior designers and architects embrace solutions that take into account climate change while simultaneously promoting health and wellness? Which tools can they use to source low-carbon materials? How can layouts (Passivehaus or otherwise) be maximized for cross-ventilation and access to sunlight? What are some of the new ways to incorporate biophilia into workplaces and homes? Editor in Chief Elizabeth Pagliacolo moderates this Azure-curated talk with panelists Joshua Belczyk, Sustainability Officer, Keilhauer; Vanessa Fong, Founder, VFA // Architecture + Design; and Martha del Junco, Interior Project Designer and Associate, Perkins&Will.

In Conversation with Marva Griffin, at 2:00pm

Marva Griffin is the design legend who founded Salone Satellite, the world’s most renowned showcase of young designers, at Milan’s Salone del Mobile before exporting the platform around the world. Elizabeth Pagliacolo joins Griffin on stage to discuss her unusual career path, how she has championed many generations of designers, and how getting into this discipline has changed over the last quarter of a century.

In Conversation with Oskar Zieta, at 4:00pm

Oskar Zieta’s innovative, inflated metal furniture is an art form and a feat of engineering. Azure Senior Editor Eric Mutrie interviews Zieta about the inspiration behind his process, the growth of his studio, and Poland’s evolving role in the European design industry.

The post Save the Date: 4 Must-Attend AZURE Talks at IDS Toronto in January appeared first on Azure Magazine.