Where does culture get made? How is culture experienced today? For our Sept/Oct 2024 issue we sought out to cover the types of culture that are emerging and how places are being designed to accommodate them. We also wanted to get super-meta and interrogate how architecture culture itself thrives and falters in connecting with the masses. Sydney Shilling’s excellent essay on the subject is a conversation about and meditation on what the profession can do to make design discourse accessible to those outside the industry.

In the projects we feature throughout this edition, we hope to expand the definition of culture as it’s normally viewed in the realm of institutional architecture — and to hone in on works that stretch design’s possibilities in housing these new expressions. Ergo Othership: When he visited one of the spa’s Toronto locations, senior editor Eric Mutrie tapped into the growing phenomenon of wellness-centred spiritual affirmation. With its group sessions in guided meditation, sauna immersion and cold plunges, Othership is a major player in a global spa movement that is providing space for those hoping to commune with like-minded souls, sans alcohol. And through its warmly lit design by Futurestudio, the setting encourages members to get deeply personal in a social hub. 

We do still like our food and drink. So we also spend time at Waterworks Food Hall, where many hands have made an authentic place that celebrates the best of Toronto’s dining scene. The Waterworks building’s transformation from an art deco public utility into a bustling culinary market demonstrates the wondrous possibilities of adapting heritage architecture — which already has a firm hold on the public imagination — into new centres of culture. We see this, too, in our cover story on the Plato art gallery in Ostrava, Czechia. That project revamps a former slaughterhouse into a stunning locus of contemporary talent. At the urban scale, we present the revitalization of a riverbank landscape in Mexico for use as a public park with meaningful and interconnected infrastructure that hosts recreational and cultural events.

ALSO IN THIS ISSUE

The Pink House

SHEEEP designs a home for a Toronto couple that is filled with big, bold colour and character.

Quebec City’s Promenade Samuel-De Champlain

Daoust Lestage Lizotte Stecker recreate a shoreline park that celebrates local memory and heritage.

Spotlight: Lighting

Scene-stealing chandeliers, a walkable light sculpture, eclectic fixtures and so much more.