The Interior Design Show/IDS10
Presented by RADO Switzerland
by Alison Brown
This is Canada’s largest contemporary design event featuring the newest and most innovative International and Canadian products. Exhibits feature both emerging and established designers and highlight International interior design, architecture and Industrial design trends.
I had several mandates to accomplish at this show …One was to check out what sort of art is being made available to the design trade here in Toronto. I can state happily that commercial properties like hotels and corporate offices etc. have finally realized that original art pieces by mostly local artists are the way of the future.
My other objective was to find products that were locally designed and manufactured with the most innovative uses of sustainable materials and design, with the focus being on renewable energy sources.
The Village Gallery/Art Beyond Walls
171 Lakeshore Rd. E.
Mississauga, Ont.
905-891-9171
416-254-8512
www.thevgallery.com
www.artbeyondwalls.com
Meandering through the myriad of booths and displays at this show my first stop was
The Village Gallery. I was interested to find out about their pop up art program “Art Beyond Walls,” that I had heard about happening across the city. When I found their booth I was immediately attracted to the art of “Justine Fernie” whose vibrant work stands out among the more traditional art pieces in this show.
I met up with Alison Goodwin, owner of the Village Gallery and Art Beyond Walls, who told me all about their exciting new project. The Village Gallery has their permanent location in Mississauga where they have been for the past seven years. Art Beyond Walls is their urban pop up gallery. The concept of it is to take the gallery on the road and have unique events in unique places.
Exceptionally talented artists from across North America are brought to Toronto and featured in an exciting venue. Each event will integrate music and performing art for an alternative art buying experience, with proceeds going toward an art related cause. Some of these art happenings are small events like a private dinner party with an artist. They recently did a unique event at a church on Berkeley with 4 artists and 300 guests and donated some work to an art related charity.
This innovative idea gives people the chance to look at art and talk about art in different types of spaces getting away from the traditional gallery space.
Art Beyond Walls started with a small group of artists. And now is expanding with new emerging artists, people who aren’t represented yet by large galleries, giving these artists a chance to expose their work to varied audiences in an unconventional way.
The Interior Design Show gives The Village gallery the opportunity to meet with designers who will purchase art for commercial properties.
Umbrella Cabinetry
375 Britannia Rd. E. Unit 1
Mississauga, Ont.
905-568-1665
www.umbrellacabinetry.com
Under the umbrella, like their name is offering a design service that brings together a series of distributors in one place, all of whom have a common green objective.
They also custom manufacture their cabinet components right here in Canada and this limits the impact of shipping on the environment
All of the materials they are working with are eco- sustainable or reclaimed or recyclable. One of the key players in their products is bamboo. You might associate bamboo as a type of tree, but Bamboo is actually a type of grass with a hard, woody stem. The particular type of Bamboo they incorporate in their products is PLYBOO which is derived from the species “Moso”. This particular species of bamboo grows to maturity in around five to six years with an astounding height of over 40 feet and a diameter of more than six inches! What makes bamboo such a sustainable material is the fact that it’s one of the fastest growing plants in the world.
They are also being efficient in their design with kitchen counters that morph into work spaces and chairs that fit into modular cabinetry, allowing the at home worker to have an adaptive space that will change for the uses that they need. Here we have a company where design meets sustainability.
ICC Chimney
400 J.-F. Kennedy
St. Jerome, Quebec
450-565-6336
www.icc-rsf.com
There were a lot of Gas Fireplaces being shown at the Interior Design Show this year, but personally I hate them.
If I am going to sit in front of a fire I want to smell the wood burning and hear the crackle of a real fire, so what took my attention was a clean wood burning fireplace manufactured out of Quebec.
Dan Bonar described to me the advantages of this award winning Canadian product.
What they make is a traditional looking fireplace that has the ability to burn cleanly when the ceramic glass door is up or down .The door lifts in a guillotine style instead of opening outwards and there is also a built in fire screen that opens the same way. With the screen down and the door up the emission is about 7 grams per hour which is clean enough that there are no visible emissions coming out of the chimney. Within two minutes of lighting the fire there is zero visible emissions. With the ceramic door down this fireplace burns even cleaner, approximately 3.0 grams per hour. And that’s cleaner than an EPA approved free standing wood stove.
This fireplace will emanate more heat than a wood stove overall but it is less efficient because some air is lost up the chimney.
This fireplace burns faster so your going to get more heat in a shorter period of time. Instead of burning all night like a wood stove this will get a nice evenings worth.
These units are built in St. Jerome Quebec. They are the first Canadian company to win an award from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Its called the Clean Air Excellence Award.
These fireplaces are made for new construction and are completely installed with an insulated chimney.
If you’re looking for a wood burning fireplace and you want it to burn extremely clean but you still want to have the large viewing space and receive a lot of heat out of it. This is the perfect fireplace to have in your new home.