Check out my profile of the young design team Reigo & Bauer, in the current issue of DesignLines magazine. The Toronto couple has renovated a Deco-style building into a number of apartments, retaining many original details. They make the most of the space in their tiny apartment, which opens onto a fantastic roof deck. And they have set up their firm in the offices below.

Click the thumbnails to read (and click again to zoom in):

Here is another example of how art and life – through design – are drawing closer together all the time. Mirror has a long history in art going back to at least the Renaissance and of course more recently the wonderful pieces by Michelangelo Pistoletto and Michael Snow, David Altmejd and Jeff Wall, among many, many others. Over the past few years, I’ve been predicting the return of mirror as a material in art, and now it’s seemingly everywhere.

Sweden’s Tree Hotel has a room called Mirrorcube. Image: geeknewscentral.com

I came across this awesome hotel room that looks very similar to one of Michel de Broin’s sculptures, his Superficial from 2004, which is essentially a large mirrored rock that he installed in a forest in Alsace, France and then documented. I love the idea of using mirror to create camouflage.

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I love this proposal by German artist Katharina Fritsch for London’s Fourth Plinth. I love that it appears to be in International Klein Blue, which I blogged about a while ago.

Katharina Fritsch, Hahn / Cock. Image: london.gov.uk

As you probably know, the empty plinth has been a site for artistic proposals over the past few years, including Rachel Whiteread, Antony Gormley and one of my favorite artists, Thomas Schütte.

Originally designed by Sir Charles Barry in 1841 to display an equestrian statue which was never completed, the empty plinth became a site for contemporary art in 1998.

Six proposals – all very good – by Allora & Calzadilla, Elmgreen & Dragset, Katharina Fritsch, Brian Griffiths, Hew Locke, and Mariele Neudecker can be seen at DeZeen, HERE.

Read more about the Fourth Plinth program HERE.

Since I haven’t been away – yet – this summer, my favorite summer show is in Toronto, at one of my favorite galleries.

Flavio Trevisan, The Three Dales, 2010. Image: flaviotrevisan.com

With the mayoral debate gearing up and the fact that Torontonians seem obsessed with urban issues and how to evolve our ward-centric patchwork quilt of a city, this show is particularly relevant.

Flavio Trevisan: Studies of a New Past
Diaz Contemporary
Through August 14, 2010

Hurry – don’t miss it, it’s definitely worth seeing in person.

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His highness the Aga Khan, with his Order of Canada. Image: archive.gg.ca

1. His Highness the Aga Khan will participate in the Foundation Ceremony to mark the beginning of the development of the Ismaili Centre, the first-ever Aga Khan Museum for Islamic Art and Culture, and their Park, in Toronto’s Don Mills area.

Read more HERE.

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Vote now for your favorite – or least favorite – buildings in Toronto!

The Toronto skyline. Image: flickr.com

The Pug Awards, the people’s choice awards for architecture, celebrate the best in Toronto architecture and planning.

Register and then decide what you love, like or hate.

Right HERE.

There’s so much happening in the Canadian art world, it can be difficult to keep up with it all. Here’s a reminder of some places you can hear excellent talks, watch videos and read thoughtful commentary.

On OCAD’s website, check out videos from their excellent speaker series, including talks by the critic Hal Foster, Jamelie Hassan and Vandana Shiva.

Jamelie Hassan, Wall with Door, 1977. Image: canadianart.ca

Also, Filip, the Vancouver-based art publication, has some excellent podcasts, including THIS one from last year by the writer Diedrich Diederichsen on Judgment, Objecthood, Temporality.

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There’s a brou-ha-ha brewing in Vancouver over the Vancouver Art Gallery’s proposed move. Some Vancouverites have suggested that the VAG should not move, but instead remain – with an expansion – in its downtown location.

The VAG. Image: bcheritage.ca

Earlier this month, the Vancouver Sun posted an article written by the late Abraham Rogatnick, a professor at the school of architecture at UBC and interim director of the VAG in 1971-72, when he advised on the move from its old quarters on Georgia Street to the refurbished courthouse. He wrote it last summer, shortly before he passed away.

Read a synopsis of the debate in THIS Globe and Mail article.

In reply to some of these naysayers, Vancouver artist Roy Arden has circulated his thoughts, which he sent to the Sun as a letter to the editor, only to see them rudely edited down. He has asked for his thoughts to be republished in full, so VoCA has obliged.

Here is the gist:

“When the VAG moved from its former site to the courthouse, it signalled a new era and was a huge boost for the role of visual arts in Vancouver.

Vancouver is ready for, and needs a stand-alone, purpose-built facility.

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The pavilion, which will sit on the lawn of London’s Serpentine Gallery from 5 July – 20 October 2010, is to be designed by world-renowned French architect Jean Nouvel. The pavilion will bright red!

Jean Nouvel and his work. Image: defpoints.com

The building consists of bold geometric forms, large retractable awnings and a freestanding wall that climbs 12m above the lawn, sloping at a gravity defying angle. It experiments with the idea of play in its incorporation of the French tradition of outdoor table-tennis. Striking glass, polycarbonate and fabric structures create a versatile system of interior and exterior spaces. The flexible auditoria will accommodate the Serpentine Gallery Park Nights and Marathon and the changing summer weather.

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In recent years, among Torontonians, there seems to have been increased interest and passion for the city.

I heart Toronto. Image: igougo.com

Spacing magazine, Yonge Street, Blog TO, Torontoist, Murmur, the ROM and the AGO, Waterfront Toronto‘s plans for the city (heavily covered by the Globe and Mail’s Lisa Rochon), they all speak to wanting to better our urban environment.

A recent article in the Toronto Star says:

“For decades, there has been talk of an actual, physical museum, where Torontonians could learn about the history of this piece of land from the post-ice age era through our ongoing waves of immigration.

As recently as 2007, the museum project was (to be) built inside the old Canada Malting silos on Queens Quay. But then came the recession,…and the funding and political will fell through (again).”

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