The Design Exchange in Toronto announced the winners and finalists for its annual award program.
Poring over hundreds of entries from across the country, the juries for each category named the 50 best products and projects from across Canada. Not surprising, architects and designers from Montreal, Vancouver and Toronto came out on top in most categories.
Montreal’s Atelier TAG nabbed top prize in the commercial architecture category for its Bibliothéque Raymond-Lévesque, a library in Saint-Hubert, Quebec. The Woodward’s Redevelopment, Henriquez Partners Architects‘ retrofit of a century-old building in Vancouver into affordable housing with an integrated market, won gold in the residential architecture category. IBI Group nabbed top spot in the urban design category with the King Street Revitalization in Kitchener, Ontario. Six revamped blocks in the city’s downtown core now boast a pedestrian-friendly promenade.
The team of Menkes Shooner Dagnais Letourneux Architectes and Provencher Roy + Associés Architectes won in the commercial interior design category for the Espace culturel Georges-Émile-Lapalme, a renovation of a cultural complex in Montreal. The joint effort shared the award with Quadrangle Architects, which also won for its interior of Corus Quay, a lakefront tech hub in Toronto that features the latest architecture must-have: a slide. Not far from this building is Toronto’s Sherbourne Common by Philips Farevaag Smallenberg – the winner in the public landscape architecure category. The park is a crucial addition to the development of Toronto’s East Bayfront neighbourhood.
A collaboration between Questa Design and OHM on the Kootsu Skateguard, which features with a wider sole for safer walking, won gold in the industrial design category. Audi’s 12-page insert in the Globe and Mail‘s 2010 redesign earned graphic design company Underline Studio a gold award. The special section highlighted the car company’s alignment with innovative design and featured a sleek model alongside products from Bang & Olufsen, Umbra and Plumen.
For the full list of winners and finalists visit dx.org. The winning products and projects will be on display at the DX until February 26, 2012.
