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When the creative agency Sid Lee wanted to spruce up its informal meeting and event spaces in a Montreal warehouse, it looked to the movies – especially to directors Stanley Kubrick, David Lynch and Wes Anderson – for inspiration.

It’s car show season, with Toronto’s own international auto show running until February 22. Here are six models, from Audi, BMW and others, that are pushing the realms of style, technology and fuel efficiency.

In Situ Design and Lilian B. Interiors transform two classic brownstones into a colour-infused hotel. Inspired by (and featuring) William Engel’s bright “pour” paintings, The William blurs the line between art and environment, and offers guests an extended and luxurious stay.

Colourful balloons and a swing set in the round set the mood of Toronto’s Interior Design Show last week. At the fair and around the city, ingenuity was everywhere, from bentwood furnishings and modern quilts to out-there dining installations.

The London-based Canadian designer is the latest to reimagine Caesarstone surfacing – and his installation is the most playful gesture yet. We caught up with Malouin just days before the debut of Swings at Toronto’s Interior Design Show.

In Winnipeg, the award-winning firm is designing – and realizing – condo and townhouse developments that push the envelope and add great design to the urban fabric.

In a quest to create the perfect champagne glass, Stockholm design and architecture firm Claesson Koivisto Rune and world-class expert Richard Juhlin have developed a vessel worthy of the finest libations.

Breaking from expected conventions, the interiors for both a bank’s online design division in San Francisco by Studio O+A, and for an insurance company in Mexico City by Space Arquitectura, are filled with bright, creative spaces.

These solar-powered sanitation systems – championed by Bill and Melinda Gates’s Reinvent the Toilet Challenge – promise to solve one of the greatest dilemmas for infrastructure-challenged regions such as India.

Together, these retail interiors – from a clothing store by Nendo to a sake shop by Kengo Kuma – illustrate the timeless and ethereal quality of design in Japan.