my 2 cents on design

Living through a pandemic and how a laid back attitude can take you through it

As someone living in the first world, I’m not accustomed to having my movements restricted, or my social appearance directed by the use of masks, nor am I accustomed to the sparsity of activities that I so cherished to do around my own city, Toronto. But not being a lingering pessimist, this type of thought does not last long; so I figured that instead, I would get a little perspective and look at where some of this has been imposed in much more nefarious circumstances. That ought to perk me up!

A newly found nostalgia of travel

As if we did not have enough nostalgia in the world, now we’ve been exposed to more, through deprivation. Nothing like something being taken away, making us want it more. As we now move to a new year of school and gear toward the shorter days of winter, most of us carry a sense of…

The mighty family of online shoppers

Are you part of it? The increasingly astute buyers navigating comfortably through millions of products, vendors and options, scrutinizing carefully listed criteria and making determined choices? It is the new “walking”. It is not the knowledge of the few but a necessity similar to knowing how to type or use a phone. The zesty, tingly…

How much space you need when everyone is working and studying from home

Ok fine, we’re working from home and learning from home. We figured it out: kids in the basement, one per room, mom in the den and dad in the office on the second floor.

But what if you do not have a basement, or a den, or a second floor? How many rooms do you actually need to have in order to be able to do this properly, meaning, protect concentration sufficiently so that you can do what you need to do, and still live happily ever after? And what if you do not have them?

Healthy eating and good cottage appetite

In order to have a healthy appetite and develop proper eating habits, stress is the number one enemy and relaxation is your best friend. And what better way to quickly relax, truly relax, than get yourself out there in the country-side and enjoy country-everything with its greens and soft sounds, the birds, the water and all those basic little pleasures that make for instant nature-therapy. While nature plays its part, architecture and design have an equally big role that is crucial in achieving a relaxing state. A break from the stress, a true break that has positive effects does not need to be long, but it does need to be effective. And that takes just the right design, the right people, or sometimes lack of, the right meal and the right sunset.

The last days of summer, wrapping up the imposed leisure and what we did with it

As summer dwindles to an end and leaves the tumult of this year’s events settled, I cannot help but wonder if without them would we have ever had the pleasure of lazy purposelessness. The kind of boredom a lover seduces you with, wrapping you slowly, so slowly that you do not recognize the exact turning moment when you’ve left your swirling daily routine and gave yourself to healing calmness. It is a different form of wellness, a self-induced yoga of the mind that you yourself are able to summon, a self-healing ritual that should be periodically performed.

How to do virtual travel right

In the post-pandemic world, virtual travel may be the thing but how is it really different than watching National Geographic or any other tv show on travel? Why these do not work as virtual travel experiences is because they lack the immersiveness of actually being there.

The never lost art of Weaving

In my world, we all had a grandma that was knitting. Among family chatter and laughter, with a big smile and all ears at all the talk around her, down on her lap, her hands moved fast kneading thread and needles into a flurry of seemingly chaotic storm. From it came the most neatly organized intertwine, artful patterns and bursts of colour. Fascinating.

Read full article and find out how this tradition is now expressed in modern architecture and design

Ephemeral spaces of missed spectacle

The streets of Toronto finally, flourish in a delayed bloom of late summer, and the city becomes a festival itself. Terraces, flowers and music are back and scents of culinary delights haggle for your attention everywhere.

Welcome to my house!

This is the place where I live now. Where I have all my belongings, where I sleep and eat, keep my family safe, bring friends over, make love, laugh, cry, and heal when sick. It is the place where I shape and reshape my mind every day, as I grow older – and smarter, or…

Go (toilet) paperless

Do you know what the positive side of not having toilet paper is? I thought in light of the unexplainable local panic over toilet paper I should shed some light on how some bathrooms can make a difference when shortages are high.

The water garden

As I watch San Francisco’s Market Street coming alive at dawn, amid it all I stumble onto a beautiful fountain. Water is pushed up to the top where a thin brass plate ads a sparkle. There it bubbles softly before pressing moving patterns into the glass as it slides off back into the ground.