WALK IT OFF, SLEEK SIMPLICITY

WALK IT OFF

Continuing with the trend of bringing the outdoors inside, the latest flooring collections invite occupants to click off the digital grind and be mindful of the outside world, both urban and wild.

The Jason F. McLennan-designed Owls Collection by

Mowhak Group captures the essence of the North American birds of prey across two 12-inch by 36-inch patterns—Feather and Flight. Inspired by their plumage, mottled shades of black, brown, tan and grey instill a primal connection into a space. The commercial carpet plank is carbon neutral and incorporates biophilic design principles across eight styles from Great Horned to Eastern Screech. Owls is Living Product Petal Certified and 100 per cent recyclable.

Patcraft introduced its newest modular collection: Organic Interruption. Inspired by the natural interaction between organic elements and man-made structures within designer Amanda Hopkins’ own community, Underlie and Linear Tension include 12 accents integrated within six neutral bases. The 18- inch by 36-inch tiles bring hues for wayfinding and biophilic design into a range of learning environments. Each product can be cleaned with just hot water extraction, and the tile format allows for selective replacement to minimize operational interruptions and cost. Commissioned by Cosentino and designed by London-based

PATTERNITY, Dekton Liquid series features three shades. Roughly 56 inches by 126 inches, Liquid Sky, Liquid Shell and Liquid Embers offer a chance to integrate fluidity into everyday spaces. Think cloud-like patterns and rippling ocean floors. Created using raw materials from porcelain, glass and quartz, the low-maintenance products are highly resistant to UV rays,

scratches, stains and sudden changes in temperature. The David Oakleydesigned NY+LON Streets is new from Interface. Taking inspiration from New York City and London, a variety of patterns and textures explore details found in bustling cities, such as subway grates and iridescent glass vault lights, creating community hubs within a space. The carbon-neutral carpet tiles measure roughly 20 inches by 20 inches and come in eight colourways. Wheeler Street, Old Street, Dover Street and Reade Street interpret familiar urban textures, such as asphalt, worn metal, and distressed pavement, in a variety of scales. Mercer Street and Broome Street embrace an unconventional grid pattern.

Altro recently introduced Altro Orchestra, engineered for comfort and sound reduction. Low residual indentation facilitates the flexible use of equipment and furniture, including hospital beds. At the same time, the integrated impact sound insulation system cuts impact sound by up to 15dB, creating an ideal environment to learn.

SLEEK SIMPLICITY function to unpredictable environments.

Stance Healthcare recently introduced the Olsen

Overbed Table, which features smooth and quiet height adjustability that can be positioned between 28 and 45 inches high. Optional add-ons include a flip-up extension for an extra 10 inches of surface area, a vanity mirror and wire basket. The top size is 18 to 32 inches minus the extension and comes in a variety of natural earth-toned finishes like hardrock maple, candlelight and mahogany. A new Wellness Divider from Integra Seating divides space between seated guests in waiting rooms, lounges and guest and lobby areas. It can assist in stopping the spread of airborne germs, including the novel coronavirus. Free-standing at an overall height of 52 inches, it combines a clean, minimalist aesthetic and practical functionality. The base and upright supports are solid steel with a silver powder coat finish; along with the divider it can be easily cleaned and sanitized.

Natural materials inspired Compound + Cast, a resilient luxury vinyl flooring collection from Shaw Contract. Compound showcases subtle beauty marks that mirror the look of concrete. Cast reflects a mix of aggregate materials, like the appearance of age-old Terrazzo. Designed for high-traffic areas, the collection includes a 20 mil wear layer with ExoGuard+ topcoat. Compound + Cast can be installed separately or together and used in a wide variety of environments, from

The latest crop of healthcare products are cleanable, seamless designs that bring order and

workplace lobbies to healthcare corridors.

Herman Miller’s Commend Nurses Station blends the beauty of millwork with the benefits of prefabricated form in a versatile, human-centered design. Bringing order to team environments, its high-capacity power and data integration with seamless wire management keeps workplaces clutter free. A tackable fabric panel allows care teams to display personal items and team information, bringing personality and warmth to the space.

SPEC’s latest addition to the award-winning Hardi Series comes in the form of a club-style lounge chair. With its back matching its arm height, the club chair’s design aims to limit ligature exposures even further. Available in six nature-inspired colour tones it can be ganged together or fastened to the floor. The heavy duty design is 29.50 inches by 27 inches wide with no protruding legs and hardware for a seamless aesthetic.

BY JIRI SKOPEK

SMART STEPS

Open protocols could nurture organic smart city. as part of a massively complex and completely decentralized system. Each tree contributes to

The termination of That said, as we enter into a new the exchange of information such Toronto’s Sidewalk normal, organizations, and the as warning signals that pests are Labs project is a buildings they occupy, will rely present, and to share resources missed opportunity to increasingly on smart technologies. —including nutrition to support demonstrate how smart This suggests a possibility that smart young saplings and hormones to buildings and technologies can cities might eventually emerge combat pest attacks. improve life in an urban environment. built from the bottom up—one Similar to a forest, a city is a massive Yet, it also underscores a common building, or organization, or piece of and complex system. By embedding problem that many smart cities are infrastructure at a time. artificial learning and control systems facing. This organic bottom-up approach into urban systems using open

The idea of smart cities fires up the using today’s open protocols avoids source protocols—one building or imagination with many possibilities. many institutional problems of trying organization or piece of infrastructure A recent study by the Economist to centrally coordinate and execute at a time—cities can evolve and grow indicated that citizens prioritize smart a very complex plan citywide. their smart city connections, similar cities for public services that are more But how do you build a smart city to a mycorrhizal network. efficient, reliable and affordable. They from individual smart buildings, Power grids can self-optimize to also want a greener environment organizations and infrastructure reduce greenhouse gas emissions with more renewable energy options, elements? The Hidden Life of Trees while managing loads. Self-driving cleaner air and water, waste recovery by Peter Wohlleben offers a model to cars can choose the most energy and and less traffic congestion. consider, whereby a smart city would environmentally optimal paths to a

The reality is that building a smart bio-mimic a forest. destination. Self-aware supply chains city that delivers all this is hard because can follow routing that optimizes there are so many players involved. MYCORRHIZAL NETWORKS delivery times while minimizing local These include the city’s population, FOR URBAN SYSTEMS ground-level ozone pollution. Health its political leaders, municipal Recent forestry studies have revealed care, distance learning, environmental planning, operations and finance, not that the individual trees in a forest management, emergency response to mention a phalanx of stakeholders constitute a community of trees and many more aspects of urban life who are engaged in a municipality’s that is physically linked beneath the can benefit from artificial intelligence. physical critical infrastructure. forest floor by a labyrinth of fungal Abandonment of the Sidewalk Labs

Not surprisingly, many smart city connections, which live on and hook project is unfortunate, but it serves as visions and projects turn out being up the individual root systems to an important lesson that building a overly ambitious. Decision-makers one another. This communications smart city from the top down is hard. often underestimate the challenges labyrinth is called the mycorrhizal That said, we must not lose sight of of achieving consensus among all network. the many ways that a smart city can stakeholders, and coordinating a Through the mycorrhizal network, improve the urban experience if we centrally managed, integrated smart individual trees reach out to members do it right—from the bottom up, like city plan. As agencies and departments of their community to collaborate the trees in a forest.| CFM&D compete for limited resources, technology providers are discovering that it is a long, hard road to build a Jiri Skopek is an architect, planner and specialist in smart, green buildings and communities. smart city from the top down.

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