Mercedes-Benz magazine — Spring/Summer 2016

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16路SPRING/SUMMER

DIGITAL REVOLUTION Connectivity meets comfort in the new E-Class

URBAN FARMING Meet the Canadian entrepreneurs shaping the future of food

PARADISE FOUND Solo bliss in French Polynesia

SET TO SAIL Yachtsman Alex Thomson goes on a world tour

D E B E E R S ® A N D A D I A M O N D I S F O R E V E R ® A R E T R A D E M A R K S O F T H E D E B E E R S G R O U P O F C O M PA N I E S .

D I S C O V E R T H E 18 8 8 M A S T E R D I A M O N D S , C O L O U R E D D I A M O N D S O F E X C E P T I O N A L C H A R A C T E R ®

L O N D O N · N E W Y O R K · PA R I S · T O K Y O · S H A N G H A I · B E I J I N G · H O N G K O N G · TA I P E I · S E O U L · D U B A I VA N C O U V E R · 1 0 8 8 A L B E R N I S T R E E T

T O R O N T O · S H E R WAY G A R D E N S ( W I N T E R 2 0 1 6 )

DEBEERS.CA

At home with perfection.

Created with minimalistic form for maximum impact.

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bulthaup Vancouver 93 West Cordova Street Vancouver BC V6B 1C8 www.vancouver.bulthaup.com

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16•S P R I N G/ S U M M E R

CONTENT PAGE

96

“The sky, the sea, everything tells you: This place is dangerous.”

A L E X T H O M S O N , YAC H T S M A N

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PHOTOS CHRISTIAN BORTH (PORTR AIT ); R ALPH RICHTER (E- CL ASS); BRUNO FLORIN/RODEO (ONTARIO)

E- CLASS Stay connected on the go

DRIVE 52 DESIGN TALKS At the Vitra Design Museum, the new C-Class Coupe cuts a fine figure against a backdrop of great art. Museum director Mateo Kries explains what distinguishes a modern classic.

ONTARIO’S HIGHLANDS A new mecca for drivers

IN EVERY ISSUE 12 PRESIDENT’S NOTE 112 INNOVATION 118 ICONS

64 HARD SHELL SOFT CENTRE Find out how Nico Rosberg’s race helmet is made.

70 MY WAY Join along as Irvin Mayfield rides a Mercedes-Maybach through the streets of his hometown, New Orleans.

76 CLEVER CARS LIKE TO CRUMPLE In 1959, Mercedes-Benz created a revolution in car construction with its safety passenger cell.

78 READY FOR THE ICE AGE The new Mercedes-Benz GLS will carry its driver securely over any terrain.

120 SOCIETY 122 AT THE MOVIES

STAY CONNECTED

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86 DIGITAL NATIVE Developer Sajjad Khan explains how the E-Class sets benchmarks in terms of comfort and safety. mercedes-magazine.ca

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CONTENT

16•SPRING/SUMMER

TR AVEL

16 THE LIST From dining to style, Canadian culture stays ahead of the curve.

94 STAYS The best in hotel getaways, weekend road trips and far-flung adventures.

20 DESIGN Designers are putting chandeliers in a whole new light, reworking the traditional suspended fixtures into avant-garde statement pieces.

96 THE LONG AND WINDING ROADS Ontario’s Highlands are a mecca for those who just love to drive.

22 EVENTS From the Great Lakes to the Great Mall, Canada lets you ride the waves all year long. Just don’t forget your wetsuit.

104 SOLITUDE IN THREE ACTS Looking for some me-time? We found it in a Tahitian paradise thousands of kilometres from the nearest metropolis.

24 AREA What to see and do on Montreal’s buzzing Notre-Dame Street West.

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LIFEST YLE 26 THE RAREST OF FINDS Museologist George Jacob, president of the Philip J. Currie Dinosaur Museum, has turned the remote oilfield town of Wembley, Alberta, on its head.

30 OCEAN GIANT Alex Thomson aims to win the Vendée Globe regatta – which involves sailing single-handed non-stop around the world.

38 MASTER CLASS In the past 40 years, Spruce Meadows has quietly become the world’s premier show jumping facility.

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PAGE LE VIN PAPILLON Dining in Montreal’s hottest neighbourhood

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URBAN FARMING Unused space reimagined for agriculture

24 ISLAND ESCAPE Find solitude in Bora Bora

PHOTOS X AVIER GIR ARD - L ACHAÎNE (FOOD); TIM M c KENNA (BOR A BOR A)

42 ROOFTOP REVOLUTION A new crop of Canadian entrepreneurs is bringing rural wisdom to the urban landscape and shaping the future of food.

Instantly thrilling.

The all-new C-Class Coupe. Seductive design fused with true athletic performance. Its long, sleek shape stands out, powered by a turbocharged engine that delivers a heart-pounding 273 lb-ft of torque. And its lowered sport suspension helps you handle whatever the road throws at you.

Discover the thrill for yourself.

Š 2016 Mercedes-Benz Canada Inc.

P R E S I D E N T ’S N O T E

I Driving is about more than just getting from point A to point B.

IN THIS ISSUE An inside look at the GLS (above) and the C-Class Coupe (right).

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have been an avid reader of Mercedes-Benz magazine for many years, and I can’t tell you how exciting it is for me to be contributing to it for the first time. After several stints in the United States and two years in Asia, my professional journey has taken me back home to Toronto as the newly appointed President and CEO of Mercedes-Benz Canada. Just as it has for me, I hope this issue of Mercedes-Benz magazine inspires you to take advantage of a well-deserved Canadian summer.

In this issue, I invite you on a road trip through the Ontario Highlands (page 96), where Canadian history reveals itself along the region’s handcrafted roads. Next up, you’ll meet George Jacob (page 26), the man who has brought Alberta’s Philip J. Currie Dinosaur Museum to life. You will find out how Canadians are changing the future of food (page 42) by building urban apiaries and rooftop farms.

And if you feel like you really need a change of scenery, might I suggest a once-in-a-lifetime getaway to tropical French Polynesia (page 104)?

Accompany me on an automotive journey from the heart of the Mercedes-Benz Digital Vehicle and Mobility Unit to southwestern Germany’s Vitra Design Museum, by way of an Arctic expedition.

Whether you are taking in the connected luxury of the new E-Class (page 86), the comfortable ruggedness of the new GLS (page 78) or the thoughtfully

constructed agility of the C-Class Coupe (page 52), you’ll be struck by the human-centred design at the heart of our latest models.

The E-Class, in particular, blends cutting-edge technology with sleek design in order to provide the driver with the most comfortable, efficient experience possible. Its range of assistance technologies has been created with the goal of enhancing the driver’s quality of life, from the DISTRONIC Distance Pilot function to the Steering Pilot, Active Lane Change Assist and AIR BODY CONTROL. Driving is about more than just getting from point A to point B, and our cars’ primary purpose is to look after your safety so that you can focus on the road ahead.

I am looking forward to this wonderful new position as well as visiting all of our dealers from coast to coast. Who knows, along the way I might even have time to explore some of the gorgeous locations highlighted in this issue. I encourage you to enjoy the beautiful months ahead, on and off the road.

Sincerely,

Brian Fulton President & CEO

LOOKING FORWARD IN T R O D U C IN G P R I VAT E B A NK IN G W I T H R E D - C A R P E T E X P E R IE N C E TA IL ORED TO E ACH UNIQUE PAT H

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by NBF Financial Services. National Bank Financial, National Bank Investments, National Bank Trust and NBF Financial Services are subsidiaries of National Bank of Canada. National Bank Financial is a dealer member of the Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada (IIROC) and a member of the Canadian Investor Protection Fund (CIPF). National Bank Investments is a mutual fund dealer member of the Mutual Fund Dealers Association of Canada (MFDA) and a member of the MFDA Investor Protection Corporation. National Bank of Canada is a public company listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX: NA).

PU BL ICAT ION DE TA I L S Published by Daimler AG · Communications · HPC E402 · D-70546 Stuttgart Responsible on behalf of the publishers Thomas Fröhlich · Mirjam Bendak Publisher’s Council Ola Källenius (Chairman) · Thomas Fröhlich · Bettina Fetzer · Jörg Howe Gesina Schwengers · Dr. Jens Thiemer · Andreas von Wallfeld Canada Mercedes-Benz Canada Inc., 98 Vanderhoof Ave., Toronto, ON M4G 4C9 President and CEO Brian D. Fulton Vice-President, Marketing Gavin Allen Director, Communications and PR JoAnne Caza Manager, National Marketing Communications Virginie Aubert Supervisor, PR Nathalie Gravel C O NC E P T A N D E DI T I N G Germany Condé Nast Verlag GmbH · Karlstrasse 23 · D-80333 München Contributors 500GLS, Christian Borth, Fabrice Braun, Leandro Castelão, Filippo Cataldo, Ulrich Clewing, Antonina Gern, Christoph Henn, Niclas Müller, Benjamin Pichelmann, Ralph Richter, Benedikt Sarreiter, Scott G. Toepfer, Helmut Werb Canada Spafax Content Marketing, 500 St. Jacques Street West, Suite 1510, Montreal, QC H2Y 1S1 Chief executive officer, content marketing Raymond Girard Executive vice-president, content marketing Nino Di Cara Senior vice-president, content strategy Arjun Basu Senior director, business development and client strategy Courtney MacNeil Senior strategist, luxury and lifestyle brands Christal Agostino Account manager, luxury and lifestyle brands Elana Crotin Editor-in-chief Natasha Mekhail Associate editor Eve Thomas Contributing editors Violaine Charest-Sigouin, Christopher Korchin Digital editor Renée Morrison Editorial intern Robin Della Corte Contributors Karen Ashbee, Bruno Florin, Curtis Gillespie, Xavier Girard-Lachaîne, Dominique Lafond, Jasmin Legatos, Carrie MacPherson, Paige Magarrey, Tim McKenna, Celeste Moure, Chris Philpot Art director Guillaume Brière Assistant art director Mélanie Ouimet Graphic designer Marie-Eve Dubois Photo researcher Julie Saindon Production director Joelle Irvine Production manager Jennifer Fagan Ad production manager Mary Shaw Production and circulation coordinator Stephen Geraghty Ad production coordinator Joanna Forbes Fact checker Jessica Lockhart Proofreaders Katie Moore, Isa Tousignant Advertising sales Spafax Canada, 2 Bloor Street East, Suite 1020, Toronto, ON M4W 1A8, sales@spafax.com Senior national account manager, High Net Worth Media Fiona Stedman, fiona.stedman@spafax.com Sales manager, Quebec and Eastern Canada Lysanne Boileau, lysanne.boileau@spafax.com Sales manager, Western Canada Barb Welsh, barb.welsh@spafax.com Rights ©Copyright 2016 by Mercedes-Benz Canada Inc. All rights reserved. Reprints and use, as a whole or in part, only with the express written permission of Daimler AG. No responsibility can be taken for unsolicited texts and photographs.

Signed articles do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the publisher or the editors. Some vehicles may be shown with non-Canadian equipment. Some vehicles may be shown without side marker lights. Some optional equipment may not be available on all models. For current information regarding the range of models, standard features, optional equipment and/or colours available in Canada and their pricing, contact your nearest authorized Mercedes-Benz dealer or visit mercedes-benz.ca.

All other content in this magazine has been compiled to the best of our knowledge, but no guarantee is given.

Return undeliverables to Spafax Canada, 2 Bloor Street East, Suite 1020, Toronto, ON M4W 1A8 Printed on paper bleached without chlorine Printed in Canada ISSN 1925-4148 Canadian Publication Mail Agreement 41657520

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O V E R S EAS Bearing the prestigious Hallmark of Geneva, this timepiece is the ideal companion for an extraordinary voyage that reveals a unique perspective on the world. It is the only watch of its kind.

CRAFTING ETERNITY SINCE 1755

OV E RSE AS CH RO N O G R A P H

Geneva official watchmaking certification

THE LIST 16•S P R I N G/ S U M M E R

From dining to style, Canadian culture stays ahead of the curve

G O O DS

FIDO’S NEW NIBBLE A M O N T R E A L start-up is taking the lead on eco-friendly dog treats. BugBites not only offers highly nutritional and protein-rich products, but also uses less water and emits fewer carbon emissions than traditional manufacturers.

What’s their secret? Cricket flour.

This protein-rich, insect-derived ingredient (described as having a nutty taste with subtle notes of shrimp) is mixed with wholesome produce like bananas, sweet potatoes and chickpeas to make the canine snacks. And BugBites isn’t rolling over there: the two treat flavours – Apple Cranberry and Banana Peanut – will soon be joined by a line of sustainable dog food. G E T B U G B I T E S . C O M

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G O O DS G O O DS

SEW BEAUTIFUL Encouraged by childhood memories of her grandmother’s beautiful quilts, Geneviève Lorange started Bigarade, a line of limited-edition, eco-friendly duvet covers, sheets and throw cushions.

The Montrealer upcycles vintage fabrics that she sources across the province of Quebec, singling out all-natural materials like cotton, linen, wool and silk. The items are comfortable and contemporary yet timeless, and no two pieces are the same. In a true testament to quality, she offers a lifetime warranty on her whole line. B I G A R A D E . I O

PUCKER UP B I T E B E AU T Y ’ S lip colour products are good enough to eat, literally. Toronto-based founder Susanne Langmuir took the news that women consume several tubes of lipstick in their lifetime to heart, creating a line of nutrient-rich, foodgrade cosmetics. Here she shares three personal faves:

AG AV E L I P M A S K Apply at night and wake up with a healthy pucker thanks to resveratrol (a powerful antioxidant), lanolin and jojoba oil.

M AT T E C R È M E L I P C R AYO N Looks matte, feels moist. Orangepeel wax protects your lips, while organic fruit butters and oils hydrate to the max.

ST Y L E

PHOTO JAYE MILLEY (ALLELES)

COVER STORY At the crossroads of technology, digital design, bionics

and style, you’ll find the Alleles Design Studio, a Victoria, B.C., company with a mission to “blur the lines between prosthetics and fashion.” Cofounders McCauley Wanner and Ryan Palibroda design ready-to-wear and custom covers for lower-leg prosthetics. Available in vibrant colours and patterns, the shapely plastic forms can accent or complement any look. Next up from this duo in 2016: a full head-to-toe fashion line with accessories, stockings, shoes and clothing. A L L E L E S . C A

AMUSE BOUCHE LIPSTICK A true cocktail of edible oils – including argan, sea buckthorn and sweet almond – expertly blended for hydration.

B I T E B E AU T Y. C O M

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THE LIST

C U LT U RE

STATE OF THE ART These new and upcoming Canadian contemporary galleries have art aficionados abuzz.

AU DA I N A R T M U S E U M (2016)

R E M A I M O D E R N (2017 )

AU DA I N A R T M U S E U M . C O M

REMAIMODERN.ORG

Drawing inspiration from its location on a floodplain in Whistler, B.C., the 5,200-square-metre building evokes an ark.

DESIGN

The 130,000-square-metre, four-storey building references the Prairie School of architecture and sits on the banks of the South Saskatchewan River in Saskatoon.

Patkau Architects, Vancouver

ARCHITECTUR AL FIRM

1,850 square metres of exhibition galleries, formal Japanese tea room, conservator’s space and, in the future, an outdoor sculpture garden.

AMENITIES

11 gallery spaces, education studios, performance and lecture theatre, restaurant and retail store.

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PERMANENT COLLECTION PIECES

8,000

DINING

Collection of 19th-century Northwest Coast masks; “The Crazy Stair,” the most expensive Emily Carr painting ever sold (plus 20 of her other pieces).

KPMB, Toronto

Works by the Group of Seven, including Lawren Harris’ “Untitled (Mountains Near Jasper)” and 405 Picasso linocut prints.

OF NOTE

TAP INTO TASTE I N T H E FA R north, birch syrup has long stood in for maple, and now the trend is headed south, with birch turning up in everything from desserts to craft beer. Yukoner Michele Genest, author of Boreal Gourmet and The Boreal Feast, describes its flavour as “deep and rich, almost like molasses but with a bright, citrusy note at the centre.”

Here, the chef shares her recipe for wild sockeye salmon with birch syrup glaze.

1 WILD SOCKEYE SALMON FILLET, ABOUT 3/4 KG (1 1/2 LB)

IT’S A DR AW Adult colouring is all the rage, and so is Albertabased artist Crystal Salamon’s book Awakening: Artful Colouring, whose first print run sold out in under two weeks. Inspired by henna, tattoo art and Salomon’s own imagination, it features 40 pages of abstract designs, mysterious mandalas and intricate animals. Colouring is said to have a de-stressing and calming effect, aside from being just plain fun. Plus it requires little artistic ability, except staying within the lines. So while sales grow, the doodling diva is onto her next project: a colouring book aimed at men.

C R Y S TA L S A L A M O N . C O M

GLAZE 30 ML (2 TBSP) UNCLE BERWYN’S YUKON BIRCH SYRUP 30 ML (2 TBSP) OLIVE OIL 15 ML (1 TBSP) BALSAMIC VINEGAR 7.5 ML (1/2 TBSP) SOY SAUCE

Whisk glaze ingredients together. Brush half the glaze over the fillet before broiling or grilling. Continue basting with remaining glaze as the salmon cooks, 10 to 12 minutes.

Y U KO N B I R C H . C A

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PHOTO KRYSTAL COOPER (SALMON)

G O O DS

C U LT U RE

A LOT OF SCOT For more than 75 years, Cape Breton’s Colaisde na Gàidhlig, Canada’s only Gaelic College, has welcomed students to their seaside campus. But you don’t need to hail from the Highlands to be introduced to Celtic culture. Condensed week-long summer sessions are the perfect crash course on Cape Breton Gaelic. Expert instructors (think fiddler Natalie MacMaster and bagpiper Keith MacDonald) lead classes on Highland dancing, language, weaving and bagpiping, among others. Jam sessions, games and ceilidhs (traditional Gaelic parties) round out the experience. G A E L I C C O L L E G E . E D U

DINING

Natural

Beer Infused

Balsamic

Blackberry

Red Wine

SAVOUR OF THE MONTH

In British Columbia, Salt Spring Island residents Philippe Marill and wife Carolyn Kvajic have mastered a delicate and time-honoured process that’s long been the strict domain of the French: making fleur de sel. The couple offer their handharvested seawater crystals in their pure form or infused with distinctive flavours like chocolate vanilla bean, blackberry, red wine and dry porter ale. The result is Salt Spring Sea Salt, a gourmet finishing salt with the goût du Pacifique.

S A LT S P R I N G S E A S A LT. C O M

ST Y L E

INSPIRED AND INDIGENOUS On display at the National Gallery of Canada since 2011, Christi Belcourt’s “Water Song” features more than 150,000 bead-like dots in an intricate floral design.

The work caught the attention of haute-couture fashion house Valentino, which invited the Métis artist to collaborate on its 2016 Resort line. The nine resulting pieces feature careful recreations of her floral motifs on exquisite shorts, halter tops and full-length dresses. C H R I S T I B E L C O U R T. C O M mercedes-magazine.ca

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DESIGN

NORTHERN LIGHTS

Designers are putting chandeliers in a whole new light, reworking the traditional suspended fixtures into avant-garde statement pieces.

W O R DS PAIGE MAGARRE Y

FORMED BY FABRIC O M E R A R B E L O F VA N C O U V E R S T U D I O Bocci makes these sinuous glass creations by blowing liquid glass into a specially made ceramic fabric shell, which means that every single 73 light is unique in terms of form and size (hence the cloud-like beauty of the pendants when arranged in a cluster). Inside the vessel, a custom-made LED shaped like a flat ring diffuses light throughout, further accentuating the one-of-a-kind shape and the fabric-like folds. B O C C I . C A

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ALONG THE LINES

LIGHT R AIN

Here’s a duo of elements you might not expect to find together in a light fixture: a welded nickel wire nest and an inverted pyramid of Swarovski crystals. Taken as a whole, however, Crystal Cradle

by Toronto’s AM Studio is at once modern and organic in form. The nickel wire base hangs from aircraft wires, and then seamlessly transforms into a tapered array of crystal strands. A M S T U D I O . C A

For those looking to veer far away from the standard chandelier shape, Switch, by Montreal manufacturer Eureka, is a prime example of minimalist form for maximum impact.

The basic system is made up of a steel cylindrical base with one, three or five arms in which a custom-designed (and dimmable) LED is embedded. The aluminium arms, powder-coated white or black with chrome accents, swivel 350 degrees around the base, allowing the shape of the fixture to change along with the room’s configuration. For larger spaces, the manufacturer offers horizontal lengths longer than the standard 1.6 metres.

EUREK ALIGHTING.COM

CHAIN REACTION Though their showroom is in New York, Gabriel Kakon and Scott Richler of Gabriel Scott handcraft their wares in their native Canada.

Among their recent offerings is the Kelly chandelier, composed of a whopping 500 metres of brass or black and silver chain that weaves in and out of a framework of metallic panel, almost like a jewellery display.

G A B R I E L - S C O T T. C O M

OUT ON A LIMB

THE LAYERED LOOK Yellow Goat Design doesn’t keep finished products on hand. The Cambridge, Ontario, company posts lighting ideas on its website and then invites clients to work with in-house designers to customize the concepts as needed. One of their latest fixtures is Curves, which came about when the studio found inspiration in a pile of bent panels that were stacked in a corner of its factory. The ethereal design includes glass pear-shaped vessels holding LEDs, which are then surrounded by undulating rings of stainless steel or acrylic. Y E L L O W G O AT D E S I G N . C O M

AT F I R S T G L A N C E , Branch, by Toronto brand Lightmaker, looks like a random mélange of brass and bulbs. But Denise Murphy and Michael Stamler’s natureinspired lamp is actually created using a detailed pattern of geometric sections that can be customized by designers and architects – not to mention design-minded homeowners – to perfectly suit any space. The fixture is available in vintage brass, natural brass, blackened brass, polished nickel and dark bronze.

LIGHTMAKERSTUDIO.COM

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EVENTS

SURF COUNTRY

Tap into what Canadian surf insiders have known for years: There’s no need to head south to catch a break. From the Great Lakes to the Great Mall, Canada lets you ride the waves all year long. Just don’t forget your wetsuit.

W O R D S J A S M I N L E G AT O S

N O OT K A I S L A N D, B R I T I S H C O LU M B I A

CALVIN BAY OR BAJO POINT Tofino’s beaches are ideal for first-timers, but the rugged landscape of Nootka Island, off the west coast of Vancouver Island, is a haven for experienced surfers looking for big barrels and a little peace in the Pacific Northwest. Instead of throngs of other surfers, you’re more likely to encounter black bears, deer and wolves.

You’ll need to take a seaplane or boat to get to this remote island; rustic accommodations consist of several eco-lodges tucked away in the coastal rainforest. Calvin Bay and Bajo Point, on the island’s west side, are two of the best spots to tackle the tides.

M AY– AU G U S T

E A ST L AW R EN C E TO W N , N OVA S C OT I A

LAWRENCETOWN BEACH M AY– N O V E M B E R Summer brings gentle waves to the sandy shores of this beach located half an hour east of downtown Halifax – perfect conditions for beginners looking to master the basics. Skilled surfers are most likely to go out during hurricane season (August to November), when head-high swells provide greater challenges (diehards are even known to paddle out in winter). From the end of May to the beginning of October, visitors wanting to commune with nature can opt to sleep under the stars (in luxury bell tents, of course) with a package from East Coast Glamping, which includes a private one-hour surf lesson for two to four people from the pros at East Coast Surf School. L AW R E N C E T O W N B E A C H . C O M

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MADE IN B.C. Handcrafted surfboards by Tofino-based Stefan Aftanas, aftanas.ca

M O N T R E A L , Q U EB E C

ST. LAWRENCE RIVER You won’t waste any time waiting for a surge at Montreal’s Habitat 67, the popular surf break named after Moshe Safdie’s famed Expo 67 housing complex (visible from the same spot). That’s because Habitat 67 is a standing wave, created when fastmoving water flows over rocks at the bottom of the river. It’s always in the same spot and almost constantly running – a real treat if you just want to practise staying on your board. Those with little experience can take a lesson with local outfit KSF and master the basics at the nearby bunny wave before graduating to the real deal.

M AY– O C T O B E R

O N TA R I O

THE GREAT LAKES The world’s largest group of freshwater lakes is home to a vibrant surf community on both sides of the border.

Torontonians looking to trade in their briefcase for a longboard can catch a ride on Lake Ontario at Scarborough Bluffs, where strong southwesterly winds and a man-made rocky peninsula help create perfect waves. Further west, the town of Kincardine welcomes surfers on Lake Huron with consistent swells and a floor that drops quickly, creating powerful waves. Lake surfing is dependent on weather, with the best conditions often recorded in winter, when storms produce the largest swells. S U R F O N TA R I O . C A

PHOTOS JEREMY KORESKI/TOURISM VANCOUVER ISL AND (B.C.); EAST COAST GL AMPING (NS); MAUDE CHAUVIN (QC); LUCAS MURNAGHAN (ON); COOPER + O’HAR A (AB)

SEPTEMBER–MARCH

KS F. C A

Kincardine at Lake Huron

W H I T ES H EL L PA R K , M A N I TO B A

STURGEON FALLS R APIDS

With over a half-dozen whitecaps, Sturgeon Falls, located about 90 minutes northeast of Winnipeg in Whiteshell Provincial Park, is an adventure-seeker’s paradise. The series of rapids (there’s no actual waterfall here) are just off an island in the middle of Nutimik Lake. Waves range from a barely metre-high swell, to the 2.5-metre Big Mouth, which surges and crashes every 20 seconds. It’s a long paddle out to the island, so plan to rent a jet ski if you’re not a strong swimmer. W H I T E S H E L L . M B . C A

M AY–J U N E

ED M O N TO N , A L B ERTA

WORLD WATERPARK Learn to hang ten on Tsunami, the latest attraction at West Edmonton Mall’s indoor waterpark. This simulated double sheet wave (you can ride side by side with a friend) provides a constant flow via water pumps, allowing patrons as young as 10 to pop up on the board in a controlled environment. Start from scratch with a lesson at the park’s surf school, then hone your skills as a member of the surf club, which also runs after-hours drop-in sessions. W E M . C A

YEAR-ROUND

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AREA

1

GO WEST

What to see and do on Montreal’s buzzing Notre-Dame Street West.

WORDS CARRIE MacPHERSON

H A D YO U D R I V E N A L O N G Notre-Dame

Street West only a decade ago, you would have had difficulty finding much more than a string of antique shops and fast-food restaurants. Historically a factory neighbourhood, nowadays it’s the destination of choice for local and visiting gourmets and bons vivants. From Griffintown to Little Burgundy to Saint-Henri, this stretch is continually seeing a new crop of restaurants, bars, cafés, curated shops and concept spas. And the designer-clad residents are finding homes in those former factories, now converted into contemporary condominiums.

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THE MENU The owners of seafood restaurant and oyster bar Joe Beef and its descendants, Liverpool House and Le Vin Papillon [1-2] (a recently expanded wine bar), are considered pioneers of the Little Burgundy and NotreDame West revival. Following in their footsteps are Burgundy Lion, a popular British pub across the street, and more recently, along the Saint-Henri stretch, streetfood favourites and bricks-and-mortar converts Grumman 78 and Satay Brothers [3]. Further east in Griffintown, the latest epicurean addition to the street is Foxy, the suppertime sister to Old Montreal institution Olive et Gourmando. Also not to be missed is the inconspicuously located Patrice Pâtissier – across the street from the local hardware store. Stop for lunch and indulge in Patrice Demers’ contemporary French pastries, or better yet, take part in one of the evening pastry workshops or wine tastings offered by his sommelier-partner, Marie-Josée Beaudoin.

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THE SHOPS

PHOTOS X AVIER GIR ARD - L ACHAÎNE (1); JOHN CULLEN (2); MICK AËL BANDASSAK (3); PARISIAN L AUNDRY (7)

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Stock up on the new Notre-Dame West style at Stockmarkt, where you’ll find labels such as Acne Studios [5], James Perse, Filippa K, Nudie Jeans, Maison Kitsuné and locally designed handbags

by Want Les Essentiels de la Vie [6] at outlet prices. Just a stone’s throw away, browse contemporary decor pieces at Beige [4], which offers everything from home fragrances and table accessories to design consultation and custom upholstery. Owner and interior designer Michael Stratulak opened the shop after noticing the need for a full-service design store much like those you would find in Paris, London or New York.

Luc Paradis, “Without Consent,” 2014, acrylic, gouache and ink on paper

Just below Notre-Dame in Griffintown is Arsenal, a former shipyard turned contemporary art space.

Inaugurated in 2012, the gallery not only hosts the impressive private Majudia Collection but also a commercial gallery, and serves as host to grandscale events. For further visual and installation-art experiences, check out nearby Antoine Ertaskiran and Saint-Henri’s Parisian Laundry [7] – also housed in former industrial buildings.

8

THE SPA Barbarella has a cult following of regulars who enjoy services ranging from traditional manicures to trendy nail art. The spa’s famed and flawless spray tans and waxing are also a draw. Nearby, Notorious takes the contemporary barbershop to an incomparable luxe level with its Versace decor, high-end grooming products and cognac-bottle-lined shelves. More like a private club than a barbershop, here a gent can splurge on a luxury experience with the 1K Shave using a gold-plated razor, which is his to keep as a souvenir. For trims on the go, Notorious recently teamed up with Rémy Martin to create The Centaur [8], a mobile groomery and cognac bar in a custom-built Mercedes-Benz Sprinter.

7

THE ARTS

THE STAY The gang at Joe Beef have set up a foodlovers’ apartment directly above the renowned restaurant, with views on their garden in the back and the bustling activity of Notre-Dame Street in front.

Unique features include a fully functional kitchen and harvest table for eight, cured meats hanging from the rafters and a stocked fridge of private import wines and Joe Beef craft beer. mercedes-magazine.ca

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LIFESTYLE The best in events, innovation, arts and entertainment

THE RAREST OF FINDS

As president of the Philip J. Currie Dinosaur Museum, worldrenowned museologist George Jacob has turned the remote oilfield town of Wembley, Alberta, on its head with big plans, clever partnerships and a whole lot of personal style.

WORDS CURTIS GILLESPIE

26

his Mercedes-Benz CLA 250 4MATIC and checks that his pocket kerchief matches his impeccably knotted tie.

PHOTOS JOANNE COUSINS (PORTR AIT, AERIAL); CANDICE POPIK (SKULL ON PEDESTAL, MUSEUM EX TERIOR); SEAN TROSTEM (PIPESTONE CREEK DIG, SKULL FROM ABOVE)

W H E N I S I T D O W N with Jacob

GAME OF BONES Visitors to the museum can travel by helicopter to the Pipestone Creek bonebed and maybe even join a dig.

T H E N O R T H E R N A L B E R TA town of Wembley

(population 1,410) is set in a land of stark extremes, at once epic and intimate, natural and industrial. The nearest metropolis is the northern city of Grande Prairie (population 68,556), 25 kilometres east along the Alaska Highway.

This is the province’s oil and gas heartland – a truly grand prairie under an immeasurable cerulean sky.

Those same geological layers of prehistoric matter that provide the area’s abundance of fossil fuels are also what create ideal conditions for the preservation of fossils. Just south of Wembley lies the Pipestone Creek bonebed, one of the world’s richest paleontological sites and the reason why this unlikely town has just become home to what is arguably the world’s most comprehensive dinosaur museum.

Yet long before the $40-million Philip J. Currie Dinosaur Museum opened in September 2015, there was a buzz around one of the museum’s most significant finds: its president, George Jacob.

The Indian-born museologist is celebrated for both his grand schemes and precise attention to detail, designing exhibits around the globe for heavy hitters like the Smithsonian Institution.

And now he’s found himself in as surprising a place as you could imagine.

In this region, where the ride of choice is a pickup and the uniform is blue jeans and a ball cap, George Jacob gets up every morning, starts

Jacob is not so much thinking outside the box as making us wonder why we used the box in the first place.

in the museum’s modern glasswalled boardroom looking out over the exhibit galleries, groups of schoolkids are joyously tearing around below, where dinosaur roars echo off the walls. Jacob, who is 51 but could pass for decades younger, sits serenely above it all, his unassertive demeanour offering sharp contrast to his bespoke suit and ear-length curls. He smiles often, but usually with a certain bemused reserve, and regularly animates his reflections with quotes from artists such as Derek Walcott and Leonard Cohen. I ask what drew him to Wembley and if he is enjoying it.

“Well,” he replies in a soft voice, “I wasn’t sure what I was going to make of it at first, but now I like it quite a lot. Ultimately, the challenge of it all was just so great that I couldn’t turn it down.”

The challenge he refers to was primarily logistical. When he came on board just over a year before the museum’s opening, some of the exterior build, most of the interior build and all of the exhibits had yet to be constructed – or, in some cases, even imagined.

The finished product, however, is a dramatically modern building, all angles and edges from the outside. Inside, Jacob made sure that the organic flow of the museum reflected the layered excavation experience of a dig. Dinosaur skel> etons tower over it all, while monster marine

INSIDES OUT The museum’s edgy modern design provides a dramatic showcase for its multi-millionyear-old contents.

LIFESTYLE

EXHIBIT A Wembley may be a pickup town, but Jacob’s ride of choice is a CLA 250 4MATIC. A CLASS APART Interactive displays mingle with dig recreations.

lizards swim on LCD touch screens. With its 3-D printers, paleo-labs, National Geographic theatre and interactive displays, the museum is like the best classroom you never had. And much of it exists because of Jacob’s famed ability to marry overarching vision with scrupulous attention to detail.

supplying information and telling a story,” Jacob tells me. You could say the same about him. His CV gives only a hint of his peripatetic history.

Born in Cochin, in the southern Indian state of Kerala, Jacob finished high school and went into a master’s program at a technology and science institute in Pilani, Rajasthan. He started at the University of Toronto in 1994 via a Commonwealth Scholarship and, after working on museum assignments, began his studies at the Yale School of Management in 2000.

Today, Jacob is recognized as a leading thinker on the meaning of museums, but his hands-on design portfolio is so wide-ranging that it’s hard to believe it’s the resumé of a single person. In addition to dozens of museum assignments in places such as Singapore, India, Abu Dhabi, Hong Kong, Egypt and across the United States, he previously established three separate institutions: a Sikh history museum in India, an astronomy museum in Hawaii and a science and technology centre in India. He also worked on the permanent exhibit for the Smithsonian’s most prized icon, the Star-Spangled Banner. And now he’s set to redefine the world of paleo-tourism.

Jacob’s innovations, such as helicopter tours over the bonebed, are all about the evolution from “information” to “story.” Near where the Pipestone Creek feeds into the Wapiti River, the helicopter

THE PHILIP J. CURRIE D I N O S AU R M U S E U M

BY T H E N U M B ERS

13

Months to complete construction

8

Months to complete exhibit from design to installation

7,432 Square metres

40

Cost in millions of dollars

5

Unique-to-Alberta species on display

55,000

Visitors in its first 81 days

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pilot dips down into the valley to show off the cutbanks where the excavations are taking place.

It’s an aerial insight into the reality of a dig (which can be accompanied by on-the-ground visits to the site).

“I can tell you,” laughs Jacob, “the chopper with a big pachyrhinosaurus decal is quite the attention-grabber when it lands and takes off from our helipad right beside the Alaska Highway!”

Jacob knows how to make a statement: He has also forged creative partnerships with National Geographic (the Currie being the only Canadian museum to have access to the organization’s film archive), the Edmonton International Airport (which he persuaded to stage a major dino display to build buzz around the museum’s opening) and even with actor Dan Aykroyd and his family (paleontology enthusiasts turned Hollywood dino ambassadors). Jacob is expertly deploying every resource, not so much thinking outside the box as making us wonder why we ever even used the box in the first place.

P E R H A P S I T G O E S without saying by now

that dinosaurs are not always front and centre during an interview with George Jacob. At one point, I ask him if the museum knew precisely what they were getting when they hired him.

“Probably not,” he replies with a half-smile.

“But soon enough I think they understood.”

After we finish chatting, I take a few minutes to poke around the gift shop. I notice a rack of elegantly illustrated cards, many of them depicting the museum itself, printed in striking red and orange ink. I pick one up and turn it over. The back page notes the price and where it was printed, and there, in small letters, it also reads, “Designed

by George Jacob.” I can’t say I’m surprised.

PHOTOS JOANNE COUSINS (PORTR AIT ); SEAN TROSTEM (KIDS, INTER ACTIVE DISPL AYS); SIDEBAR GEORGE JACOB

“ T H E R E ’ S S U C H A D I F F E R E N C E between

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OCEAN

GIANT When Alex Thomson encounters a monster wave, he rises to the challenge. In 2016–2017, the British yachtsman aims to win the Vendée Globe regatta – which involves sailing single-handed non-stop around the world. Here he talks about mental strength, the fear of death and the huge awareness of feeling infinitely small.

WORDS FABRICE BR AUN PHOTOS CHRISTIAN BORTH

PHOTO MARK LLOYD ( YACHT)

AS FAST AS THE WIND Thomson’s yacht is a unique design comprising over 20,000 individual parts, each optimized for speed.

Price tag: almost $6 million. mercedes-magazine.ca

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LIFESTYLE

S

porting a beard, sunglasses and a handkerchief in the breast pocket of his suit, Alex Thomson cuts a pretty cool figure. He could be James Bond’s brother. Despite that, his legs seem a little shaky – the wind is gusting strongly. And Thomson is 10 metres above the sea, up the mast of his yacht, which is canted at an angle of 50 degrees. The mastrunner bends his knees, jumps and dives into the water. The “mast walk” video has been viewed over two million times. This and other such antics have turned the 41-year-old Briton, who is sponsored by Mercedes-Benz, into one of the world’s best-known sailors. Originally from Bangor in North Wales, Thomson made his name in 1999 as the youngest skipper ever to win a round-the-world yacht race. His career was initially promoted by Keith Mills, entrepreneur and CEO of London’s successful bid for the 2012 Olympic Games. With crew member Andrew Cape, Thomson finished second in the Barcelona World Race in 2008. In 2012, he made a solo crossing of the Atlantic in eight days, 22 hours, eight minutes – setting a new world record. And after finishing third in the 2012–2013 Vendée Globe, his aim is now to become the first nonFrenchman to win the world’s toughest regatta.

He recently launched his new, high-tech yacht – which came with a price tag of nearly $6 million.

Are you excited, Mr. Thomson?

I’m always excited when I get a new boat, and anxious at the same time. It has taken two years to build – around 40,000 man-hours. Ultimately, it’s all about getting the fastest package, just like Formula 1. But the boat is made up of over 20,000 individual parts, and we have to take into account many more factors than in Formula 1.

Take wind speed, for example, which is different at the surface of the water, where we measure it, than it is at the top of the mast. The impact of the waves on the ocean is still very difficult to calculate. And each boat is unique – only one of its kind is ever built.

What did you and your team pay the most attention to with the new build?

Our philosophy was to build the lightest boat possible. The challenge is to design it light enough to have a chance of winning, but reliable enough to have a chance of finishing. That’s always the compromise. We’ll now be doing almost a year of testing until we find the right balance.

Our entire schedule is focused on the Vendée Globe regatta, which begins on November 6, 2016. By then the boat will be fast. We will have done away with all creature comforts – no sink, no shower, not even a toilet.

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CALM WATERS Although the sailing pro seems totally in control, he is aware of one weakness: his emotions.

We always find something to fill our lives with. I get the opportunity to spend three months on a boat.

Mentally, that’s very refreshing.

Forgive me for asking the obvious, but where do you go to the toilet if there isn’t any?

We have a special bucket made of carbon fibre.

This contains a biodegradable plastic bag, which is thrown overboard after use.

For the Vendée Globe you will spend almost three months alone on the high seas. Can you describe what that’s like?

When everything goes well, if you’re moving as fast as you hoped, then it’s the best feeling in the world. When things go wrong, it’s hell on earth for me.

How do you cope with the loneliness?

For me it’s a question of attitude. I just think to myself: “Three months? What’s three months? It’s not really long at all.” How did you spend the last three months? They passed quickly enough, didn’t they?

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LIFESTYLE

But in three months I would have met and spoken with lots of people…

We’re all used to filling our lives with stuff from morning to night. We spend our time worrying about our families, our friends, our work or our mortgage. We always find something to fill our lives with. But I get the opportunity to spend three months on a boat and concentrate on one thing only. Mentally, that’s very refreshing. And I’m not really alone: On the boat I can pick up the telephone and talk with my family, my team or my wife.

What is the hardest aspect of the race?

The Southern Ocean. It starts getting difficult below the 40th parallel south. We spend four or five weeks there during the regatta. It’s a dangerous place on account of the giant waves and very strong winds. You’re completely on your own – there’s no one to help you. And that’s exactly how you feel.

Are you afraid of these seas?

When I took part in my first Vendée Globe in 2004, I actually thought I could win the race in the Southern Ocean. I was young. When you’re young you’re pretty fearless, but you have zero experience. The older you get, the more you lose your nerve – but you have much more experience.

So it all balances itself out [laughs]. Nowadays, I think the Southern Ocean is the place where you can lose the race. Down there it’s all about survival.

Under circumstances like these, can you still get a sense of enjoyment from the whole thing?

The Southern Ocean makes you acutely conscious of your own mortality. That can be very wearing on your nerves. The sky, the sea, everything tells you: This place is dangerous. But once you’ve sailed around Cape Horn, your boat’s bow is finally heading toward the finish – and everything suddenly changes. The sea is calmer, the sky is friendlier and you start to feel better. It’s as if the weight of the world has fallen from your shoulders, even if you only really lose the weight from your shoulders when you reach the finish.

What’s the greatest challenge for you personally during the race?

The most difficult thing is constantly having to weigh risk. I have to become a risk manager. I make decisions on a minute-by-minute basis – and if I make the wrong one, it could cost me my life. I have to manage my body, my food intake, my sleep, my mood, my ability to make good decisions. I sleep 20 to 40 minutes every two to four hours.

And when I’m in the biting cold of the Southern Ocean, and I have to work flat out, I burn around 34

THE R ACE The Vendée Globe has been held every four years since 1989. It is the only race in which competitors sail non-stop around the world. It starts on November 6, 2016, at Les Sables d’Olonne, France. The route takes participants south to the Cape of Good Hope, then eastward around Australia and Cape Horn, and back to the start. Of the 20 or so participants, only about half will make it all the way. When the winner crosses the finish line in January 2017 after completing the nearly 39,000 kilometres, a crowd of 300,000 will be there to greet him. Previous races have always been won by a Frenchman. Britain’s Alex Thomson hopes to change that.

VENDEEGLOBE .ORG

HOME PORT Thomson gazes out over the bay at Portsmouth, England.

His team and boat are moored at the Haslar Marina in Gosport.

7,000 calories a day. During the last Vendée Globe, I lost a total of eight kilograms. It may sound strange, but it’s really not easy to make sure you eat enough food and get enough sleep.

You’re preparing for the race with the help of a sports psychologist. Does he help you improve your mental resilience?

I don’t think you can really train mental strength. Either you have it or you develop it. I know I’ve got it. But I do talk to the psychologist about the difficult situations I’m going to have to face during the race. In the Southern Ocean, for example, the waves can reach 15 metres in height. And I’m riding down these waves at 30 knots [about 55 km/h].

That’s when you switch to autopilot and head down to the cabin – and whatever you were feeling outside the boat is a hundred times worse inside. At this moment, your brain tells you you’re going to die. But you have to sleep. In situations like this you have to wind down, slow your heart rate, scale down the adrenalin in the body. In order to do this, I developed a visualization technique with the sports psychologist, which lets me imagine myself not on the boat but sitting up in the clouds, looking down on the boat. From there I see the huge waves, but I also < see that there are no icebergs around and

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FIGUREHEAD Thomson during training for the 2012–2013 Vendée Globe. This time he hopes to win.

that the boat appears not to be in any danger at all. Creating this mental picture helps me get to sleep.

But your fears about going to sleep are completely justified: There have been several occasions when you had to be rescued from the water.

If something is going to go wrong, then most likely it’s going to be when you’re asleep. I woke up once during a race to find the boat’s mast almost in the water. A situation like that can cost you your life. But you don’t think of that at that particular moment. You don’t sit around saying to yourself, “I’m going to die, I’m going to die.”

Instead, you automatically go into survival mode and start thinking, Right, what do I have to do to get out of this situation? And then you just get on with it.

You are a strong sailor with lots of expe­­ri­en­ce, but what do you see as your greatest weakness?

I’m a very emotional person – I wear my heart on my sleeve. And during a race my emotional state is very dependent on how the race is going.

It doesn’t matter how tired I am, how hungry or anything else: The only thing that matters is the intermediate race standings. The problem is, we are sent the intermediate standings several times a day, and if I see I’m in a poor position, that incites me to become less disciplined and work even harder. I change my familiar routines and, as a result, I get more tired. If things are going really well, the effect can be even worse, because then I see myself as virtually invincible.

And when that happens, you can quickly lose concentration and end up making a mistake that costs you the race.

36

Waves in the Southern Ocean can reach 15 metres. The boat rides down these waves at 30 knots [about 55 km/h]. Then you go down to the bunk. Your brain is telling you you’re going to die. But you still have to get some sleep.

What role do tactics play in a long regatta?

A huge role. It’s like a game of chess. Participants’ boats all race at about the same speed, although my new boat will hopefully be faster [laughs]. We all experience similar weather and use computers equipped with the same software. In a race that lasts 80 days or more, you have an advantage if you get ahead at the start. It’s much harder throughout the duration of the race for anyone who falls behind. That’s why from day one, everyone is focused on avoiding any errors.

After living in such exceptional circumstances for three months, is it difficult to come home and lead an ordinary life again?

Last time, I had huge problems adapting to a normal sleep pattern. It took weeks and I found it very frustrating. But apart from that? I consider what I do to be entirely normal. I come back and wonder what all the fuss is about. After all, I’m just doing my job. When you’re a sailor on board a small boat and you’ve lost sight of land, you realize how tiny we are as humans. I know that other skippers feel that too. You understand how insignificant we are in the general scheme of things. That’s a pretty humbling experience. When I come home, I look forward to the company of friends, other people – and above all to the party.

You once took Formula 1 world champion Lewis Hamilton with you on board your yacht, and you have sailed in Monaco with his teammate Nico Rosberg. Did either of them show talent as skippers?

What I noticed was that racing drivers are very good at focusing on the task at hand. You just have to tell them to concentrate and wait for the signal – and they do it. Most ordinary mortals can’t do that.

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LIFESTYLE

In the 40 years since the former feedlot was converted into an equestrian centre, Spruce Meadows has quietly become the world’s premier show jumping facility.

WORDS KAREN ASHBEE

I

t’s a crisp autumn day at Spruce Meadows equestrian facility in Calgary, 30 minutes south of downtown, and the crowds are wending their way into the International Ring for the annual Spruce Meadows ‘Masters’ Tournament.

Parents with kids and dogs in tow look for a spot on the grassy hill that flanks the west side of the ring, while those seated in a corporate box or inside the grand British House sip champagne and check the day sheets for the order of go.

The atmosphere at the tournament, simply known as the ‘Masters,’ is electric as riders and horses prepare to compete for prize money totalling over $2 million. Fans line the practice ring clamouring for selfies with Canadian Olympic 38

CALGARY CACHET The annual Spruce Meadows ‘Masters’ Tournament is a seminal event on the international show jumping calendar.

gold medallist Eric Lamaze. Others shop for souvenirs of their day at Spruce Meadows from one of the many equestrian-themed booths lining the grounds before taking their seat in the packed grandstands.

“Almost invariably the first words out of people’s mouths when they arrive here are, ‘I had no idea,’” says Ian Allison, the senior vice-president and a 40-year veteran of Spruce Meadows, as we sit in an office overlooking the All Canada Ring.

Although most people associate Calgary with the Stampede – the annual rodeo and exhibition that takes over the city for 10 days each July – Spruce Meadows has quietly ascended through the equestrian ranks to become the number-one show jumping venue in the world.

That’s according to the Fédération Équestre Internationale, which has also licensed Spruce Meadows to hold multiple Five Star events, the highest level of competition. It’s the only Canadian venue to hold that honour and, as such, hosts a quarter of North America’s Five Star events.

PHOTOS MIKE STURK (OPENING; AERIAL); DIRK CAREMANS (FACILIT Y; L AMA ZE; BR ASH)

MASTER CLASS

A (feed) lot to remember Opened in 1975, Spruce Meadows was born out of a desire by Ron Southern, the founder of Alberta Trailer and Hire Company (also known as ATCO), and his wife Margaret to build a facility where their two daughters could stable their horses.

(The girls had previously been boarding their horses at a barn that burned down twice.) When the Southerns started developing the 24-hectare feedlot they had purchased in 1971, a friend of the couple urged them to make it a public training and events space. They took his advice and started planning a venue that emulated the show jumping facilities of Europe.

They hosted the first tournament in 1976 and, in 1977, received permission to run the Nations Cup. Spruce Meadows was the first venue in North America to hold the event outdoors – and it remained the only open-air Nations Cup for approximately 30 years. This acquisition put them firmly on the international show jumping competition calendar, enabling Spruce Meadows to attract the best course designers, riders, sponsors and, ultimately, fans to the complex.

Eric Lamaze likens competing at the ‘Masters’ to playing in the Super Bowl. “For me, it’s one of the most exciting venues in the world to compete < at,” he says, when I catch up with him on the

TOP MARKS Canadian Eric Lamaze (below) likens riding at Spruce Meadows to playing in the Super Bowl; Great Britain’s Scott Brash (right) made history in 2015 by sweeping three Grand Slams.

Almost invariably the first words out of people’s mouths when they arrive here are, ‘I had no idea.’

IAN ALLISON, SENIOR VICE-PRESIDENT

mercedes-magazine.ca

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LIFESTYLE

circuit. “As a rider, I look forward to it every year.

It gives you chills when you come in the ring, and you want to put in that clear round to hear the crowd come alive.”

Fence-jumpers’ paradise To win at Spruce Meadows, riders must bring their A-game. Unlike other venues on the circuit, Spruce Meadows’ rings are turfed in grass. Most riders are used to competing on synthetic footing and are often unfamiliar with the difficulties of keeping their horse’s balance on a surface that can be slippery and uneven. But much like grass courts in tennis, the natural turf is beloved for the elegance and tradition it brings to the sport.

Players also enjoy the facility’s size. The International Ring alone, one of its seven outdoor grass rings, covers the equivalent of almost five football fields. Competing at Spruce Meadows is like being at a different venue every week, I’m told by England’s Scott Brash, the number-one ranked rider in the world: “I was blown away when I arrived, to see how large it was, and not to have to work in the same arena day in and day out. It brings out the best in us riders.”

Yet despite its status as a premier facility, Spruce Meadows is anything but exclusive. It’s

MERCEDES - BENZ EVENING OF THE HORSE The view is breathtaking as the sun sets over the Rocky Mountains and the stars of the equestrian world trot into the International Ring for the Mercedes-Benz Evening of the Horse. Mercedes-Benz Canada has been the title sponsor of the event – the only one to be held under the lights during the Spruce Meadows season of international sport – since 2011. The evening features two competitions, including the challenging Six Bar, where riders jump six fences that are gradually increased in height after each clear round. It tops off with fireworks choreographed to a live concert by a select British Military Band. The combination of exacting horsemanship and celebration makes it the hot ticket for fans.

S P R U C E M E A D O W S BY T H E N U M B ERS

500

Acres of space, including facilities, pastures and parking 40

61

Number of nations that have been represented at the facility

16,000

Rounds jumped in the Summer Series each year

10.2 million Visitors since the venue’s opening

open to competitors, spectators and the general public every day of the year. “Admission has been the same since 1976,” says Ian Allison. “General admission is $5, and free for seniors and children under 12. And, although I am not recommending it, if you can jump the fence, you get in for free.”

While Spruce Meadows may sport a down-toearth vibe, don’t be surprised to see Bruce Springsteen watching his daughter, Jessica, compete or Tom Selleck helping his daughter, Hannah, tack up. “We’ve had Jennifer, Bill Gates’ daughter, as well as Eve, Steve Jobs’ daughter, competing here, and one time both were riding on the same team,” says Allison with a laugh.

“Spruce Meadows has hosted everyone from Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II to the former leader of the Soviet Union, Mikhail Gorbachev.”

Although Spruce Meadows prides itself on maintaining long-standing traditions, it is always looking ahead. This year’s focus will be on redoing the footing with a multi-million-dollar renovation. But sadly, 2016 was also a year of loss for the complex. Its long-time riding master, Albert Kley, passed away in January; his death was followed two weeks later by that of its founder, Ron Southern.

Looking around the expansive facility today, it’s clear that Southern’s vision and commitment to show jumping, as well as the enhancement of Spruce Meadows, will inspire riders for years to come. With some of the show jumping world’s most challenging courses combined with millions of dollars in prize money, it’s no wonder every rider dreams of one day making it to Spruce Meadows, an unlikely facility in an unlikely place.

PHOTOS MIKE STURK

COVETED CUPS Team Brazil (left) rode to victory in the ‘Masters’ Nations Cup; Tiffany Foster (above) was named Mercedes-Benz Leading Canadian Rider, closing out the 2015 ‘Masters’ Tournament.

URBAN RENEWAL Forget concrete jungles. Green projects are all over modern cityscapes; opposite: Lufa Farms’ rooftop greenhouse.

P. 4 4 URBAN BEEHIVES

P. 4 3 ROOFTOP GREENHOUSES

P. 4 8 FOOD MEETS TECH

P. 5 0 ECO - CONSCIOUS FLOWER SHOPS

P. 5 0 CHICKENS IN THE CITY

PHOTOS LUFA FARMS

LIFESTYLE

T

R R EVOLUTION OOFTOP Farm-to-table dining doesn’t have to mean country-to-city.

A new crop of Canadian entrepreneurs is bringing rural wisdom to the urban landscape and shaping the future of food.

W O R D S E VE TH O MAS I L LU ST R AT I O N C HR IS PHILP OT

his could be a moon colony.

Overhead, a grid of glass panels stretches as far as the eye can see.

Below, pristine white shelves are studded with coconut-fibre plant pods. An intricate network of tubes delivers water and nutrients to each seedling, controlled by an unseen hand – and an iPad app.

“Some of our advisers also work with NASA,” says Lauren Rathmell, Lufa Farms’ co-founder and greenhouse director (as well as an avowed sci-fi fan). “It’s easy to see some parallels with what we’re doing.”

The creation of former IT engineer Mohamed Hage, Lufa opened its original 3,000-square-metre facility in Montreal in 2011, then launched a second greenhouse in nearby Laval in 2013. Together, the facilities yield 190 metric tons of produce each year (tomatoes, eggplants, lettuce and more), distributed at pick-up points in biweekly food baskets. It’s not just another community garden: Lufa built the first commercial rooftop farm in the world. And it’s part of a network of urban farmers and entrepreneurs changing Canadians’ relationship with food.

While the value of the nation’s traditional agrifood industry cannot be downplayed (it contributes over $100 billion to the GDP and employs one in eight Canadians), urban farmers are concerned > with more than just feeding themselves and mercedes-magazine.ca

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LUFA Grammy Award winner Irvin Mayfield in the rear of the Mercedes-Maybach.

Street, the city’s tourist heart, where

FRESH DIRECT Produce from Lufa Farms’ two greenhouses in Laval and Montreal (opposite) are delivered twice a week, along with products from local farmers and artisans.

their local communities. With over half the globe’s population now living in urban areas, supporting sustainability with technological innovation is more important than ever, and what’s happening in Canada is a potential model for the entire world.

Lufa Farms: The game-changer “There was really no case to follow,” says Rathmell, a graduate of McGill University’s biochemistry program, about the early days of Lufa.

Just finding a suitable location for the farm involved casting a wide (Inter)net: a Google Earth survey of Montreal’s unused rooftops. And the challenges aren’t always what one might expect in an urban centre.

For example, it isn’t the -30°C lows that employees dread – the greenhouse proves a pleasant escape from the cold – but the +30°C summer days. During heat waves, even with automated 44

The ingredients for the average Canadian meal travel between 1,000 and 3,000 kilometres.

temperature and humidity control, staff work around the clock to keep the plants from wilting.

We come face to face with another obstacle while checking out some cucumber plants – or at least what’s left of them. Because Lufa employs hydroponic methods, they can’t technically be certified organic, but operations run according to organic standards, and that means no pesticides.

Instead, a custom-designed app highlights pest hot spots that the company then attacks with biocontrols like aphid-eating ladybugs.

“Most of the natural things taking place on farms, we don’t even know about them,” says plant-science project manager Nick Taylor, inspecting a half-eaten leaf. “My goal here is to turn this into a real environment. Not just introducing bio-pests, but getting them to stick around instead of flying out the vents.”

Taylor grew up on his family’s farm in ÎlePerrot, Quebec. Like most Quebecers, “eating locally and seasonally” has meant a steady diet of root vegetables half the year. But like most of Lufa’s staff, he’s eager to figure out how exotic this greenhouse can get. Tucked away near the hot peppers, there’s a small section devoted to experiments: figs, melons, even coffee plants.

Taylor reaches over and plucks a kaffir lime leaf, then hands it to me. It’s the real deal, glossy and fragrant, and it could end up in future food baskets – if it strikes a balance between profitability and consumer demand.

After all, while this is a real business, it’s one that’s succeeding through word of mouth. Between the rooftop farm and the bustling ground floor (where baskets are filled), office employees cater to devoted fans, aka “Lufavores,” posting recipes to the company blog and taking photos of new products from partner companies – everything from free-range eggs to locally brewed kombucha.

This expansion of their online marketplace makes good business sense, allowing customers to shop ethically in one place, but it also helps put a dent in a staggering statistic: The ingredients for the average Canadian meal travel between 1,000 and 3,000 kilometres. Employees are also getting the offices ready for one of their regular open houses, a chance for customers to see behind the scenes.

“Lufavores have supported us from the beginning, and we want to be transparent with them,” says Rathmell. “It’s not just about growing tomatoes.”

Alvéole: The secret ingredient Another day, another hidden rooftop revolution.

This time, I find myself atop Birks’ 122-year-old flagship store in downtown Montreal, in the company of 50,000 honeybees and Alex Mclean. He’s > here to inspect the hives installed by his

PHOTOS LUFA FARMS; DOMINIQUE L AFOND/RODEO (RIGHT PAGE)

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SWEET SUCCESS From top: Alex Mclean checks on a rooftop hive in downtown Montreal; Alvéole extracts honey by individual hive; apps monitor everything from sound to humidity.

tangible reward: branded jars of honey. “It’s better than a pen with a logo,” remarks Mclean.

It also looks pretty sweet on a company’s Corporate Social Responsibility report. While Mclean says Canadians currently import about 50 percent of our honey, the urban beekeeping movement isn’t just about eating locally – it’s about protecting the earth. Amid all the buzz about colony collapse disorder, one message has become clear: Save the bees, save the world. Out of the top 100 food crops, 70 are pollinated by bees. Surprisingly, it’s urban bees that may actually have an advantage over their rural cousins, since pesticides commonly used in traditional farming are banned in city centres.

But the biggest obstacle to urban beekeeping isn’t concrete. It’s fear. “People confuse wasps and bees,” explains Mclean. “Basically, wasps are carnivores, they go out and hunt. Bees are vegan and organized. They send out scouts and plan out their movements, which is why you won’t see them appear as soon as you open a soft drink.

They’re not out to bother you.”

While Alvéole didn’t start the corporate beekeeping trend (see hotel chef sidebar), they’ve managed to set themselves apart from regular apiarists with their online presence. They tweet links to live hive-cams, have an app that tracks all the tree varieties in Montreal, and share hive data (humidity, weight, sound) with university labs,

PHOTOS FUTURE FOOD STUDIO; FAIRMONT; SOURCE GRAPH WORLD WEATHER ONLINE

company Alvéole (French for “honeycomb”). The twentysomething’s demeanour is decidedly laidback – he’s traded a beekeeper suit for an Oxford and khakis – so when he suggests I poke a tiny wax cell with my bare fingertip, I don’t hesitate. A drop of shiny amber liquid bursts out, sticky and sweet. “That’s about as fresh as you’re going to get,” he says with a laugh.

In his teens, Mclean and two friends (and future business partners), Étienne Lapierre and Declan Rankin Jardin, took a summer job at his uncle’s 2,000-hive honey production company in Manitoba. But it wasn’t until they checked out New York City’s Brooklyn Grange, the largest soil rooftop farm in the world, that they considered the potential of Canada’s unused urban spaces.

The trio started in 2013 with two experimental hives on the roof of a Montreal architecture firm.

Now they oversee about 400 hives in Montreal and Toronto, with each producing up to 20 kilograms of honey per year, harvested in early autumn. (While the bees survive throughout winter – in fact, they create so much heat that they melt the snow around the hive – extreme cold can affect production.)

Alvéole sets up hives in gardens and on balconies for hobbyists; others are for businesses like Birks and Cirque du Soleil, which pay for set-up and upkeep as well as workshops for their staff.

The companies also, of course, reap a more

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Future Food Studio: The next gen To look at the next hundred years of food, I speak with someone who’s used to predicting the future. Dr. Irwin Adam Eydelnant, co-founder and scientific/creative director of Toronto’s Future Food Studio. Eydelnant, fresh off a TEDx Talk in

London, England, considers the food that goes into a meal from all angles: packaging, taste, health, economics. “Local and organic – they’re standard, but the conversation is changing,” he says. “There’s a lot more to food security than just knowing where it came from.”

A trained chemical and biomedical engineer, he leads a team of designers, scientists, artists and chefs in reimagining the act of eating and drinking for major brands. In-studio projects include utensils that add their own flavours to food, and a drinkable “cloud” developed at a pop-up bar on Queen Street West. Put simply: “We take tech that exists and apply it to food.”

As Eydelnant points out, it’s not enough to grow vegetables on city rooftops – we need to know how their nutritional value is affected. He foresees a day when ingredients can be broken down to their components and measured against real-time health-monitoring apps.

He’s also not convinced that the diet of tomorrow will look anything like today’s food trends.

“There’s really a broad spectrum right now, from Soylent shakes to the KFC Double Down,” he says.

What about 3-D-printed pizza? “I don’t know if it will be useful, ultimately, but it’s important conceptually, looking at producing food products at the point of use.” Detoxing? “I think we should design our lifestyles around moderation, so there’s no need for it.”

While travelling to give talks or collaborate has broadened his perspective, he’s also learned a great deal closer to home, spending over a year > with a small group of high school students

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with plans to release it to the public. It’s a strange juxtaposition – using hypermodern tech to monitor an almost perfect natural process. But there’s something comforting about that. Even Zen. “You can be a CEO with an Apple Watch, but you’re still working with tools – smokers, frames – that haven’t changed in hundreds of years.”

They’re also no strangers to slick branding, putting out cheeky semi-nude calendars (with strategically placed hive frames), opening an Alvéole café in Montreal’s trendy Mile-Ex neighbourhood and creating a product designed for gourmet grocery stores. (No squeeze-bottle bears here.)

“We’re the only ones crazy enough to do this,” says Mclean, handing me a jar labelled Plateau, then another marked Westmount. Alvéole extracts each batch of honey by individual hive, rather than mixing them all together. The process is laborious, but the result is remarkable: From one borough to the next, a honey can go from pale and creamy to dark and glossy, all because of the flowers the bees feed on. It’s an instant, tasty way to show people a connection between food and the environment, says Mclean. As is beekeeping in general. “You just can’t look at a hive without understanding the bigger picture.”

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GETTING MISTY Future Food Studio’s projects include a mechanism that creates edible vapour “clouds.”

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It all started in 2008, when beehives were installed on a roof of Toronto’s iconic Fairmont Royal York Hotel.

Suddenly every chic hotel wanted them (and they’re now at over 20 Fairmont properties alone, from Bermuda to Beijing). Royal York executive sous-chef Cole Glendinning describes the sweet rewards.

What is this we’re drinking?

Apiary Ale, made with the Mill Street Brewery. About 20 kilos of our honey go into 40 kegs, then we send the spent grains to an artisan bakery to make our bread.

Where else can hotel guests find your honey?

It’s used as a finishing touch, mostly, in sauces and house-cured meats. It’s also in our afternoon tea service, which can be combined with a tour of the hives and garden [from May to October].

There’s a garden, too?

A former chef put one in in 1996, before it was trendy! It’s mostly herbs, but also lettuce, squash, alpine strawberries.

Do your chefs enjoy it?

Yes! My grandparents were dairy farmers, but it puts things in perspective for a chef raised in downtown Toronto. They can see how much work it takes to produce that box of tomatoes. Also, it’s just a great place to relax. I try to spend time there every single day.

Can you talk about the roof’s newest residents?

We put in bee “hotels” last summer. They provide shelter for solitary bees, which pollinate over 80 percent of flowering plants.

Do they produce honey?

No honey, but without pollination, we wouldn’t have ingredients to cook with!

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CROWD FUN Future Food Studio draws a crowd at SXSW in Austin, Texas, making carbonated drinks.

as part of his company’s FEED (Food, Education, Entrepreneurship, Development) program.

Through research projects, factory visits and running a small frozen-banana business, the teenagers exhibited a broad range of dietary wisdom, some subsisting on packaged snacks, others cooking for their whole families, “shopping like a mom, touching and tasting everything.”

Eydelnant also got to witness some harsh realities of contemporary food policies created with good intentions. For example, stocking one cafeteria with healthier (often pricier) items sent kids to a nearby dollar pizza place. “The school janitor told me he can tell when the kids don’t like the food – he just checks the ceiling.”

But he’s also seen how Canadians use food

systems to circumvent broken social policy.

“There are community gardens where they bring in people on disability, people who can’t work regular jobs or they’ll risk losing their disability cheque. So they work – and it’s therapeutic work – in exchange for credit, and with that get fresh fruits and vegetables they couldn’t normally afford. They’ve essentially created an alternative economy.”

Ultimately, Eydelnant thinks farm-to-table and high-tech are not in competition – they just need to work toward cohesion. Not just for businesses like his, but for the future. “A friend of mine, a chef, said, ‘We can change the world with our mouth.’ The choices we make about what to eat dictate how our entire world functions.”

CHICKEN OR EGG? “Today’s renaissance of the backyard flock is driven by concerns over food security, animal welfare and a demand for healthy food,” says food writer Signe Langford in Happy Hens & Fresh Eggs (Douglas & McIntyre), a chicken care manual and egg cookbook. City flocks are a hot topic across Canada, with select municipalities like Vancouver and Gatineau permitting them, while others ban chickens for fears of noise and predators. Adds Langford: “The way I see it, henkeeping is a natural extension of the kitchen and garden.”

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A FISH TALE Toronto’s Fresh City Farms doesn’t just grow vegetables, they “grow” fish, too, with aquaponics, a system that combines aquaculture and hydroponics. The result: a symbiotic, waste-free way to fertilize vegetables and raise tilapia. F R E S H C I T Y FA R M S . C O M

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OLL A URBAN F LO W E R P R OJ E C T This online-only flower shop sources ethical, hyperlocal blooms from urban farms and private gardens.

F LO R A N T H R O P I E Volunteers give discarded bouquets from weddings and grocery stores a second life, upcycling them into new arrangements for hospitals and seniors’ residences.

B O TA N I C A L PA P E R W O R KS Founded by a mother-daughter team in the 1990s, the company is a leading creator of plantable paper (biodegradable cards in which seeds are embedded).

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If you can’t farm it, find it, with foraging tours that focus on overlooked edibles. In Newfoundland, guests of Fogo Island Inn can hunt for berries, edible seaweed and caribou moss on the hotel grounds – and then find them all on the restaurant’s menu. Across the country in Vancouver, non-profit group Forager Foundation offers an ethnobotanist-led walk through Stanley Park that focuses on medicinal and edible plants as well as First Nations culture.

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PHOTOS FUTURE FOOD STUDIO; RICHMOND L AM (FOGO)

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FREEDOM OF DESIGN Frank Gehry’s Vitra Design Museum, with a Mercedes-Benz C-Class Coupe in hyacinth red metallic parked outside.

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At the Vitra Design Museum, the new C-Class Coupe cuts a fine figure against a backdrop of great art. Museum director Mateo Kries explains what distinguishes a modern classic.

INTERVIE W ULRICH CLEWING PHOTOS BENJAMIN PICHELMANN EUROPEAN VEHICLE MODEL SHOWN

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EXPERT EYE Mateo Kries is director of the Vitra Design Museum in Weil am Rhein, Germany. Here, the 41-year-old talks about good design â&#x20AC;&#x201C; and how relevant the ideas of the Bauhaus remain today.

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ometimes you don’t need to look far to find a design classic. Often, in fact, it is right in front of you.

Or, if you are Mateo Kries, right under you. The Aluminium Chair he sits on at his desk was designed in 1958 by Charles and Ray Eames. The chair’s details hold an enduring fascination for the art historian: “You see this screw that holds the leather upholstery taut? It’s a brilliant idea – and was a very innovative one in its day.”

Together with commercial director Marc Zehntner, Kries has been at the helm of the Vitra Design Museum in Weil am Rhein, in southwestern Germany, since 2010.

We’ll come to the topic of design classics in a moment, if we may. But first, would you mind telling us a little about the museum. What were its aims when it was founded in 1989?

The idea was to tell visitors what design is all about. You have to remember that the idea of design was not as widely appreciated in Germany in 1989 as it is today. Before that time, design was more of a niche phenomenon that only specialists had the keys to.

What are the focal points of the collection?

We collect anything that has a connection with interior design, that is to say, mainly furniture from the 20th century – of which we have gathered together some of the finest examples in the world. However, our collections also include electrical devices like the classic Braun products designed by Dieter Rams, as well as architectural models and textiles. In addition, we have works by famous designers such as the American husband-and-wife team Charles and Ray Eames and Denmark’s Verner Panton.

What role does design play today?

A different one to when the museum was first founded. When we talk about design nowadays, we’re referring to more than just individual products: The design of processes is also part of the debate. It’s clear from the ways in which Facebook is used and how certain television formats work that people even shape their own identity using design methods.

Medical engineering, smart materials and nanodesign provide us with other good examples.

Design now features prominently in areas beyond the gaze of the naked eye – it’s a central factor in our contemporary culture.

You recently hosted an exhibition on the legendary Bauhaus art school established by the architect Walter Gropius in Weimar, Germany, in 1919. Almost a hundred years

later, why is Bauhaus still relevant?

The interdisciplinary work that this movement pursued is more relevant than ever today. The idea of an architect working with an artist, of bringing scientists into the equation and of forging closer relationships with industry was revolutionary at the time. Marcel Breuer, for example, turned to the aircraft manufacturer Junkers for advice in developing his famous tubular steel furniture. The Bauhaus involved extensive experimentation, and here we can find any number of parallels with how innovations make the journey from drawing board to reality in our time.

How does the exhibition illustrate this link with the present?

We’ve sprinkled works and comments from contemporary designers throughout the exhibition.

These range from an interview with British architect Norman Foster to a very beautiful model of a car interior by Mercedes-Benz. The idea behind it is to showcase how the Bauhaus managed to attain its legendary status and its brand-like identity. We’ve set the exhibition up like a studio display, as if the Bauhaus students had quickly pinned a few things on the wall on their way out the door. All in all, we’ve got around 250 objects on display.

Which Bauhaus exhibits are you particularly proud of?

I’m delighted that we’re able to include the Lattenstuhl (slatted chair) in our exhibition, which Marcel Breuer created in 1923 shortly before he designed his first piece of tubular steel furniture. It’s reminiscent of an abstract painting

Objects we view as timeless today represented a radical statement when they were first created.

by Piet Mondrian, only in sculptural form. The exhibition also contains a series of photographs by contemporary Berlin artist Adrian Sauer, which I personally like a great deal. There’s this big misunderstanding that the Bauhaus was primarily about a style: angular, heavy on chrome and covered in black leather. Or featuring white walls and a flat roof. Sauer set about reconstructing Bauhaus interiors and photographed them in colour. And that completely changes the way you perceive them; after all, the original pictures we’re so familiar with > were black and white. mercedes-magazine.ca

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What has to happen for a design to become a classic?

Time is one factor. Two or three decades on, one design may have disappeared from view, whereas another still comes across as modern. The authenticity and cohesiveness of a design are also important. Good design is the result of a rigorous selection process. You can tell whether a product has been subject to this meticulous procedure – or if it is conspicuous by its absence. And you shouldn’t forget that the things we view as timeless today represented a radical statement when they were first created. If, in retrospect, this radicalism looks more like farsightedness, you’re very likely to have a classic on your hands.

The professors and students at the Bauhaus school didn’t design vehicles, but to what degree have their fundamental principles influenced car design?

In the 1920s, there was a strong push toward functionalism, but the cars designed during that decade were still rather unwieldy in appearance.

That changed after the Second World War, when automotive design took on a more pared-back, functional character and Bauhaus ideas were back in demand. And we mustn’t forget the theme of speed as a central element of the avant-garde.

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In the cars of the postwar era, speed was given an exterior form. Aerodynamics was playing an ever greater role, and not only as a means of keeping fuel consumption down. Since then, the focus has been on finding a form that genuinely suits a particular type of car.

AVANT- GARDE The exhibition Das Bauhaus #itsalldesign, which debuted at the Vitra Design Museum, continues its run at the Bundeskunsthalle in Bonn, Germany, from April 1 to August 14. Above: Mateo Kries examines the 2011 interior study “Aesthetics No. 2” by Mercedes-Benz. Behind him is the Wassily Chair, redesigned in 1983 by Alessandro Mendini.

Are there examples of car design influencing design in general?

Yes indeed. The architect Le Corbusier, for example, was a big automobile fan. He owned a French Voisin, which he always parked outside his buildings when he was having them photographed. Back in its day, the car embodied the state of the art, and Le Corbusier wanted to use it to show that his architecture was likewise at the leading edge. It was for good reason that he referred to his houses as machines à habiter (machines for living in). And, at the time, the car certainly represented the very epitome of a machine.

If Walter Gropius, the first Bauhaus director, had to choose a Mercedes-Benz model today, which one do you think he would go for?

Gropius was an elegant guy, and well-connected socially, too – a member of the establishment.

He’d choose something from the upper end of the > product range, for sure.

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THE ART OF ENGINEERING Pop art at work: “Balancing Tools”

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ven before the accelerator has moved a muscle, it’s clear the C-Class Coupe is a finely tuned athlete – the front end with its diamond radiator grille, the long hood and a low-slung silhouette flowing into an eye-catching tail see to that. Then the driver climbs in, casts an eye over the sporty yet cosseting interior, and waits as the automatic seatbelt feeder turns the mundane task of buckling up into an experience to be savoured. Rarely has a sports car offered so much in terms of comfort.

The new Mercedes-Benz C-Class Coupe brings together two worlds usually found a considerable distance apart: the sporting world, which demands hard work, sacrifice and endless training, and the world of luxury, which is all about indul> gence. Blending the two is what the fine art

SPORTING LUXURY The multifunction steering wheel is flatbottomed in the Sport Package (above left), while the controls in the doors have flowing forms. The coupe’s sporty silhouette exudes vitality.

Mercedes-Benz Start Up is an ongoing initiative that provides a national platform to discover and support emerging Canadian fashion designers. Now in its sixth year, the program travels from coast to coast, identifying the next generation of rising Canadian talent and provides them access to fashion business experts to help them hone a broad range of skills.

To apply please visit www.mbstartup.com and follow us @MBStartUp.

of coupe design is all about. Mercedes-Benz has certainly come up with some classic examples of the breed down the years, such as the 300 SE from the postwar era and the elegant, executiveclass W 123 two-door models, which remained in production until 1985. The new model sets out to build on this tradition.

Thomas Weber, development boss at MercedesBenz, puts it like this: “Our new C-Class Coupe is the latest model to embody the philosophy of compelling Mercedes-Benz coupes. It combines captivating design with sporting agility and modern luxury.”

More than a classic coupe Lending form to a car’s dynamic ability, without going overboard on spoilers and exhaust tailpipes, requires designers to focus on the details.

The C-Class Coupe covers that base with features such as freestanding exterior mirrors, frameless doors, a high beltline, a long character line and a 15-millimetre drop in ride height over the sedan.

The body also has contours – nothing too over-the-top, but rather the well-proportioned lines of an athlete. The structured surfaces spark a permanent interplay of light and shadows in the paintwork. As a result, the car appears to be moving in mysterious ways – without even turning a wheel.

Once on the move, the new C-Class Coupe’s 62

C 300 4MATIC Engine/Performance 2.0-litre inline-4 turbo, 241 hp at 5,500 rpm; max. torque 273 lb-ft at 1,300–4,000 rpm

Transmission 9G-TRONIC nine-speed automatic The above data do not relate to an individual vehicle and do not form part of an offer but serve solely to facilitate comparisons between different models.

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full spectrum of experiences is revealed. A mix of aluminium components and high-strength materials means the new coupe weighs less than the car it replaces – even though it is 95 millimetres longer and 40 millimetres wider.

The feeling of being in a very special coupe only increases when under way, and that’s not only thanks to the integral sport seats or optional head-up display: High-tech systems such as Brake Assist, Steering Assist and Lane Keeping Assist open the door to semiautonomous, stress-free cruising, while the new four-link front suspension and direct steering generate the grip and lateral stability of a sports car.

The DYNAMIC SELECT switch allows drivers to choose from five different driving modes, and drivers who engage SPORT+ and have an enthusiastic way with the sport pedals (available as part of the Sport Package) get to see a surprisingly dynamic side to the C-Class Coupe.

This two-door Mercedes-Benz also has another set of surprises on board. The climatecontrol system uses the car’s satellite navigation to spot when it is approaching a tunnel, so that it can close the air recirculation flap in good time and therefore ensure excellent air quality inside the car. Another high-tech feature is the 360° camera, which displays the car from a virtual bird’s-eye view to make parking and manoeuvring easier.

OUTFIT SWEATER: MA X MAR A STUDIO; SKIRT: JIL SANDER; COAT: PAUL SMITH; DRESS AND SHOES: COS; ST YLING: STEFANIE SCHWAIGER; HAIR AND MAKEUP: ALEX ANDER HOFMANN/AGENTUR USCHI R ABE WITH PRODUCTS BY CHANEL; MODEL: DOMINIK A K./MODELWERK

BACKGROUND TO THE FORE The new C-Class Coupe blends into the Weil am Rhein scenery with its sculptural yet dynamic presence.

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What goes on in the heads of racing drivers, only they know. What sits on top of those heads is clear for all to see. But how exactly is Nico Rosbergâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s race helmet made?

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READY FOR ACTION One of the 92 helmets precision-made for Nico Rosberg over the years by the Schuberth brand in Magdeburg.

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ack in the day, Sven Krieter says he didn’t really know what to make of Formula 1. His last 10 years, however, have been spent at the sharp end of Grand Prix action in his role as protector-in-chief of drivers’ craniums. He makes sure they can literally keep a cool head and continue to see clearly, even when the weather isn’t playing along.

Krieter is busy applying a rubber lip to the edge of a black helmet, turning it constantly, wiping away excess adhesive and pressing the elastic material firmly with three fingers.

Welcome to the headgear specialist’s workplace in the German city of Magdeburg. The finished item will protect and adorn the head of Nico Rosberg in his next race for Mercedes AMG Petronas.

Helmet manufacturer Schuberth supplies five Formula 1 drivers, and Krieter is one of the longestablished company’s key figures – the face of its motorsports activities. The 40-year-old travels with the F1 circus to all the races and testing dates on the calendar to look after the drivers.

That means he racks up more than a quarter of a million airborne kilometres every year. And he wouldn’t want to be doing anything else.

Krieter, who trained as a heating and ventilation system fitter, hesitated before taking the F1 job – the assignment just seemed too daunting.

However, after mulling it over several times and taking an intensive English-language course, he accepted the offer. “My first race was Silverstone in 2005. I’d never flown anywhere before,” he recalls, “let alone somewhere as hectic as Heathrow.

And then there was driving on the left-hand side of the road without a navigation system. It was tough.” Nowadays, thinking back to those early days makes him smile.

Handmade high-tech Krieter and his three colleagues make 80 helmets a year for F1 drivers, plus 20 for the DTM touring car series and around 150 for general sale.

Amateur drivers can buy an SF1 – Schuberth’s racing helmet – for around $7,000. A small workshop has been set up specifically for the task in the state-of-the-art Schuberth factory. Here, Krieter and his team work on the helmets with the help of special tools, measuring instruments and high-end adhesives. It’s a fine example of the role still played by exclusive craftsmanship in the high-tech business of Formula 1.

The helmet shell is prefabricated from 19 layers of carbon fibre using a type of pressure oven called an autoclave. The individual layers are laid one on top of the other, placed in a vacuum and baked in the autoclave at up to 87 psi of pressure at 170°C–200°C. The monocoque safety cells 66

IT’S NOT ART … but precision craftsmanship.

Excess hot glue is collected on a sheet of paper.

The drivers have to feel good. We try out different variants of the helmet until everything is just right.

SVEN KRIETER, HELMET TECHNICIAN

of Formula 1 cars are manufactured using the same method. This ultrasophisticated procedure is also used in the aerospace industry due to its ability to maximize material strength. Nico Rosberg uses the middle of the three helmet shell sizes produced.

Krieter and his team are handed the hardened and painted helmet shells for the finishing stage.

The sponsors’ logos and Rosberg’s personal designs are applied by airbrush before the team turns the shells into full-fledged helmets. The shell protects against fragmentation and fire (the helmet has to withstand temperatures up to 740°C), but without the proper shock absorption that would mean little. To this end, the shell has an inner lining of high-grade multi-zone foam – the type used in all helmets. The technicians then add a special shock-absorbing foam to the lining.

This is one of the standout features of Schuberth helmets, and it remains a source of pride for the company. The recipe behind the foam is secret, but we do know that it consists of two components. The method was already in use when

Schuberth arrived in Formula 1 in 2000. Former Mercedes GP reserve driver Nick Heidfeld was the first to use Schuberth helmets, followed shortly thereafter by Ralf and Michael Schumacher.

Nico Rosberg has trusted the Magdeburg-based firm’s products since his days in junior racing.

And, as we speak, Krieter is working on helmet no. 92 for the Wiesbaden-born driver.

Not everyone wants everything Up to this stage, all the company’s race helmets are identical – save for the shell size and paintfinish. Only now does the customization process begin. The padding for the helmet is made using precise head and face measurements taken from the driver. The idea is for the head to be held firmly inside the helmet, while still allowing some room to manoeuvre. “The drivers have to feel good,” says Krieter. “Together, we try out different variants of the helmet until everything is just right.” The drivers also have the last word on visors and the special mini-spoilers on the forehead area and back of the helmet. Rosberg prefers a top spoiler, while others choose not to have any of these aerodynamic aids – designed to minimize the effect of lift at high speed – in order to save weight. A finished race helmet weighs 1,350–1,500 grams.

Krieter has six different types of visor on hand for each helmet during every Formula 1 weekend.

“When it’s raining, I screw on the clear visor,” he explains. “Then we have the variants with 50-percent and 80-percent tinting.” All visors are available in three different colours. Before the drivers head out onto the track, Krieter also sticks tear-off strips onto their visors, which the drivers have to be able to whip off in a single movement at speeds of 320 km/h should they get dirty or mist up. “Nico never wants more than three or four of them, whereas other drivers have seven or eight,” notes the expert.

Rosberg and the helmet technician are in direct contact at the track. From time to time, his physiotherapist also calls up “if Nico needs a spare part, new pads, a different visor or some other item, because he has a suggestion for a possible improvement.” On one occasion recently, though, Rosberg had to accept the limits of what is possible: “Nico was wondering if we could make a visor in the same colour as his personal nameplate on the side of his helmet. We tried all sorts of things, but sadly we were never able to produce that exact shade and still ensure the visor met the safety stipulations.”

Although things don’t always work out, Krieter tries to make as many wishes as possible come true. “The key areas for drivers are ventilation and lightness,” he points out. Almost every year > brings new, lighter helmet shells, and these

WOODWORK The experts use a faceless bust to check whether the padding is right. This size of bust roughly equates to Nico Rosberg’s measurements. Before testing begins, the head is given a pair of ears made from modelling wax in order to test whether the helmet can be put on and taken off without difficulty.

PAINT JOB The shell has an inner lining made of highgrade multi-zone foam and special shockabsorbing foam. Krieter then applies black paint using a brush to ensure the helmet also has a uniform look on the inside. Should it not fit quite perfectly in one area or another, Krieter is on hand at every Formula 1 race to make the necessary adjustments.

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are tested for safety in a special laboratory before they go into series production. The 10 holes in the chin and forehead area and in the visor are designed to channel 10 litres of fresh air around the driver’s head at speeds of 100 km/h. “In the past, the air was simply blown onto a driver’s head and face. Now, we channel it rearward over the top of the head, where it escapes through six ventilation holes,” explains Krieter. All of which enhances aerodynamics as well. A race helmet nowadays works in a similar way to the car’s diffuser. So it’s no surprise the helmets are tested in their own wind tunnel.

Mechanics sport ski helmets The latest idea involves two additional holes that channel air around the visor to prevent misting. If this innovation proves itself in the wind tunnel and earns good crash-test results, it will go into series production. Ahead of the race in Monaco, the service team also screwed a new high-tech visor designed to sharpen visibility onto Rosberg’s helmet. “Nico’s seeing everything as if it’s in HD now,” says Krieter. Like all visors, this one had also been impact-tested in a lab using steel balls shot from an air-gun device. In 2015, Schuberth became an official supplier to the Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team. The mechanics in the pit lane wear the SK1 ski helmet, which will soon be available in a limited edition. The exceptions are the crew operating the jacks at the front and rear of the car, who are protected by Schuberth’s SR1 integral motorcycle helmet.

CLEAR VISION From inside his custommade helmet, Rosberg focuses on qualifying in Singapore.

Air used to be blown onto a driver’s head and face. Now, we channel it rearward over the top of the head.

SVEN KRIETER

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MY WAY

Irvin Mayfield hails from New Orleans and is one of the world’s great trumpeters.

Join along as he rides a Mercedes-Maybach through the streets of his hometown, into the heart of jazz – a city tour with musical accompaniment.

WORDS HELMUT WERB PHOTOS SCOTT G. TOEPFER AMERICAN VEHICLE MODEL SHOWN

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A CLASS ABOVE Gliding through the French Quarter: the Mercedes-Maybach S 600 in obsidian black metallic.

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EXCEPTIONAL Grammy Award winner Irvin Mayfield in the rear of the Mercedes-Maybach.

A chauffeur drives him along Bourbon Street, the city’s tourist heart, where the trumpeter has his own club: Irvin Mayfield’s Jazz Playhouse.

temperature is still 30°C and evening humidity levels have risen above 90 percent. By contrast, the Maybach’s temperature gauge shows a pleasant 21°C inside. While the tourists trudge through the heat in flip-flops and shorts, I let my feet sink into the deep, soothing pile of the Mercedes-Maybach carpets. Lean back and try the massage function in the seats, I suggest. Mayfield pushes the button and stretches out his legs. The car is five and a half metres of pure luxury and power. The exquisite Burmester sound system is playing Mayfield’s “Angola,” a smooth track from his CD/book project New Orleans Jazz Playhouse.

“When I mix my music,” says Mayfield, forming an invisible sphere with his hands in front of his face, “then I want to have the music right here, like I can grab hold of it.” And his music really is right here where he wants it. “This luxury sedan has 24 built-in speakers,” I point out to him. “The Burmester High-End 3D-SurroundSoundsystem has 1,140 watts with an additional 400 watts for the subwoofer in the trunk, plus

PHOTOS DAIMLER AG

N

ew Orleans. The home of jazz, Mardi Gras, perhaps even of music itself. The Mercedes-Maybach S 600 appears to glide through the streets of the French Quarter, the Disneyland of New Orleans, where each day thousands of tourists flock to seek out the soul of the city on the Mississippi. On this occasion, however, the main attraction on Bourbon Street is not Preservation Hall, the pulsating heart of traditional New Orleans jazz, but the person sitting inside the impressive black car.

Irvin Mayfield laughs. As a true native of the city, the Grammy Award winner is both its official cultural ambassador and one of the world’s finest trumpeters. “By the way,” he asks, giving a friendly wave to inquisitive passersby, “do you know how the whole jazz thing started?” We take a moment to enjoy the hustle and bustle out on the street from within the luxurious, climate-controlled environment of the rear of the Mercedes-Maybach S-Class. Outside, the

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speakers in the roof liner,” I add. “It sure is impressive,” he replies.

There is not a sound from outside in the brief gap between Mayfield’s tracks, even though we’re driving over the cobblestones of the noisy French Quarter. The Mercedes-Maybach soaks up the ankle-deep potholes without so much as flinching. But with all the crowds in the city, the car’s 12-cylinder bi-turbo engine with 523 hp hasn’t yet had a chance to really show its stuff.

For that, we’ll need some open road.

He has difficulty explaining his love for New Orleans in words – it comes across better in his music.

Home to the greats Mayfield was born in Seventh Ward, one of the city’s poorest neighbourhoods, yet his welcoming smile belies his humble beginnings. The residents stare at us with a mixture of surprise and menace. “It’s a rough neighbourhood,” says Mayfield with classic understatement. But he waves to his former neighbours. And they wave back – suddenly friendly.

The people here are what make this place, he says: “They’re just different here.” He has difficulty explaining his love for New Orleans in words – it comes across better in his music.

Whenever there was a funeral, processions of mourners would pass by Irvin’s parents’ house; he would listen to the brass bands and follow the hundreds of dancers. In the neighbouring street, he would hear Fats Domino practising, and Irvin’s father gave his son his first trumpet for his ninth birthday. “That was my first real contact with our culture,” he recalls. “If I hadn’t grown up here, I would never have played music. New Orleans is a magnet for musicians.”

And home to the greats. Wynton Marsalis, Irvin’s friend and mentor, comes back often.

The Neville Brothers are school friends of his father. Louis Armstrong was born here. And among those greats are the musicians who play here now.

Irvin and I drive up Frenchmen Street, to the < true heart of the music scene. Miss Sophie

MAJOR LEAGUE CHAMPIONS The S-Class Sedan and its siblings

INSTRUMENTS Mayfield’s trumpet and the Maybach interior – featuring an analog IWC clock and decorative trim in piano black lacquer.

S - CLASS SEDAN “In every dimension the best or nothing,” is how Dieter Zetsche, Chairman of the Board of Management of Daimler AG, defined the goal of the S-Class. And that’s exactly what it achieves – in particular with its Intelligent Drive, an entire suite of systems that make driving even safer and more comfortable.

S - CLASS CONVERTIBLE This is the first S-Class of its kind in 44 years. And with equipment to suit the occasion. Options include the Active LED High-Performance Lighting System with Swarovski crystals and thermotronic automatic climate control, specially developed for convertibles. Thanks to its use of aluminium and magnesium, the newcomer is a byword for intelligent lightweight design.

THERE’S MUSIC IN THE AIR A tuba is all it takes to captivate people in New Orleans, says Irvin Mayfield. The artist remarks that the Burmester HighEnd 3D-Surround-Soundsystem makes you feel you’re in a professional studio. The system features 24 speakers.

Engine/Performance 6.0-litre V12 bi-turbo, 523 hp at 4,900–5,300 rpm; max. torque 612 lb-ft at 1,900–4,000 rpm

Transmission 7G-TRONIC PLUS seven-speed automatic

Fuel consumption City: 18.2 l/100 km Highway: 11.7 l/100 km Combined: 15.3 l/100 km The above data do not relate to an individual vehicle and do not form part of an offer but serve solely to facilitate comparisons between different models.

M E R C E D E S - B E N Z . CA

S - CLASS COUPE The elegant, dynamic lines of the current two-door S-Class are reminiscent of its predecessors, and yet dedicated to progress. The MAGIC BODY CONTROL chassis system (available on the S 65 in Canada) caused a sensation at its introduction in 2014: Thanks to the curve tilting function, the coupe can lean into corners like a motorcycle.

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Lee is singing the blues in the Spotted Cat. In the bar across the road, dba, a funk band is playing the kind of music that gets even non-dancers like me on their feet.

On a street corner, a group of kids armed with trumpets, trombones, drums and tuba are improvising the best street jazz I’ve heard since Cuba.

“New Orleans is the only city where people with nothing react to a tuba and drums as if it was magic, as if it was the hottest thing around,” says Mayfield. He seems to know every musician here personally. He greets a doorman, then continues: “We still dance to jazz, we eat to jazz, we celebrate parties to jazz. We play jazz at birthdays and at funerals.”

Well, I think to myself, if you’re going to die, then it might as well be here. Where every door leads to music, where behind every steamed-up bar window there is more talent on show than in all the trendy clubs put together. Nowhere in America does a city’s heart beat as loudly as in New Orleans. When it celebrates Mardi Gras, even places like Rio are envious. This was “sin city” long before Las Vegas was invented.

Louisiana’s largest metropolis is steamy and sexy. Around here, anything goes.

The Mercedes-Maybach glides like a modernday magic carpet along Jackson Square. A stereo camera scans the street and presets the suspension for any bumps in the road. It’s as if we are floating – past the grand old mansions to Bourbon Street and back to Irvin’s own club, Irvin Mayfield’s Jazz Playhouse. As usual, his gig here is a sold-out sensation. The whole place joins in. There’s nothing sweeter than live New Orleans jazz – though I can’t help thinking that the sound from the Burmester is pretty good, too.

PHOTOS DAIMLER AG

MERCEDES-MAYBACH S 600

Quebec - Montreal - Ottawa - Toronto - Edmonton - Calgary - Vancouver

www.lacoste.com/ca

1940

PROTOTYPE The Mercedes-Benz test car II is the first to feature a floor assembly designed for passive safety: It boasts stable cross-members and side protection.

1950

SKETCH Daimler-Benz engineer Béla Barényi hand-sketches his idea for a crumple zone.

He refers to it as a “pre-determined breaking point.”

1951

From idea to patent: three steps to greater safety

PATENT Barényi’s invention is filed with the German Patent Office.

Drawings illustrate the principle of the rigid passenger cell.

GAULS In 1959, author René Goscinny and artist Albert Uderzo publish the first volume of their comic series featuring heroes Astérix and Obélix.

CUBANS On January 1, 1959, military dictator Fulgencio Batista flees to the Dominican Republic and Fidel Castro assumes power in Cuba. The Communists decide not to use the Capitol in Havana (pictured) as the seat of government, but turn it into a conference centre instead.

COWBOYS AND ROMANS On September 12, 1959, NBC broadcasts the first episode of the Western series Bonanza (below).

On November 18, Ben-Hur (with Jack Hawkins as Quintus Arrius, right) has its premiere.

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CLEVER

In 1959, Mercedes-Benz created a revolution in car construction with its safety passenger cell.

CARS LIKE TO CRUMPLE

PHOTOS ALLSTAR PICTURE LIBR ARY; DAIMLER AG; GET T Y IMAGES; MAURITIUS IMAGES/NOVARC; MAURITIUS IMAGES/AL AMY

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t was a time that most people recall mainly in black and white images – it would take a few more years before the introduction of colour television.

Although the year 1959 was more than half a lifetime ago, a remarkable number of ideas and events from that time continue to have repercussions to this day. Fidel Castro seized power in Cuba, for example, while Pope John XXIII convened the Second Vatican Council in Rome, which revolutionized the Catholic church.

The worlds of design and technology also experienced their share of groundbreaking developments. The space race was in full swing, and the Soviet Lunik II rocket marked the first landing on the Moon by a space probe. Back on Earth, New York saw the opening of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Guggenheim Museum, with its spiral ramp that caused a sensation in the world of architecture. Automobile design, meanwhile, produced its own new shapes and forms. In 1959, the Mercedes-Benz model series W 111 marked its debut with the 220, 220 S and 220 SE and their striking tailfins that served as parking aids. Aesthetically, the car body was impressive – and at the same time it was the safest ever built. For the first time, automobiles

SAFETY AND BEAUTY In the 220 SE, curved side members (see detail above) allowed the crumple zone to deform in a controlled way.

featured not only crumple zones at the front and rear, but a rigid passenger cell as well. It was a world first for production cars.

The tailfinned W 111 Series Mercedes-Benz was impressive not only in terms of looks – it was also the world’s first production vehicle with a rigid passenger cell.

Inventiveness saves lives In the event of an accident, the car deforms and dissipates the kinetic energy of the impact in a controlled manner. This basic principle of occupant protection was formulated by engineer Béla Barényi. At a time when the main aim was to make a car body as rigid as possible, his idea that clever cars should crumple upon heavy impact was revolutionary. As a young engineer at Daimler-Benz, Barényi had already been working on improving passive safety before the war. It was the leitmotif of his life. In 1951, the Austrian-born engineer of Hungarian descent filed patent number DBP 854 157, with the fundamental idea of creating a safe space around the driver and front passenger. Eight years later, it would become reality in the tailfin Mercedes-Benz. From 1963 on, all of the company’s vehicles were equipped with Barényi’s invention – and other manufacturers were quick to follow suit. Mercedes-Benz’ reputation as a pioneer of safety technology traces back to that period. The effects were soon reflected in accident statistics: Although more and more people were driving cars, the number of traffic fatalities was in decline.

Over the years, Barényi developed further innovations such as side protection, the safety steering column and the safety steering wheel.

Toward the end of his career, he held more than 2,500 patents. Tens of thousands of motorists around the world owe their lives to his unflagging inventive drive.

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READY FOR THE

ICE AGE Whether the desert, the Arctic or the daily commute, the new Mercedes-Benz GLS will tackle any terrain â&#x20AC;&#x201C; while its passengers melt into the lap of luxury.

WORDS BENEDIKT SARREITER EUROPEAN VEHICLE MODEL SHOWN

LEADER OF THE PACK The GLS is an exceptional vehicle which its peers will look up to.

The eye-catching radiator grille and power domes on the hood exude strength. mercedes-magazine.ca

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The new GLS is spacious enough for seven people and their luggage. Its off-road prowess also puts expeditions over rough terrain on the agenda.

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ANORAK CANADA GOOSE RUCKSACK FJÄLLR ÄVEN VIA GLOBETROT TER PANTS COS SHOES BOSS GLOVES MAISON MARGIEL A

F

rom the front, the Mercedes-Benz GLS resembles a bear in a gentle slumber – calm and able to exert its authority without moving a muscle. This is a robust SUV that will carry its driver securely over any terrain. It is the master of all it surveys, from hectic commuter traffic in the big city to steep gravel tracks climbing to a mountain refuge – or, should the occasion arise – the wilderness of the Arctic ice. Its commanding appearance is accentuated by the power domes on its hood and the pair of prominent louvres which stand guard in front of the radiator and frame the three-pointed star like muscle strata. The GLS is the even more definitive version of its predecessor, the GL, with ride comfort and safety elevated to new levels. In this top category of SUVs, the bar has clearly been raised, a fact that becomes clearer once you get behind the wheel.

Power in tranquility The door of the citrine brown GLS 550 4MATIC closes with a satisfying thud you just can’t get enough of. Seldom does shutting out the world sound quite so pleasantly soft and wonderfully cushioned. Then comes the wave of tranquility: The driver feels relaxed and caressed in a luxury seat whose padding is not too soft (which could have an energy-draining effect) and not too firm (which might be less than comfortable for the back and rear). Instead, all is snug and un> obtrusively supportive. mercedes-magazine.ca

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The eight-cylinder engine powering the 550 develops 449 hp. In citrine brown and with the AMG exterior styling, it cuts an extremely dynamic figure.

The welcome sense of peace is also reflected in the high-quality interior – available in crystal grey, ginger beige, espresso brown or black, according to personal preference. Our model features exclusive designo trim, which includes nappa leather seats in porcelain with diamondshaped topstitching, a roof lining in black and door sill plates in polished stainless steel. The three-spoke multifunction steering wheel is very appealing to the touch, being both grippy and soft, and is covered in nappa leather. The clear media display is positioned centrally in the instrument panel, while the touchpad enables rapid operation. Everything in the interior meshes 82

PARTNER UP AND HEAD OUT The GLS 550 4MATIC or huskies – both make fine companions for a winter adventure.

together beautifully, nothing looks out of place.

Those on board – the GLS can transport up to seven people or a train of huskies – are surrounded by an obliging sense of luxury, enveloping them like a velvety cocoon.

Below the surfaces rumbles a powerful engine, whose performance figures – like those of all GLS models – are superior to those of the GL. For example, the eight-cylinder unit driving the 550 now develops 449 hp, some 20 hp more than the preceding model, yet fuel consumption has been reduced. The groundbreaking 9G-TRONIC automatic transmission shifts through the gears almost imperceptibly and does its bit for economy,

but still manages to offer sporting responses. The flowing character of the gear changes produces a graceful glide, the likes of which you would not believe possible from such a large machine.

Through storms and snow

WELCOME TO THE CLUB Opening the door to the wilderness: With its porcelaincoloured leather seats, the interior of the GLS has the class and elegance of a luxurious safari lodge.

The AIRMATIC air suspension system teams up with ADS Plus (which constantly adjusts the damping of each individual wheel according to the surface at hand) to generate an exceptional level of ride comfort. And the Dynamic Select controller in the centre console allows drivers to choose from up to six driving programs, ranging from Sport via Comfort to Offroad, as they have become accustomed to doing while on the move.

The 4MATIC all-wheel-drive system keeps the GLS majestically on course wherever on the planet you happen to be â&#x20AC;&#x201C; in the desert, in the high mountains or en route to the supermarket. A singlespeed transfer case splits the engineâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s power 50:50 between the front and rear axles, while a range of assistance systems, either making their > debut in the GLS or being introduced in

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upgraded form, take care of safety. One example is Collision Prevention Assist Plus, which warns the driver of possible collisions or obstacles and, if necessary, enhances the driver’s braking or brakes the car partially autonomously.

The LED High Performance Lighting System helps generate better visibility at night, in semidarkness and in fog by automatically adjusting to the light conditions. And if a storm breaks, the standard-fitted Crosswind Assist system discreetly corrects the car’s line when a gust of wind

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ALL AT HAND The three-spoke steering wheel sits nicely in the hand; the media display is an information gateway and can be operated using the touchpad.

threatens to knock it off course. The GLS is a vehicle of rare excellence and lavish appointments down to the finest details – one that will find its feet in any situation and need fear no challenge. In all of its variants, the GLS is tuned meticulously to deliver exclusivity. No other SUV can claim to carry over the attributes of a luxury sedan into the off-road sphere with such commitment and rigour, yet without neglecting power and agility. It stands alone in its class, its range of abilities unrivalled.

ST YLING STEFANIE SCHWAIGER/PERFECT PROPS HAIR & MAKEUP ALEX ANDER HOFMANN/AGENTUR USCHI R ABE MODEL JEREMY VEASEY/KULT SWEATER COS WITH SPECIAL THANKS TO DOG HANDLERS ALEX ANDER AND SANDR A GOMERINGER AND THEIR HUSKIES

GLS 550 4MATIC Engine/Performance 4.7-litre V8 bi-turbo, 449 hp at 5,250–5,500 rpm, max. torque 516 lb-ft at 1,800–4,000 rpm

Transmission 9G-TRONIC nine-speed automatic The above data do not relate to an individual vehicle and do not form part of an offer but serve solely to facilitate comparisons between different models.

M E R C E D E S - B E N Z . CA

Off-roader and luxury sedan: The best of two worlds come together in the large SUV from Mercedes-Benz.

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DIGITAL

NATIVE

The E-Class masters the data highway as well as the freeway. Developer Sajjad Khan explains how the new connected vehicle sets benchmarks in terms of comfort and safety.

WORDS NICLAS MĂ&#x153;LLER PHOTOS R ALPH RICHTER EUROPEAN VEHICLE MODEL SHOWN

IN VIRTUAL SPACE The business sedan glides elegantly through the Internet age. The panoramic sliding sunroof offers a glimpse into the carâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s interior.

E

ven before our camera is set up for the first photo, Sajjad Khan voices an idea: We could show one half of his head as a realistic image, the other half spewing out digital visions of automotive designs of the future. The art director and photographer look at one another questioningly. How do you photograph a vision? Especially one that is confidential? Khan heads up the Digital Vehicle and Mobility unit at Mercedes-Benz Development, where he coordinates the activities of 1,000 specialists based in locations ranging from Germany’s Sindelfingen to the United States, India, Japan, South Korea and China. Their common goal is to develop software and hardware solutions for the connected vehicle – making cars safer and more comfortable by integrating systems, apps and services that can be used both inside and outside the vehicle.

For the photo shoot, we agree to sit Khan at the wheel of an E-Class, with a projector casting ones and zeros onto his face. “That’s very 88

appropriate,” he says. The new E-Class is the most digitized vehicle ever. And the binary code is too abstract to reveal any confidential developments. In any case, Khan would rather talk about his visions during our interview.

VISIONARY Sajjad Khan (above) heads up the Digital Vehicle and Mobility unit at Mercedes-Benz. Right: All menus can be operated via the touch control buttons on the steering wheel. The flowing lines of the woodwork and leather in nut brown/macchiato are more high craftsmanship than high tech.

What is more important for a car produced in 2016: its engine or the software?

One is as important as the other. When you drive a Mercedes-Benz, you expect it to be an outstanding experience in every way – from the sound it makes when you open the door to the driving performance and the way it displays useful information.

But the digital aspect is now increasingly significant.

That’s true. Our aim is to explore all digitization possibilities with a view to enhancing quality of life. Humanity has made enormous progress over the last 100 years through the application of classical engineering – from horse-drawn carriages to aircraft. Over the next century, our

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lives will be shaped more by computer technologies. But mechanical innovations will retain their importance, because we are humans made of flesh and blood, and not just virtual beings.

The E-Class has enormous digital capabilities. These are not just an attractive bonus – they are a vein running all the way through the car.

How digital is the new E-Class?

Many still see in-car connectivity as a buzzword.

But for us it is no longer a trend: It is already a reality. And the new E-Class is setting the benchmark as the most connected car imaginable.

What do you mean by connectivity?

The E-Class has enormous digital capabilities.

And these are not just an attractive bonus, they are an integral part of the car – a vein running all the way through it. But connectivity itself is just an enabling technology. The real question is: What do we do with it?

Exactly – so what are you doing with it?

Let me give you one example. The E-Class provides the driver with tailored, context-driven information. If you are driving a vehicle and get> ting low on fuel, the navigation system will

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show you all the gas stations along your route.

No need for you to select a special tab or open an app. No need to do anything, except choose a gas station and allow yourself to be guided to it.

STARSTRUCK With the Luxury package, the Mercedes-Benz emblem is mounted on the hood in traditional fashion; the sports radiator grille with central star is standard.

How can software improve comfort in ways that a good chassis cannot?

We call our approach â&#x20AC;&#x153;24 plus.â&#x20AC;? The basic idea is that all of us, whether we are royalty or tradespeople, are restricted by the 24 hours in any given day. What we aim to do is buy additional time for our customers by providing value-added services and customized information delivered automatically as and when required.

Does the work you are doing make driving any safer?

Yes. Safety has absolute priority when it comes to how the driver interacts intuitively with the graphic user interface. The touch-control buttons integrated into the steering wheel in the E-Class are a world first that allow the driver to control systems using finger swipes while keeping both hands on the wheel. Instead of having to lean and look to one side or the other, the driver can keep both eyes fixed on the road ahead.

Are we getting close to accident-free driving?

That is our goal. Protecting road users has been in the DNA of Mercedes-Benz ever since we started designing cars. The number of accident victims has already decreased dramatically. Digitization will ensure that the toll will fall to almost zero, thanks to automated driving and a range of driver assistance and information systems.

When will you reach zero?

If I had my way, it would be yesterday. But our success also depends on external factors such as traffic regulations and infrastructure.

What is your department doing to help bring about automated driving?

One of the keys to enabling driverless cars is access to high-resolution road maps and street atlases. That is why a consortium made up of Daimler AG, Audi and BMW recently bought the mapping service Nokia Here. We are working on ways to harness that data for automated driving.

What message do you have for customers who fear that this new technology is set to take away a little piece of their freedom?

As with every new technology, I think it will take time to adjust. Automated driving still faces a few significant challenges. First, in terms of technology it has to function flawlessly. And 90

All of us have just 24 hours in a day.

We aim to buy additional time for our customers.

secondly, if customers are to feel comfortable with the new technology, we have to earn their trust, which is also a question of user experience: How can the driver be sure that the car is better at observing and scanning the traffic environment than he does himself? Well, one way would be by enabling the system to inform the driver that it has identified a hazardous situation two blocks away.

Are you working toward eventually doing away with the steering wheel altogether?

No, I think the driver will always want a choice.

First thing in the morning, you will probably be happy to let the car do the driving, while you quietly write e-mails or chat with your children on the school run. But on a Sunday when the sun is shining, you may prefer to sit at the wheel for a family trip into the mountains. Automated driving is set to broaden our range of options, > not limit them.

Invest in long-term performance.

Competitive pricing, proper guidance and incomparable service - just a few reasons to discover Mercedes-Benz Corporate Sales Programs. With a wide range of models, weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll work to find whatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s right for you and your budget while ensuring a smooth purchasing process. Learn more about our programs and special fleet incentives at Mercedes-Benz.ca/corporatesales

Š 2016 Mercedes-Benz Canada Inc.

LOOKING AHEAD Khan and his team will continually enhance comfort in the E-Class through regular updates.

TRUE

D

SOURCE OF LIGHT

igitization, it is said, is already revolutionizing every aspect of our lives – mobility and car design included. So first impressions of the new E-Class come as something of a surprise. For although the car is most definitely a product of the Internet age – a digital native equipped with world firsts and cutting-edge technology – the view from the elegantly upholstered driver’s seat is not one of a world in upheaval, but of serenity, elegance and safety. Everything about the car suggests it has been worked on by a team of upholsterers and master cabinetmakers rather than IT specialists. For in its new E-Class, Mercedes-Benz has achieved something remarkable: Perhaps for the first time, the feeling you get from behind the wheel of the sedan is that the digital revolution is over.

Design plays a key role in this, both inside and out. High tech is embedded in the interior in 92

GUIDING LIGHT The new multi-beam headlights each have 84 individually controlled high-performance LEDs, which turn night into day without the dazzle.

such a way as to make it seem entirely organic. A common glass cover hides two optional highresolution displays, each with a 31-centimetrediagonal screen. It is as if a very large, very elegant smartphone is afloat in a landscape of leather – subtly illuminated by 64-colour LEDenhanced ambience lighting, which the driver can personalize at will. There is even a choice of styles for the design of on-screen instruments and graphics: “Classic,” “Sports” or “Progressive.”

By placing a smartphone in the cradle of the centre console, the driver is connected at the touch of a button via COMAND Online to the external antenna and hands-free system. At the same time, an inductive charging system supplies the phone battery with a cordless recharge.

The steering wheel is another great example of how organically the digital technology is embedded in the new E-Class, its four spokes featuring integrated touch-control buttons for the

first time. About two square centimetres in size, the touch-sensitive buttons allow the entire infotainment system to be controlled by means of vertical and horizontal finger swipes. Thus the driver can keep both hands on the wheel at all times and both eyes on the road – and the steering wheel is restored to its rightful role as the car’s key control element. However, for those who feel more comfortable with other input options, the touchpad can just as easily be operated via the COMAND controller in the centre console, or LINGUATRONIC voice control.

Out on the road, the driver is supported by a range of assistance systems that bring the prospect of fully automated driving a whole lot closer. The E-Class is equipped as an option with DRIVE Pilot. The DISTRONIC Distance Pilot not only prevents the driver from getting too close to the vehicle in front, it also enables the E-Class to automatically follow another vehicle at the appropriate distance on any type of road, up to speeds of 210 km/h. Steering Pilot also assists

INNER BEAUTY The newly designed seating is as comfortable as ever, only more dynamically contoured. Left: Touchpad with controller in the centre console.

the driver on moderate cornering. At speeds up to 130 km/h, the system no longer has to rely on clearly visible lane markings, but can actively intervene even when markings are indistinct or completely absent, for example when navigating certain highway construction sites. The radarand camera-based Active Lane Change Assist steers the sedan toward a preselected lane to execute an overtaking manoeuvre, for example.

Should traffic begin to slow, the brakes are applied automatically and until such time as the way ahead is clear.

The new E-Class sets benchmarks not just in terms of design, interior and digital capabilities, but also with its engines and suspension. The E-Class is the only car in its segment to feature multi-chamber air suspension. AIR BODY CONTROL not only regulates vehicle height, it also controls suspension comfort at the front and rear axles. Initially, the sedan is offered with a four-cylinder gasoline engine that uses the standard 9G-TRONIC nine-speed automatic transmission. Other engine types are in the pipeline – from six-cylinder units to plug-in hybrid variants.

Although the new E-Class is something special, it remains a typical Mercedes-Benz: The technology is intelligent, the design emotional.

It is as if the two are made for one another.

Perhaps digitization has not changed everything after all. mercedes-magazine.ca

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TR AVE L The best in hotel getaways, weekend road trips and far-flung adventures

S TAYS

Our favourite getaways from around the globe.

CA N YO N P O I N T, U TA H

SAGE ADVICE Sage is the secret ingredient at Amangiri Resort, set on 600 acres of Utah desert. Touches of the fragrant herb, prized by local Navajo, pop up throughout this minimalist getaway built around a sandstone escarpment and navigable by foot, on horseback and along a via ferrata network of cables, ladders and steps. In the restaurant, find crispy sage leaves on woodfire-oven pizza and muddled into mojitos and lemonade. In the spa, treatments start with an optional smudging ceremony, and the herbâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s smoky unisex scent is infused into bespoke body wash and moisturizer.

At turndown, lucky guests might even find their own dried sage bundle on their pillow (different local treasures are left there every night, from dreamcatchers to photo books), ready to hang or burn once theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve returned home. A M A N . C O M/ R E S O R T S/A M A N G I R I 94

A M ST ER DA M , H O L L A N D

AMSTERDAM THREE WAYS The picturesque Dutch capital is best explored by bike, boat or balloon. Book a stay at Canal Huis 58, an exclusive-use property featuring Eleven Experience concierge services, and try the city three ways.

1. B O AT

Guests at Canal Huis 58 have complimentary access to a private boat (and skipper services), ideal for getting to know the city via its elaborate canal system.

S C OT T S DA L E , A R I ZO N A

HIGHER POWER

At Sanctuary on Camelback Mountain Resort in Scottsdale, Arizona, active guests are perfectly situated for guided or solo treks up Camelback Mountain, which resembles a kneeling camel from a distance and stands taller than the Empire State Building. Climb to the top (the trail is just under two kilometres long) for a challenging workout and epic panoramas of the city below. Later on, rest and rejuvenate with a customized sports massage at the resort’s award-winning Sanctuary Spa. Visitors seeking the ultimate wellness retreat can book the brand new Spa House, an on-site vacation home that doubles as a private spa with its own outdoor baths, pool and treatment rooms. S A N C T UA R YA Z . C O M 2 . B I C YC L E

G R A N D P R A I R I E , A L B ERTA

GOOD TO THE BONE The Pipestone Creek near Grande Prairie, Alberta, is home to one of the world’s richest dinosaur bonebeds. It’s perfect for exploring through hikes, heli-tours and visits to the Philip J. Currie Dinosaur Museum – but there’s no need to rough it while playing paleontologist. Visitors to the nearby L Spa and Wellness Centre, ranked among Spa of America’s Top 100 Spas, can take advantage of pedicures, an infrared sauna and treatments like oxygen facials – guaranteed to keep you from looking (and feeling) time-worn. L S PA . C A

Most locals go everywhere on two wheels, and bikes have priority over cars and pedestrians in the city. Hop on one of the house’s lightweight bikes for a leisurely ride, or request a savvy guide to take you on a tour.

3. BALLOON

Ask the house manager to arrange a bucket-list-worthy trip in a hot-air balloon – you’ll be treated to a bird’seye view of the Netherlands’ colourful flower fields in full bloom.

E L E V E N E X P E R I E N C E . C O M/ CANAL- HUIS - 58

mercedes-magazine.ca

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THE LONG AND WINDING ROADS Ontario’s Highlands are a mecca for those who just love to drive.

WORDS CHRISTOPHER KORCHIN PHOTOS BRUNO FLORIN

DRIVE TIME The Mercedes-Benz E 400 Cabriolet expertly handles the twists and turns along the Highlands’ handcrafted roads.

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e’re making our way at a brisk slalom down County Road 29, in the heart of the Ottawa Valley. Bruno, in the passenger seat, is snapping photos of staring cows and summer foliage. We have just crossed a one-kilometre stretch of the Ottawa River from Quebec into Ontario aboard the Grant Beattie, an electric-powered cable ferry, and now we’re coasting through a world of cornfields, horse pastures and solar farms.

I point the E 400 Cabriolet through a couple of gentle S-curves, then a stretch of water appears to the left. It’s the disorientingly named Mississippi River (no relation to its southern namesake). As we slow down at the intersection with the CR-20, there’s another incongruous sight: a massive stone bridge that looks like something the Romans could have built. This, as we learn from a plaque in a little park alongside the river, is the Pakenham Bridge, the only five-span structure of its kind in North America – constructed in 1901, refurbished in 1984 and looking like it will be here till the end of time.

The bridge is a soaring example of how things in this part of the world were built with pride and panache. We’ve come to the Highlands – a jigsaw-shaped piece of southeastern Ontario, roughly bounded by the Ottawa River to the > north and the St. Lawrence River Valley to mercedes-magazine.ca

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WORDS TO DRIVE BY A possible foreshadowing of its popularity with motorists?

Perth’s 1850s motto is “Make haste slowly but surely.”

the south – to explore the winding country roads that are attracting driving aficionados from far and wide. Already I’ve overtaken a slow procession of motorcyclists, plus a group of car clubbers, and watched them grow smaller in the rearview mirror.

The roads built here over the last two centuries were laid out for practical reasons: to get the area’s rich bounty of lumber and minerals – like gold, graphite, gemstones and iron ore – out of the wilderness and off to waterways and rail lines that would carry them to market. These routes were carved out of bedrock and boreal forest, diverted around hillsides and overtop treacherous muskeg, by dedicated craftsmen (some of whom came from that other Highlands, in Scotland) with artistry and often a contempt for straight lines. The road workers – bearded, suspendered and plaid-shirted in archival photos – look like they could be tending bar in 2016, but their 19thcentury axes and saws tell another story.

Nowadays, the resource boom has waned, but the logging and mining roads these men left behind have become pleasure roads for driving enthusiasts.

Which, of course, is why we’re here in the E 400 Cabriolet. The storm we encountered in Quebec has disappeared as if by some interprovincial agreement, a rainbow taking its place, so I lower the convertible top and off we go to explore.

T H E H I G H L A N D S are nearly

as big as Belgium, so with only three days here we have to be selective. We will limit ourselves to Ottawa Valley South and the Upper Ottawa Valley. This means, of course, there will be plenty of time for impromptu stops – like at the Pakenham General Store, open since 1840 and just down the road from the bridge. I pull alongside the local institution and minutes later we emerge with coffee and freshly baked cheesebread. Already this tour is becoming a lesson on why to choose the back roads.

Fifteen minutes later we’re further down the line in Almonte (a.k.a. Mississippi Mills), where a statue of James Naismith, the inventor of basketball, sits under a maple tree amid the town’s stone and brick colonial buildings. This whole region was defined by the British decision to build the Rideau Canal, linking Kingston to Ottawa, to protect supply routes and inland interests from a possible American invasion along the vulnerable St. Lawrence River following the War of 1812.

Happily, such attacks never occurred, but what 98

OLD COUNTRY Many of the 19th-century settlers to the Ontario Highlands hailed from the region’s Scottish namesake.

These routes were carved out of the bedrock by dedicated craftsmen.

would have happened if Naismith’s Scottish grandparents hadn’t moved to the safely settled region? Or the Americans had invaded? Well, James himself might not have been born, and America would not have adopted hoops, and… But there’s no room for hypotheticals in history.

We hop back into the Cabriolet and tackle the final 50 kilometres to tonight’s destination, Perth.

Soon we join the King’s Highway and are skirting Mississippi Lake and the start of a clay plain that was the Champlain Sea about 12,000 years ago.

While the more rugged northern reaches of Lanark County will take you right back to grade six and social studies classes on the Canadian Shield, this is a gentler region, flatter and full of the hardwood trees that initially helped make it rich. And as we reach stately Perth, with its stone mansions and carefully preserved Victorian buildings, I see where that wealth was concentrated. I pull into leafy Stewart Park, beside the very English-feeling Tay River, put the top back up (for rain threatens once again) and stroll among the willows, where soon enough raindrops are bouncing off the dynamic statue of a jumping

SMALL FRY Wes’ Chips fry wagon in Arnprior is a mandatory roadside stop.

This whole region was defined by the British decision to build the Rideau Canal and protect supply routes from American invasion.

TOWN FARE Fish and chips in the heritage-designated dining room of Merrickville’s Baldachin Inn, followed by a cone at Downtowne Ice Cream

Big Ben and rider Ian Millar – two more sports heroes. It’s clearly time to check into the Perth Manor Boutique Hotel where, in the Robert Lyon Suite (named after a 21-year-old who, in 1833, when these parts were still very much the Wild East, engaged in a gun fight over a lady’s honour and became the last duellist to lose his life on Canadian soil), I call it a Highlands night.

Gore Street, writes local author Arlene StaffordWilson, was, in the 1970s, the place in downtown Perth to parade your muscle car on a Saturday night. With this in mind, even though it’s a bright weekday morning, I lower the top of the Cabriolet (a quick touch on the console and it unlatches and folds out of sight within seconds) and point the vehicle down the quiet main drag.

“Make haste slowly but surely” is the Perth town motto, but soon we’re off at a good clip on the “Rideau Ridge” trail, piloting through the Rideau Lakes country and the small towns that owe their existence to the canal. In the hub village of Westport, I enter Murphy’s Barber and Sport Shop in search of the morning paper. Behind the counter, Donna Bresee says the place, which caters to visiting fishermen, is “an icon.” And with its pleasing jumble of lures and lottery tickets and a decommissioned barber chair, who could doubt her?

Near Newboro, we manoeuvre crisply around a darting deer, then stop at the St. Mary’s Cemetery, where a plaque pays tribute to the British Army’s Royal Sappers and Miners, who helped to build the Rideau Canal. Many of them paid for their labours with their lives, falling to malaria. We wander among the headstones, with their inscriptions to the very young, reflecting that life in this lush and tranquil region was much harsher in the not-sodistant past.

Just down the road in bustling Merrickville, we drop by Village > Metalsmiths, home to the nation’s mercedes-magazine.ca

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WATER WAY The Rideau Canal passes right through the town of Smith Falls.

oldest foundry. The Government of Canada comes here for stately cast signage in rustproof aluminium – and you can too. I settle for an antique coat hook, probably as old as the canal itself and still doing its job.

Further downstream in Smiths Falls, we raise the Cabriolet’s roof and tour the compact town on foot. This is the heart of the Rideau, graced by a dramatic water tower, the relentless falls (whose combined dozen-metre drop is skirted by the canal) and a visitor centre in a repurposed 19th-century mill. But the town’s not frozen in time: There, down the main street, goes a pretty young woman, amply tattooed and pierced, giving the past the what for.

T H E N E X T M O R N I N G we zip up to Arnprior

on Highway 508, all mixed forest and “twisties,” and stop by Wes’ Chips for a snack. The landmark chip truck is co-owned by transplanted Dutchman André Post, who happens to drive around the county in an eco-friendly 1982 Mercedes-Benz 300 SD, converted to run on chip oil. Down the road, we buy a dozen fresh eggs from a farmer who is also a drummer in the local pipe band (“Keeps us old guys out of trouble,” says his friend), then push an hour northwest along the Trans-Canada up to Pembroke, near the far reaches of the Highlands. Samuel de Champlain himself apparently lost an astrolabe around here – though he also relied on native guides, the ancient device would have helped him determine the latitude he was at while exploring the Ottawa River. Well, 400 years later, our navigation system has the answer on the 100

HIGHLANDS PIT STOPS Riding Clean In pristine Perth, even the car wash is located in a pretty stone building.

If you’ve picked up some mud on the side roads, pull into the Perth Car Wash, pop a toonie into the meter and give your ride a quick rinse at this self-service operation.

CORNER OF GORE ST. W. AND NORTH ST.

Fuelling Up If you were on a starch-only diet, you could conceivably spend all your time in the Highlands doing a study of roadside chip wagons – you’re in the kingdom of the French fry! Best to start, though, with Wes’ Chips in Arnprior (and sprinkle a little salt and vinegar on your half-cup of fries before your server tops it up with still more fries). If your timing is right, co-owner André Post’s vintage Mercedes-Benz 300 SD will be parked outside – needless to say, it’s been converted to run on chip oil.

WESCHIPS.CA

on-board display (about 45oN).

Already things are feeling a little more Quebecois as we head back to our home province along the “Curvy Quebecer” trail, which follows the twists and turns of the Ottawa River, especially at the Nook Crêperie, where half the lunch-hour customers are speaking French and eating Provencal crêpes and salade française.

But ours is a country of contradictions, and a few minutes after recrossing the Ottawa River into Quebec and sailing westward down the rock- and tree-lined Route 148 for another hour, I steer the Cabriolet into tiny Bristol, a town as British as the Queen herself. At Coronation Cider Hall Mills, the scent of cinnamon hangs in the air and I follow my nose into the rustic shop.

“I’ve been making these all day!” announces Judy Stephens, pointing to a batch of apple pies just out of the oven. “One for me, please,” I say.

And so a sweet ride through the Highlands ends > on a sweet note.

Choose to Drive the Best!

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ADDRESSES

Stay and Play 1 Perth Manor Boutique Hotel Co-owners (and professional musicians) Gordon and Linda Craig have been hitting all the right notes since acquiring this 1878 Italianinspired mansion five years ago. Relax by the fountain in the formal gardens, have a brandy in the library and be sure to read up on the historical personage your room was named after. 23 DRUMMOND ST. W., PERTH, 613-264-0050, P E R T H M A N O R . C O M

1

2

CALABOGIE BREWING COMPANY

The latest venture in charming Calabogie benefits from the microbrewery craze and a captive audience of devoted beer lovers (this is cottage country, and in winter a snowmobile trail runs right past the brewery).

Take home a mixed pack of cans or, after your drive, order one of their IPAs at local establishments.

12612 L A N A R K R D. , C A L A B O G I E , 613 -752 -2739, C A L A B O G I E B R E W I N G C O . C A

DUAL ROLE T H E S L E E K , S L I G H T LY wedge-shaped E 400 Cabriolet that took us through a part of the world where canoe, steamboat, horse-and-wagon and train still prevailed not so long ago was a “convertible” in unexpected ways: almost demure in Tenorite Grey Metallic as we prowled through the Victorian grandeur of towns like Perth, and then an absolute stunner with the top down on the open roads of the Highlands. ECO start/stop meant the car was always respectfully silent when at a halt, while on sublime stretches like the winding Centennial Lake Road, a joyous exhaust note poured out whenever the 329-hp V6 bi-turbo engine was given a little “encouragement.” And the 7G-TRONIC PLUS transmission and paddle shifters made spectacular use of the car’s 18-inch AMG alloys and rear-wheel drive – the ideal propulsion for enthusiasts. Heated leather seats, individual climate control and the pleasure-in-the-neck AIRSCARF were just the thing on crisp topdown mornings, and the harman/kardon LOGIC7 Surround Sound System was music to our ears, whether we were cruising around town or in the country. M E R C E D E S - B E N Z . C A 102

2 Calabogie Peaks Resort Everything about this enchanting four-season playground seems built on a human scale, from the 26-room main hotel to the nine-hole golf course and the beachside restaurant on a strip of sand on Calabogie Lake. Even the ski hill just out the back door doesn’t seem overly daunting – though that could change in the snowy season.

30 BARRETT CHUTE RD., CALABOGIE, 1-800-669-4861, C A L A B O G I E . C O M

3 Bonnechere Caves Need a break from open-air driving?

Then go down, way down, into the damp, subterranean “solution” caves alongside the Bonnechere River.

The post-glacial limestone passageways are a fascinating underworld full of prehistoric fossils – not to mention live bats.

1247 FOURTH CHUTE RD., EGANVILLE, 613-628-2283, B O N N E C H E R E C AV E S . C O M

4 The Stone Cellar A double-sided stone fireplace, quiet lighting and a glass-enclosed wine cellar make this street-level restaurant both cozy and chic. Try the DIY Caesar salad, served on a slate slab (you assemble the ingredients yourself), then follow with salmon and wild rice.

And keep your fork, as they say in these parts, for dessert.

71 GORE ST. E., PERTH, 613-267-0200, THESTONECELL AR .COM

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Women’s Monte Carlo Bracelet

Golf Cart Bag

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Spring into style.

From sportswear to luggage to personal effects, the Lifestyle & Classic Collection together with Genuine Accessories displays the pride and passion you have for Mercedes-Benz.

Visit your local authorized Mercedes-Benz dealer to purchase these items or other available Accessory or Collection items. Visit www.mercedes-benz.ca/thecollection to discover the whole collection.

© 2016 Mercedes-Benz Canada Inc.

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SOLITUDE IN THREE ACTS Looking for some me-time? We found it in an island paradise thousands of kilometres from the nearest metropolis.

WORDS VIOL AINE CHAREST- SIGOUIN PHOTOS TIM McKENNA

PARADISE FOUND Along the coral reef of Tautau, multicolour fish are a sight to see, as is the volcanic island of Bora Bora off in the distance; the atoll of Tetiaroa is protected by a ring of coral that makes it almost inaccessible by boat (inset).

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he emerald sea stretches out as far as the eye can see. I’m soaking up the view to the soothing sound of lapping waves when I spot a striped fish through the glass beneath my feet. For a second I feel like I’m stranded alone in the middle of the Pacific. And in a way I am – I’ve booked myself a solo holiday in French Polynesia. The glass floor is in my temporary abode: an upscale hut on stilts on the Tautau islet, set over a lagoon.

Tautau is the size of a grain of sand on a map.

In fact, it isn’t officially listed among the 118 islands and atolls that form French Polynesia, an archipelago scattered across a section of the Pacific Ocean that’s roughly the size of Europe.

Only 67 of the islands are inhabited, the

best-known being Tahiti. But for someone like me, seeking to reconnect with myself, it’s the perfect place to be.

1. Discovery The day is nearing its end, but I’m itching to explore my surroundings. I choose a path that crosses Tautau toward a beach where the sunsets are said to be breathtaking, stopping along the way to admire how the lush fauna is reflected in the mirrorflat surface of a lagoon. A golden light frames each palm frond and tree branch and imbues the scene with an air of mystery. I jump as an enormous crab comes out of nowhere, but he’s more afraid of me than I am of him – he scuttles back into his hole.

Aside from this new friend and the birds in the < trees, there isn’t a soul in sight. mercedes-magazine.ca 105

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I feel as though I’m suddenly starring in Cast Away – minus the stress, of course. Unlike Tom Hanks, I haven’t had to work for my dinner: raw tuna with coconut milk, called i’a ota, or Tahitian poisson cru. It’s a Polynesian delicacy. Did I mention my desert island is also home to the Taha’a Island Resort & Spa, a Relais & Châteaux property? Clearly, my Robinson Crusoe week comes with a five-star twist.

I’m tempted by more lazy luxury the next day – cue the chaise longue by the hotel’s sprawling infinity pool – but I choose exploration instead.

With mask and snorkel in tow, I trek to the beach.

Between my motu (“islet” in Tahitian) and the next one over lies a turquoise lagoon with its own coral reef. I take a few steps into the shallow water, then plunge my head in. A kaleidoscope of multicoloured fish swims in front of me. As I move forward, I feel as though I’m walking

LAND AHOY On the lush islet of Tautau, Taha’a Island Resort & Spa takes its name from its larger island neighbour (above); overwater huts on stilts feature glass floors that make guests feel like they’re floating on the ocean.

through a coral labyrinth. Every now and then I spot the long quills of a sea urchin. Suddenly a school of huge, nearly transparent fish appears and swims around me, unfazed by my presence.

Now this is the kind of company I was after.

2. Reflection Like many visitors to French Polynesia, I want to experience a few of the different islands while I’m here. Two boat trips and a flight get me to Tehotu, which faces the volcanic island of Bora Bora and is home to a Four Seasons resort. A whole other atmosphere reigns here. It feels like a village, criss-crossed with little roads navigable by golf carts. “‘Ia ora na!” the drivers greet me as they pass. I reply without breaking stride as I make my way to the spa, intent on ridding myself of any last traces of stress.

A school of fish swims around me, unfazed by my presence. Now this is the kind of company I was after.

After a soak in the outdoor tub (my only company this time, a group of tiny preening birds), I let the expert hands of Siti work their magic. I’ve chosen the Polynesian massage, also known as taurumi, which involves monoï or tamanu oil, derived from a local nut whose extracts have reparative properties – perfect for any sun damage inflicted the day before. There’s a centuries-old tradition of massage in Polynesia, whereby locals get back rubs from family starting in infancy as a way to cure both body and soul. A few minutes into the treatment, I already feel reborn.

I’m totally blissed out by the time I plunge my paddle into the clear waters of the nearby lagoon.

To my surprise, I’m a natural at keeping my balance on a stand-up paddleboard. I mimic Sara Garcia, who’s about to up the ante by teaching me yoga moves in this idyllic setting. Between asanas I gaze at Mount Otemanu, the highest peak in Bora Bora, rising up on the horizon. Then, during pigeon pose, I catch sight of a handful of fish passing by my board. “There’s also an octopus that likes to join in sometimes,” she says with a smile.

At nightfall I sit down to a meal at Arii Moana, a restaurant that mixes French and Polynesian cuisine. Couples in romantic tête-à-têtes surround me, some on their honeymoon, yet I feel completely at ease in my solitude. I savour each of the flavours put before me: royal crab with pineapple and miri (an aromatic local herb that resembles basil), mahi-mahi with lime from the Marquesas Islands, a millefeuille flavoured with vanilla from the nearby island of Taha’a. I’m so relaxed, I feel as though I’ve shed my tumultuous life back home for good.

TITRE TITRE Corecepudae nosandi tatibus andelicimus.Ibusapit, qui ut vendi alit earum faccabore labor adit volupit eum, officiistrum fugitiunt aciis et aut ex esti

3. Melancholy AN ISLAND OF POSSIBILITIES At Four Seasons Resort Bora Bora, try French cuisine with a Polynesian twist thanks to Frederic Angevin, chef of Arii Moana, where the menu features plenty of raw fish (a local delicacy); Sara Garcia leads yoga classes for guests.

From my seat on the propeller plane I spot a ring of islets around an opalescent lagoon. There lies Tetiaroa, Marlon Brando’s private atoll. The actor fell in love with the area (not to mention his costar Tarita Teriipaia) while on location filming Mutiny on the Bounty. He bought Tetiaroa in 1967 and holed up here until the 1990s whenever he needed a break from Hollywood. “In the evenings he would stargaze on his catamaran,” says his granddaughter Tumi, who still lives on-site. < She works for the Tetiaroa Society, an mercedes-magazine.ca 107

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ALL ABOARD When visiting French Polynesiaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s many islands and motus, be prepared to take several planes and boats, like the one belonging to Four Seasons Bora Bora.

DO NOT DISTURB You need never see another soul when staying in one of the 35 villas at the Brando, surrounded as they are by a lush camouflage of greenery.

organization whose mandate is to preserve this nature reserve, in keeping with Brando’s wishes.

Both a bird sanctuary and turtle birthing grounds, Tetiaroa is protected by a coral barrier that makes it practically inaccessible by boat. Of its 12 islets, only Onetahi is inhabited.

On Onetahi, a resort called the Brando allows a fortunate handful of travellers to experience the solitude the actor sought for himself, without affecting Tetiaroa’s sanctum sanctorum. The property runs on solar power and is on its way to being granted Platinum LEED certification, the greatest distinction in eco-design. As I float in the private pool of my luxurious villa, I can see why celebrities might hide out here. Since arriving, I haven’t crossed paths with a single other visitor – not even on the pristine white-sand beach. If I wanted, I could choose to have my meals delivered and never to step outside this villa, as many guests do.

I enjoy an occasional change of scenery, though, so I head out for dinner at Les Mutinés, presided over by Michelin-starred French chef Guy Martin. On the way, I spot three couples gazing up at a different set of stars with Tahiarii Yoram Pariente, director of the Tetiaroa Society.

He’s pointing out constellations. Polynesian people travelled impressive distances by boat, he explains, guided by the heavens – that’s how they came to inhabit their own Pacific paradise.

I think back to a conversation I had the previous day with Teiva, my guide to Tahiti’s Papenoo Valley (see sidebar). “The Polynesians were the Vikings of the south,” he said. “For them, land was their home, and the ocean, their garden.” I asked if it was loneliness that made them venture out to explore the seas. “It’s true that there’s a certain melancholy to being alone amid all this water,” he said. “We call that feeling fiu.”

A little loneliness can lead to great things, it seems. After all, without it, I never would have discovered this little slice of paradise.

BRANDO’S ISLAND Marlon Brando purchased Tetiaroa in 1967 for a mere $270,000 and lived there intermittently until the 1990s. His son, Teihotu, was the sole inhabitant of the atoll for many years until the hotel, the Brando, was built in 2014.

THE GARDEN OF EDEN R I D I N G O N A 4X4 , I’m crossing the Papenoo Valley, right in the middle of the island of Tahiti. I’m surrounded by rich fauna, with the occasional waterfall gushing from the vertiginous mountaintops off in the distance. Every few metres, my guide, Teiva, points out a tree blooming with orange flowers – an African tulip tree – or a wild hibiscus whose petals are yellow in the morning, orange in the afternoon and red at night. He explains that Polynesians use leaves from the pandanus palm to cover roofs, and that candlenuts are luminescent. On the horizon, I spot the tallest peak in French Polynesia, the 2,241-metrehigh Orohena. “It means ‘spine of the god Oro,’” says Teiva, explaining that Tahitians were once animists and that Oro was the most important of their gods. Surrounded by such natural abundance, I’m hardly surprised to learn that Oro was also the god of fertility.

TA H I T I D I S C O V E R Y. C O M

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TR AVEL

THE GREAT EXPLORERS French Polynesia’s archipelago was colonized well before European sailors “discovered” it. Polynesians were great explorers, using double-hulled sailing pirogues and natural phenomena for guidance, including the stars, the colours of the sea, the clouds, and the migrations of birds and whales. When James Cook visited Tahiti in 1769, he was surprised to see that, contrary to Europeans, Polynesians had mastered sailing against the wind. The Polynesian wind includes 16 different types of breezes, including the maoa’e, the most prevalent easterly wind.

FLOR AL BOUQUET A living icon of French Polynesia, the Tahitian gardenia exudes a sweet scent that’s often used to perfume monoï oil. Its flower is used to weave the traditional necklaces and headpieces that are worn at special occasions, or to greet newcomers. A single flower can also be worn on the left ear to indicate you’re part of a couple, or on the right ear to indicate you’re open to meeting someone new.

BOY, YOU’LL BE A WOMAN SOON Don’t be surprised

if you cross paths with men in typically female dress during your stay in French Polynesia. Traditionally, the third child of a family is raised as a girl no matter their gender, to help out in the home. As adults, many mahus continue to live as women, regardless of their sexual orientation.

G O O D TO K N O W

USE YOUR WORDS Since French Polynesia is classified as a full overseas collectivity of France, its official language is French. That said, there are many native languages currently spoken here, including Tahitian, the most prevalent. Here are some useful terms: ‘aita

no

‘e

yes

‘ia ora na

hello

maeva

welcome

e aha to ‘oe huru ? how are you? mauruuru

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thank you

MUST- SEE 1

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LIKE A FISH TO WATER The waters of French Polynesia are packed with an impressive array of marine life. Head out on a snorkelling excursion to a coral reef near Bora Bora and you could swim among stingrays, blacktip sharks and lemon sharks, which can reach up to 3.4 metres long!

THE BLUE LAGOON Guided by a naturalist, float along the seven-kilometre-wide Tetiaroa lagoon to spot the white terns and the brown boobies that call Tahuna Iti (a.k.a. “bird island”) home. You might even catch sight of an eagle ray, a blacktip shark, a turtle or, in the distance, a whale making a pit stop on its annual migration.

ISLAND OF POSSIBILITIES On Taha’a, “the vanilla island,” visit the tahitensis vanilla plantations, which grow a variety that’s prized by foodies the world over. Or check out the pearl farms, which produce famous black Tahitian pearls. While you’re at it, rent a jet ski to cruise the volcanic island’s crystal-clear bays.

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P O E R A N I S A FA R I . C O M

www.hamiltonwatch.com

IN N OVAT I O N

THE ART OF MOTION I S I T P O S S I B L E to portray a vehicle in motion with an art installation? And if so, how can the way that it communicates with its environment be expressed? Graphic artist Sarah Illenberger is an expert when it comes to creating comprehensible images to illustrate complex relationships. When she was commissioned by Mercedes-Benz to portray both the F 015 Luxury in Motion research vehicle and the AMG GT, the media she chose were anything but high-tech – she prefers to use paper, wood, wool and other craft materials. She expressed the idea of the F 015’s connectivity by using 7,000 metres of string radiating out from the vehicle. A steering wheel hovering in the air attached to an air balloon conveyed the fact that driving in the future will mean letting go. And the ease with which the AMG GT unleashes its power was symbolized by flying tire tracks behind the vehicle (pictured above). “Handcrafted installations somehow make an abstract, futuristic technology like a driverless vehicle more accessible,” says the artist. Simplifying the complex: simply ingenious. S A R A H I L L E N B E R G E R . C O M

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F O R E FAS HI O N

ON THE BALL 36 C A M E R A S A R E T R I G G E R E D when the Panono Camera is thrown into the air and reaches its highest point. Catch it and you can view the resulting photographs from a 360-degree perspective – both horizontal and vertical. You can also put it on a tripod or operate it remotely with an app. PA N O N O . C O M

The brains behind Biion Footwear in Collingwood, Ontario, made it their business to create golf shoes that look as good as they feel. Modelled after the classic Oxford brogue, they feature uppers made of EVA (a form-fitting elastic polymer) and rubber soles with a honeycomb cleat for excellent traction. Other thoughtful details like tiny massaging nodes on the footbed provide a further level of comfort, but it’s the playful colour and pattern combinations that really make these shoes shine.

BIIONFOOT WE AR .COM

PHOTO ANNA ROSA KR AU (SAR AH ILLENBERGER)

HIGH -WIRE COMMUTE Gondolas might be more associated with ski vacations, but in La Paz they’ve been a normal means of transportation since 2014: Three cable car routes link the Bolivian metropolis, at an altitude of 3,600 metres, with the city of El Alto, 400 metres higher up.

Up to 75,000 commuters use them daily, both savouring the view and saving time. A further six lines are to be built by 2019.

SEE -THROUGH TRUCK Is it safe to pass? Driving behind a semi

requires a combination of nerves and concentration. Samsung’s wireless camera, mounted on the front of a truck, films traffic coming in the other direction and displays it on four monitors at the rear of the vehicle. Infrared technology means it can also be used after dark. mercedes-magazine.ca 113

IN N OVAT I O N

HELTER-SKELTER W H O S A I D playgrounds were just for kids? In London, the UK’s tallest sculpture (115 metres) is being turned into the longest slide in the country. From 2016 onward, visitors will be able to admire Turner Prize winner Anish Kapoor’s red and silver steel sculpture in the Olympic Park from the outside, then gaze at the London skyline from the viewing platform of the ArcelorMittal Orbit, and finally – for a bit of fun – abandon themselves to the pull of gravity. Adults and children alike will be able to enjoy a 40-second trip along almost 180 metres of slide before coming down to Earth. Q U E E N E L I Z A B E T H O LY M P I C PA R K . C O . U K

ANYONE THERE? In the future, “Density” will let you check whether the gym is overcrowded or your favourite bar is getting lively – from the comfort of your own home. The system uses small sensors installed at the entrances of participating establishments to measure how many people are inside at any one moment. The results are then transmitted to your smartphone via an app. D E N S I T Y. I O

1991 2016

T H EN A N D N O W

In the early 1990s, a mere 65 millimetres was the difference between the old and new worlds of parking. That was the length of the chrome guide rods that extended from the rear of a Series 140 Mercedes-Benz S-Class when it was put into reverse, offering the driver a point of reference for parking. In 1995, the same vehicle series ushered in the age of acoustic sensor-assisted parking. But today, the word “assist” is actually something of an understatement. Active Parking Assist identifies a suitable parking space and steers the vehicle into it automatically, with the driver simply operating the accelerator and brake pedals. A glimpse of the future is offered by the special Park Pilot option: A smartphone app enables the vehicle to be manoeuvred in and out of a parking place entirely remotely.

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PHOTO DAIMLER AG (PARKING)

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Just as Keurig revolutionized the coffee industry, Waterloo, Ontario-based Bartesian is taking on the cocktail world one pod at a time. Fill each reservoir with its corresponding spirit, pop in a (recyclable) pod of mix, press a button and voilà: a premium mixed drink. Six cocktail capsules are currently available: Margarita, Sex on the Beach, Zest Martini, Cosmopolitan, Bartesian Breeze (a tropical custom blend) and Uptown Rocks, a peachy gin concoction. Bottoms up! B A R T E S I A N . C O M

IN FINE FEATHER In 2000, Canadian entrepreneur Ron Reuben filed a patent for a seamless fabric made of goose down. Fifteen years later, after partnering with Italian company NIPI, the Montrealer finally saw his vision realized. Aptly named Thindown, the innovative material is a game changer for the fashion, home, footwear and automotive industries.

Unlike conventional baffleddown-filled construction, Thindown’s compressed inner lining stays in place without stitching and can be cut easily, eradicating cold spots and feather leakage. As the revolutionary material makes its way to market, think sleeker possibilities for your next coat or duvet. T H I N D O W N . I T

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A civil engineer working for Dutch company KWS Infra, Anne Koudstaal has co-developed, with fellow “asphalt advisor” Simon Jorritsma, a road surface made of recycled plastic. The two-man team is convinced their plastic road will pave the way to the future.

How did you get the idea to make roads out of plastic?

We were looking for an alternative to asphalt, which mainly consists of bitumen. That’s derived from oil, which will at some stage run out. We discard tons of plastic every year, and it has various advantages compared with asphalt.

For example?

Our plastic road consists of modules and can therefore be built about three times as fast as a conventional road, plus it is much easier to repair. The material is also considerably more durable than asphalt and is likely to last three times as long – which means the overall costs will be lower. We can also integrate cavities into it.

For what purpose?

Pipes and cabling can easily be laid through the cavities. They will also gather rainwater and help it run off, which prevents flooding.

Doesn’t plastic tend to get slippery?

If necessary, you can solve that problem by adding sand or something similar, but we would prefer to solve it using the material itself. A bigger problem is the fact that plastic expands and contracts as the temperature changes. We either have to artificially maintain the road surface at an even temperature or make the plastic mixture temperature-resistant.

When will we start driving on plastic roads?

If we can find the right partners, the first pilot roads could be tested in two to three years’ time. And a couple of years later, the first plastic public road would come into use.

ILLUSTRATION JULIA PEL ZER

MIXED UP

KOUDS E TA N AL

AN

IN N OVAT I O N

ICONS

PROTECTIVE SYSTEMS

INFLATABLE HELMET Bicycle helmets don’t need to be seen to be effective. An innovative system currently being developed by the Swedish company Hövding resembles a somewhat wider than normal jacket collar in its retracted state. If an impact occurs, sensors release pressurized gas, and in an instant a protective airbag envelops the cyclist’s vital head and neck region.

FIREWALL In 1989, a year after the Morris Worm unleashed havoc on the Internet, telecom giant AT&T invented the firewall to protect electronic networks from malicious software.

Today, next-generation firewalls are able to simultaneously monitor thousands of software programs, circuits and apps, and report any suspicious electronic activity.

THE AIRBAG

PLASMA SHIELD It sounds like something out of Star Wars, but it actually exists.

Aircraft manufacturer Boeing is working on a technology that uses a plasma field to minimize the effect of explosions. Lasers and microwaves create a protective barrier whose air density, temperature and composition cause shock waves to decelerate.

was introduced to the motoring world by Mercedes-Benz in 1981. Aside from the car body and the seatbelts, it is without a doubt the most important passenger protection device. But protective systems are also important in non-automotive settings, as these six examples from nature and human technology demonstrate.

IMMUNE SYSTEM Skin, mucous membranes and cilia form a human’s first line of defence against disease-causing germs. Should a microorganism nevertheless enter the body, ravenous macrophages – scavenger cells – can ingest the invader and neutralize it. T-cells and B-cells – lymphocytes able to target specific pathogens – provide an even more sophisticated defensive response.

ELECTRON SHIELD Twelve thousand kilometres above the Earth’s surface, a barrier appears to protect the planet from bombardment by hyper-fast “killer electrons.”

“It’s as if the electrons slam into a glass wall in outer space,” says Daniel Baker of the University of Colorado. The protective layer was discovered in 2012 during measurements of the Van Allen radiation belt.

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THE BELTBAG Since its debut in the 2013 S-Class, the Mercedes-Benz beltbag has offered rear-seat passengers extra protection. In a frontal impact, an airbag inside the seatbelt instantly inflates, more than doubling the belt’s width in a fraction of a second and significantly reducing the pressure on a passenger’s ribcage.

WORDS CHRISTOPH HENN ILLUSTRATIONS LEANDRO CASTEL ÃO/DUTCHUNCLE PHOTOS DAIMLER AG; FOTOLIA; MAURITIUS IMAGES/NORDIC PHOTOS; MAURITIUS IMAGES/SCIENCE PHOTOS LIBR ARY; MAURITIUS IMAGES/SCIENCE PICTURE.CO

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PEOPLE & PLACES Step out with Mercedes-Benz at the season’s hottest events, from operas to award shows.

Canadian International Auto Show Five Mercedes-Benz models made their national debut at the Canadian International Auto Show in Toronto in February: the Mercedes-AMG S 63 Cabriolet, Mercedes-AMG SL 63, Mercedes-AMG SLC 43, S 550e (plug-in hybrid sedan), GLS and the smart fortwo cabriolet. Additionally, the Mercedes-AMG C 63 Coupe, C 300d 4MATIC Wagon, GLC, Metris and smart fortwo coupe were unveiled.

Centre Stage

Soprano Marie-Josée Lord sings for guests at the Mercedes-Benz Rive-Sud reopening.

The Canadian Opera Company (COC) and Mercedes-Benz Canada hosted 1,000 opera fans at the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts for the annual Centre Stage vocal competition, which sees aspiring opera stars competing for a spot in the COC’s distinguished training program, the Ensemble Studio. Also on display at the COC’s biggest fundraiser of the year: the GLC, GLA and GLE Coupe.

Mercedes-Benz Rive-Sud Reopening In October 2015, Mercedes-Benz Rive-Sud welcomed 700 guests to the grand reopening of the Greenfield Park facility on the South Shore of Montreal – one of the company’s oldest locations in Canada. To mark the occasion, rare and classic Mercedes-Benz vehicles were on display for guests, including A Car for All Seasons, a 1980 300 SD painted by acclaimed Canadian artist Tom Forrestall.

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SOCIETY

Left to right: Gareth T. Joyce, former president and CEO, Mercedes-Benz Canada; Jordan Ekers, Vice President, Business Development, Nudge Rewards; Lindsey Goodchild, CEO, Nudge Rewards; Ralph Ostertag, Chief Information Officer, Mercedes-Benz Canada, Mexico and Latin America

CXI Pitch Event In March, Mercedes-Benz Canada and Compass Group Canada hosted the Customer Experience Innovation (CXI) Retail Competition in Toronto. Start-ups competed for cash prizes and the chance to launch pilot projects with the companies. Nudge Rewards (pictured) won both pilot awards for its smartphone-based retail employer software.

CXI is an initiative to support emerging Canadian technology companies that focus on enhancing the customer experience in the automotive and food retail fields.

CANADA’S MOST POWERFUL WOMEN: TOP 100 AWARDS

Last November, the Women’s Executive Network welcomed 1,400 guests to a Toronto event celebrating Canada’s top businesswomen, with Mercedes-Benz Canada hosting the 100 nominees at a cocktail reception in the MercedesBenz Downtown location.

Founded in 1997, WXN is dedicated to the advancement and recognition of women in management, executive, professional and board roles.

Mercedes-Benz Start Up Montreal label UNTTLD presented their fall collection during a solo show at Toronto Fashion Week in March. The duo behind the collection was named 2015 Mercedes-Benz Start Up (MBSU) Awarded Designer, a distinction that comes with a $30,000 bursary as well as industry mentorship and editorial coverage.

MBSU is an ongoing initiative that provides a national platform to discover and support emerging Canadian fashion designers. mercedes-magazine.ca 121

ROLE MODELS On set with two Milton’s Secret stars: actor David Sutcliffe and a C-Class Sedan.

STAR TURNS

A confident-looking C-Class Sedan plays a supporting role in a new made-in-Canada feature film about bullying and the power of the present.

WORDS CHRISTOPHER KORCHIN

F R O M W I L L S M I T H at the wheel of an E-Class Sedan (“the new hotness”) in Men in Black II to Bryce Dallas Howard dodging dinosaurs in a GLE Coupe in Jurassic World, Mercedes-Benz vehicles often lend a touch of automotive glamour to the movies. This summer, Milton’s Secret, based on a book co-written by bestselling author and selfhelp guru Eckhart Tolle, features a black C-Class Sedan in a sleek supporting role.

The film is part family drama, part coming-ofage tale, but above all, director Barnet Bain says he seeks to create “transformational entertainment.” The plot sees embattled couple Jane and 122

Milton’s Secret is a film for parents and adults, hidden within a kids’ movie.

Bill Adams (The L Word’s Mia Kirshner and Private Practice star David Sutcliffe) providing a tense homefront for their preteen son, Milton (William Ainscough). Things aren’t much better at school, where Milton is being bullied. But with the help of an empathetic schoolteacher (played by erstwhile action hero Michelle Rodriguez, who is a fan of Tolle’s work), Milton begins to find his way. He also gets help from his free-spirited grandpa Howard (Donald Sutherland), who teaches Milton to let go of the past and his fears about the future and instead concentrate on the here and now – a common thread in Tolle’s writing.

“It’s a film for parents and adults, hidden within a kids’ movie,” explains line producer Peter Harvey, on his return from the Whistler Film Festival. While the film was shot last fall in Hamilton and Brampton, Ontario, neither stands in for any one North American city in particular, because the issues it deals with are universal.

And, because production of Milton’s Secret had the support of companies like Mercedes-Benz Canada as well as being partially crowdfunded, the filmmakers were able to maintain their vision and Tolle’s message without relying on big studios. Says producer Stephen Huszar, “Movies like Milton’s Secret will act as a catalyst to create social change and a more mindful world.”

For more on Milton’s Secret, set to hit theatres this summer, visit M I LT O N S S E C R E T M O V I E . C O M

PHOTOS MILTON’S SECRET

AT T H E M OV IE S

TORONTO

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