At IDS Vancouver and Design Vancouver Festival, bright new ideas and novel forms captured the imagination and signalled a rising wave of West Coast talent. We round up a dozen that deserve a closer look, from both familiar studios and emerging talents.

1

Bright Block Studio

Glass block has re-emerged with a vengeance in recent years, long after its heyday in the PoMo 70s and 90s, to become trendy again in interiors and architecture. But how Jeff Ballard and Joe Tsoulfas approach the material feels utterly fresh. Presented in the Illuminate section of IDS Vancouver, their fixtures are captivating works that instantly signal their intent: salvaging glass bricks to remake them as light diffusers while maintaining their material and structural integrity — and their resemblance to their former lives.

Rather than crushing the blocks (destined for landfill) and melting them, Ballard and Tsoulfas gently heat them and then transfer them to a metal pipe for reshaping. This preserves the blocks’ original surface patterns while inflating them into new proportions that allow them to house a bulb. The duo first started working with glass block for private commissions in 2019 and established Bright Block Studio in Eugene, Oregon, in 2023 to release commercially available lighting collections. Now, more of us can get our hands on their evocative creations.

2

Juniper by Prototype

Don’t let the generic-sounding brand name fool you: Prototype makes pretty cool furniture, lighting and architectural elements. At IDS Vancouver, the Squamish, B.C. company, founded by MJ Mayo, Ian Backstrom and Drake Dong, displayed a few of its fun and elegant pieces, which it 3D prints in recycled plastic. The side table and floor lamp Juniper (shown) features a voluptuous volume made with locally sourced PETG, a base in oak wood bio-polymer and a top in locally sourced Douglas Fir. The trio’s goal is to “prove that technology doesn’t have to be cold,” and that the future has soul. “Juniper captures light like sunlight through morning fog, casting a rhythmic, amber glow that warms the room from the inside out.”

3

Spent by Jason Xu

Kaito Forth curated an eclectic and well-rounded group of emerging talents at IDS Vancouver Prototype. If I could, I would feature every piece, from production-ready furniture one-offs to tech-forward concepts.

For now, I will single out two. The first is Spent, by RISD student Jason Xu. According to Xu’s research, Spent coffee grounds “retain considerable chemical and energetic value,” and yet they often end up in landfills, where they do harm by off-gassing methane. Likening his espresso maker to a Mercedes-Benz (the SL65 AMG Black Series, specifically), he envisions it as a solution to this problem: producing a cup of coffee, then processing the grounds into biochar — a renewable energy source — with the help of a pyrolysis reactor on the back of the machine.

4

BioFilix by Brian Patterson

And the second is Brian Patterson’s BioFilix. Inspired by the fiddlehead, the Mimosa pudica and the Fibonacci sequence, the wood sculpture uses a wireless sensor to monitor soil moisture in a houseplant, curling in on itself to indicate when a plant needs watering. The GIF above shows a sped-up version of this movement, which is actually elegantly slow. Both Xu’s and Patterson’s prototypes exemplified the ways in which tech can be used in household items in truly helpful ways.

5

Ancient Futures by James Nexw’Kalus-Xwalacktun Harry

James Nexw’Kalus-Xwalacktun Harry is a Coast Salish artist of Sḵwx̱wú7mesh and Namgis heritage. One of his most notable recent projects is the Welcome Gate, which boldly rises at Sp’akw’us Feather Park in Squamish. At IDS Vancouver, Harry presented the Ancient Futures Prototype, another architectural exploration, this time for a Coast Salish Pavilion, that is based on Indigenous forms, bringing together the crescent, the circle and the trigon in a harmonious whole. The parametrically designed gathering space would be made with wood and concrete.

6

Paper Vivant by Maya River

There’s something captivating about Maya River‘s handcrafted vessels, which are “inspired by natural forms and ancient artifacts.” Maybe it’s because they recall art class memories of making papier-mâché. Sculpted from upcycled paper pulp, the bowls can be used as accent pieces or as vases for dry botanicals. They come in versions with names like Bastion, Seedkeeper and Protector.

7

Singing Hollow by Brent Comber and Chinchilla Design

Another piece that tapped into the primordial was Singing Hollow, a sculpture by Brent Comber and Chinchilla Design. There is something undeniably satisfying about the spherical sculpture with its hollowed core — as if a giant thumb had made its impression smack in the centre — that visitors were invited to place their faces up against. The object acted as a sound amplifier, and the humming from within provided a moment of solace.

Comber is known for his beautiful wood works, but this one feels like a high-tech extrapolation: parametrically modelled and CNC-milled, the work is made of western cedar tiles (no two alike), wrapped around a yellow cedar core.

8

Marrimor at Homies group show

In its ultra-cool offices, McKinley Studios hosted the Homies show, featuring designs from a variety of local talents. One of them, Marrimor, is an exciting Burnaby studio led by Tanja Breadner and Lauren Bugliarisi, who have shown their artistic furniture and rugs around the world, including at Alcova Milano.

Paired together, their Bloop Area Rug and Concerto Console Table expressed the duo’s sophisticated eye for colour. Bloop (made with hand-tufted wool in shades of denim, maroon and ochre) features captivating tonal shifts that emphasize a 3D, almost topographical character. The Concerto console has a brushed brass body clad in cast ceramic panels in unexpected yet complementary hues, its shelves and concealed drawers “reaching out like notes on a scale.”

9

Shepherd’s Chair by Hinterland (also at Homies show)

Sometimes you come across a piece that already seems destined for heirloom status. Such is the case with Shepherd’s Chair by Hinterland, which was inspired by “the close relationship between a traditional herder’s tools, animals and the land. The curve of the staff. The softness of the wool. And the wood of the forest.” In solid bent white ash or black walnut with a vegetable-tanned leather seat, the chair is both a statement piece that elicits close inspection and a soft and regal perch that might go well with a tumbler of scotch.

10

Shadow Brick by Tyler Goin at OBJ OBJ

For the group show OBJ OBJ, Annaka Hoelk and Nolan Talbot-Kelly paired original creations by a motley array of local designers with objects from Cave gallery’s collection. Often sharing a poetic sensibility, the pieces play off each other in a dialogue that sometimes took place across eras.

Tyler Goin showed off the Shadow Brick (Console), based on a building block that he created in his studio, Noise Assembly. The block’s conical form allows it to be stacked up in various ways to create objects and furnishings with different compositions. It was paired with a bamboo vessel from Japan.

11

Cluster in Grey by Janaki Larsen at OBJ OBJ

Janaki Larsen has earned an international following for her wonderful ceramics, which were also commissioned by Noma. She describes Cluster in Grey, also shown at OBJ OBJ, as “a collision of forms reminiscent of biological growths, tidal discoveries and seed pods.”

12

THING 003 by Caine Heintzman at OBJ OBJ

THING 003 is the latest segment in an ongoing exercise by Caine Heintzman (also one of the founders of lighting brand A-N-D) that explores how off-the-shelf materials can be easily reimagined as novel forms and functions (or non-functions). In this case, he used ordinary metal profiles and sheets to craft two sculptural cylinders that might stand as room-defining sculptures or signal other uses (a pair of benches, perhaps, though no one dared to sit on them).