At the start of 2026, during one of the biggest snowstorms in Toronto’s history, the Interior Design Show and DesignTO festival lit a fire for design lovers. Azure‘s editors braved the cold to check out exciting launches: Ourse, an all-Canadian brand, was making its official debut at IDS, where other wonderful studios, including Hollis+Morris and Coolican & Company, were also displaying impressive furnishings. Ensemble, a collective out of Quebec, beckoned us to an underground gallery where an achingly hip design scene coalesced around inventive pieces like our cover star, the Bolda floor lamp by Lambert & Fils. Ensemble’s opening night party brimmed with true camaraderie, the Montreal-imported piquette fuelling animated conversations. The year in design, at least, was off to a good start. 

This issue of Azure delights in the possibilities that started in January and will continue into spring, when the big international fairs begin. We look back at the best in Toronto and forward to what awaits in Milan. The latter kicks off our trends package, focused on products and perspectives — or design at every scale, from the teapot to the city. It might seem odd to contain such multitudes in a “trends” package, but Azure’s approach in covering trends has always been to identify the major directions in all the disciplines we cover: furniture, interiors, architecture and (increasingly) urbanism.

We hold that good design is transformative across every realm, from the objects we encounter day to day in our homes to the quality of the urban fabric we are immersed in once we step outside. Our trends package, then, begins with a fantastic marble lamp and a curvaceous kitchen, and it ends with projects, imagined and realized, that would ensure a better quality of living for the individual and the community.

This attention to how we experience the city from the personal to the collective is also explored in our features about Toronto’s new LRT line, and two residential projects — one in Toronto, one in Victoria — where a live-work program informs the interior plan, and where keeping the building in scale with its surroundings is part of a larger consideration of caring for the existing neighbourhood character.

It’s also central to the design of Sydney’s fish market by 3XN — a place conceived as much for the food industry, including the fishmongers who participate in the 4:30 a.m. auctions, as it is for the city itself. It stands as an architectural marvel that embraces the waterfront and the people who gather there on so many levels. 

We hope this Spring 2026 edition of Azure, the first one we’ve produced from brainstorm to final proof under the umbrella of Sandow Design Group, will bring you inspiration and hope — and ignite your thinking about what the future might hold.

ALSO IN THIS ISSUE

Spotlight on Workspace

This Valencia co-working space, designed by Paloma Bau and T.O.T Studio, with vibrant, eclectic energy, is part of our package on great office environments.

Surface Deep

Featuring expressive patterns and textural finishes, this product showcase on surfacing and tile includes Nesting Room by Moooi for ABK.

The Greater Outdoors

Kasumi, by Living Divani, captures the optimism of the spring season — and is but one of 16 furnishing selections for making your outdoor spaces light, bright and beautiful.