Canadian Interiors Best of Canada 2022

The suite of Cannoe retail stores has been recognized with a Canadian Interiors Best of Canada 2022 Award.

Here is what the jurors had to say….

In a land where recreational cannabis shops outnumber bank branches and every shop sells the same provincially regulated product, design plays a crucial role in differentiating vendors and attracting customers. To enable cannabis supplier Cannoe to stand apart in its highly saturated market, the goal was to create a brand that integrates into communities to become as much a part of everyday life as the neighbourhood coffee shop. Williamson Williamson sought to make each Cannoe store contextual, with a unique palette anchored by the colour green. At the new location on Toronto’s Queen Street East, the buff-coloured brick bud bar makes a big statement with a nod to the building material of the area’s Victorian houses. The bricks’ modular size and sand-moulded solid body allows them to stack, twist and cantilever to create a curved seating area at the end of the bar and stepped and herringbone details at the linear areas of the counter. The warm brick complements the deep forest-green wall and light-green powder-coated shelving, giving a colour pop to the space.

…projects that caught the judges’ eyes and survived through various levels of cutting showed different pattern sets: interior environments with defined yet sober aesthetics; delicate treatment of materials and details; the right balance of light, texture and proportion; and a clear, well-balanced vision that placed users’ quality of life at the forefront. It was immensely reassuring to see these fundamental design doctrines employed and then elevated to such a degree in the 25th annual Canadian Interiors’ Best of Canada Awards, the country’s only design competition to focus on interior design projects and products without regard to size, budget or location. Interior designers, architects, decorators, and crafts persons form the community of design leaders shaping our built future, and the quality of their submissions illustrate that the pandemic has not knocked them off track.

Project Judges: Arnaud Marthouret; Barbora Vokac Taylor; Greg Parsons; Beverly Horii.