Nine of the best projects from the inaugural Montreal Design Week
In terms of design, Montreal punches way above its weight. Here, Dezeen selects nine projects from its inaugural design week, from conceptual reuse projects to stylistic experimentations.
In 2006, Montreal became the first North American UNESCO City of Design, and 20 years later, it finally has its first official city-wide design week.
During the week, many people commented on the collaborative nature of Montreal, a tight-knit city in the only French-language-majority polity on the continent.
Relatively cheaper rents and a thriving academic landscape give the city a unique character when compared with its more expensive neighbour, Toronto, and nearby New York.
The city still has a rich network of small-scale manufacturers, enabling local fabrication and close collaboration between designers and fabricators, with many practitioners moving back and forth between workshops and ateliers.
Hinged on the trade fair Index-Design, the inaugural Montreal Design Week showcased work born of these conditions, with groupings of designers and studios that have for years made strong showings at other cities' design weeks. Strong support from the city's design bureau was made clear by the presence of its representatives at many events.
Read on for some notable moments from the festival, which is surely one to keep an eye on in the coming years.
Ocycle by Concordia University Students
In the adaptive reuse building Fonderie Darling, students from Concordia University used the thick fabric roofing from the Montreal Olympic Stadium to create design objects, showing the potential for the reuse of architectural material in design.
Led by instructor and designer Jeremy Petrus, the students created chairs, tables, lighting and even wearables from the material.
Bar Extra by Menu Extra and Atelier Zebulon Perron
Though many of the exhibitions focused on reuse and gritty industrialism, the roving culinary project Menu Extra worked with interior designer Zébulon Perron to create a stylish social space for design enthusiasts.
The temporary bar was centred around a futuristic chandelier created with local design stalwarts Lambert & Fils. It was a futuristic space designed and executed as though the event had been going on for years.
Find out more about Bar Extra ›
Matière Sensible by Nouveau Milieu, Entremise and Surcy
After non-profit Entremise purchased a disused convent, the organisation began to collect material and distribute it, leading to an exhibition led by curatorial group Nouveau Milieu, which asked designers to repurpose the building's pews.
From this, 14 designers came up with reused objects that lined the convent's cloisters, from newly rendered chairs to lighting and even experimental structural beams.
Find out more about Matière Sensible ›
Index-Design scenography by Humà Design and Architecture
Local design studio Humà Design and Architecture decked out the interiors of Montreal's Grand Quay for the trade fair that anchors the week. Using light fabrics, paper and signage, the studio showed that light touches and contrasts can go a long way in setting the scene.
Within its scheme, the studio created an extremely stylish dining area for the event, with bright-red, interconnected tables created from reused benches found in Quebec's sugar shacks – where people in Quebec collect the nation's iconic maple syrup.
Soft Goods by Double Entendre
Curators Etienne Vernier and Sarah Yao-Rishea returned for the fourth iteration of their Double Entendre curatorial series (top image), this time tasking designers to riff on the theme of "softness".
The result was dozens of well-wrought pieces, from ceramics moulded into fabric-like forms by Meagan Collins to a rubber-clad lamp by Roy Zandboer and inflatable trays with aluminium bases by Laurent Lavoie. Vernier himself crafted disassemblable lamps from foam (pictured).
Passengers by Mold Gallery
Led by designers Jean-Michel Gadoua and Olivier Bonnard, Passengers featured the work of the collective Mold Gallery, which mixes conceptual themes of horror and decay with material experimentation.
A staggering range of materials from mycelium to ash and recycled plastic were on show in a gallery storefront in the city, with a large recycled plastic Brutus 01 Storage Unit by Gadoua sat under custom lighting covered with ceiling lamps by must-know designer Rachel Bussin.
1978 Sq-Ft at Studio Beaumont
A collective of designers at the converted industrial building Studio Beaumont on the edge of the city showcased work in the building's basement, leaning into the gritty quality of the space.
Jeremy Le Chatelier showcased a chair made of long strips of metal (pictured), while Stamatios Fragos showcased lighting design made in a similar style, with long strips of wood.
Bonus at Index-Design
Local studio Bonus Items chose to launch its collection of steel shelving at Index-Design. Its simple, yet whimsical, shelving systems were made using offcuts from ventilation systems and shaped using machinery already available through that process.
The designs are great for built-in systems or durable staples, as they're quite heavy, and represent a very typical Montreal style of making, with the designers knowing the ventilation manufacturer personally and going from there towards circular design practices.
Ex-Tension by Procedures
Hosted at the recently converted offices of architecture studio Atelier L'Abri, Ex-Tension showcased the design talent from the city's Mile-Ex neighbourhood, which, when taken together, may represent one of the most intense concentrations of industrial designers in a single neighbourhood.
Curated by design group Procedures, the show included many rising stars in the Montreal scene, including LESORR, Studio Jeta, Atelier Igor Zigor, Atelier Fometa and more, as well as some veterans, including personal work by Lambert & Fils founder Samuel Lambert.
Montreal Design Week ran from 28 April to 7 May 2027. For more city-wide exhibitions and festivals in architecture and design, visit Dezeen Events Guide.
The post Nine of the best projects from the inaugural Montreal Design Week appeared first on Dezeen.
