There’s a Really Big Show coming to Toronto. This year, IIDEXCanada will co-locate with six other high-profile annual real-estate events, to create The Buildings Show, North America’s largest annual exposition, networking and educational event focussing on design, construction and real estate. Together with Construct Canada, PM Expo, Home Builder & Renovator Expo, Concrete Canada, Construct International and the Toronto Real Estate Forum, IIDEXCanada will help anchor the three-day event, to be held a both the North and South buildings of the Metro Toronto Convention Centre, Dec. 3-5, 2014. Hosted again this year by the IDC (Interior Designers of Canada) and the RAIC (Royal Architectural Institute of Canada), IIDEXCanada will take up two days of the event in the North Building: Wed., Dec. 3, and Thurs., Dec. 4, 2014.
IDEXCanada is Canada’s National Design and Architecture Exposition & Conference. The event brings together the multidisciplinary design and architecture communities for a comprehensive event celebrating creativity and best practices. Annually, it attracts more than 15,000 trade professionals.
IIDEXCanada comprises 11 expos-within-the-expo. Of these, two are brand-new: the Educational and Institutional Expo, and the Terrazzo Tile & Stone Expo. The other nine expos cover a wide variety of subjects: Architecture Canada, Healthcare Canada, Hospitality Canada, Landscape Architecture, Workplace Design, Retail Design, Textile Design. Material World and -– in the spotlight this year -– Light Canada (see below).
The exhibition includes over 80 professionally accredited seminars, run by the IDC, RAIC and 25 association partners. It features innovative products from 350 exhibitors (including Altro, Gispen, Interface, Levey, Magic Lite Ltd., Make It Metal, Materials Inc., Metro Wallcoverings, OW Hospitality, Philips, Richelieu, Shaw Contract Group, Sooncho Textiles and Tarkett).
Special attractions abound.
This year’s Light Canada offers an expanded space for 50+ exhibitors showcasing the latest lighting products from around the globe. It includes a special installation and four seminars. Delivering the Lighting and Hospitality Keynote is David Rockwell, in conversation with Ilana Weitzman, editor of Air Canada’s enRoute magazine. Rockwell is the founder and president of Rockwell Group, a multi-disciplinary architecture and design practice based in downtown New York with satellite offices in Madrid and Shanghai; the firm specializes in a wide array of project types, from hospitality, healthcare to institutional to entertainment, interactive and theatre.
Delivering the Architecture Keynote is Daniel Libeskind, an international figure in architecture and urban design. Libeskind is renowned for his ability to evoke cultural memory in buildings of equilibrium-defying contemporaneity, informed by a deep commitment to music, philosophy and literature.
New this year is StartupSpace, a feature exhibition showcasing innovative concept workplace spaces for startup tech companies, created by local design studios and workplace manufacturers. This year’s participants include Quadrangle Architects partnered with Herman Miller; Modo; and Denegri Bessai Studio.
Popular returning attractions include the 2nd annual IIDEX Woodshop, showcasing 15 innovative wood prototypes that utilize Toronto’s untapped ash-wood resource; International Pavilion, featuring 50+ companies from all over the globe, with a focus on Italy, Spain, the Netherlands and other European countries; and THINK:Material, presenting the world’s most inventive, cutting-edge and sustainable materials.
Events include the IDC/IDA Toronto Leaders Breakfast, featuring keynote speaker Cameron Bailey, artistic director of the Toronto International Film Festival, better known as TIFF; PechaKucha, a lively presentation in which 20 slides are shown for 20 seconds each; and parties at the city’s hottest and newest furniture and design showrooms.
IIDEXCanada runs at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre North Dec. 3-4.
