Canadian Interiors September-October 2026
Issue Focus: Design That Refuses to Settle: where change is the brief, not the exception.
PROFILE
Workplaces are no longer static backdrops: they are systems that flex, shift, and reinvent themselves as fast as the organizations they support. And designers are expected to be just as nimble. Toronto-based SDI Design is a firm armed with just such a design strategy: “Adaptive planning,” where every element, from interior architecture to furniture to technology, can transform to meet changing needs. In this issue we examine how SDI Design is designing for future reuse, multi-purpose functionality, and lifecycle management to avoid early obsolescence and reduce long-term risk.
PROJECTS SPOTLIGHT
801 Seventh Avenue, Calgary /1801 McGill College, Montreal
Both projects make nods to traditional town squares where communities historically gathered, lingered, and collaborated. Instead of a lobby to pass through, their atriums feature clusters of meeting points that speak to the changing role of the office lobby and human-centric design principles, but also, to belonging and identity
PROJECTS SPOTLIGHT
Flexible active-learning classrooms, specialized laboratories, and a variety of collaborative study areas that encourage interaction among students, faculty and clinicians are key features for these projects that prioritize contemporary medical education over conventional academic space. Secure, inclusive layouts reinforce student well-being, allowing these new facilities to integrate hands-on clinical training for the next generation of medical practitioners.
PROJECT SPOTLIGHT
SOLEILS, Municipality of Saint-Norbert, Québec
Saved from closure through community mobilization and a benefit concert, the site now serves a new collective purpose at the centre of the village through the integration of this contemporary public artwork.
ASSOCIATION FOCUS
In this issue of ARIDO Journal, executive director Jeremy Vandermeij discusses how ARIDO is more than the body that protects the interior design title. Its standards, assessment process and public trust are shaped by members who volunteer their time to strengthen the profession. With most of its work powered by volunteers, ARIDO depends on designers willing to participate, lead and help shape what comes next.
SHOW COVERAGE: Salone del Mobile.Milano
The Salone del Mobile fair remains one of the key observatories for understanding how the furniture industry is evolving. The 2026 edition confirmed its international role, bringing together the global furniture and design industry and turning Milan into a meeting point for networking, emerging trends and product launches. See coverage here, here and here.
SHOW COVERAGE: NeoCon, Chicago
NeoCon 2026 welcomed 55,000 design professionals from 88 countries, reinforcing its status as the North American commercial interiors industry’s leading event. Under the theme “Where Design Connects,” 450 exhibiting brands showcased innovation through product launches, immersive programming, networking, and business development across four days of industry engagement. See coverage here, here, here and here.
GOOD READS
Summer Houses is a lush global survey of homes designed for light, leisure, and warm-weather living; and a landmark exhibition at London’s Design Museum reveals how Wes Anderson’s influence on interiors extends far beyond perfectly symmetrical compositions.
The Machine Wants an Office
If there is a bigger topic than the future impact of artificial intelligence (AI) on all our personal and professional lives, I’m not sure what it is. Listening in on keynotes and panel discussions at events like NeoCon, it is sounding like the predominant attitudes within the industry are fairly consistent: that AI’s greatest value in architecture and interior design lies less in generating finished concepts than in strengthening the stages that precede them. Designers remain responsible, goes the dominant line of reasoning, for framing the right questions, interpreting context and exercising judgment, while AI accelerates analysis, organizes research and surfaces possibilities that might otherwise remain hidden. That distinction is important, say the advocates, because it treats artificial intelligence as a capable research assistant rather than a surrogate designer. The implication is quietly practical: efficiency may increase, but the defining characteristics of professional practice still depend on experience, observation and an ability to understand people beyond the data they generate.
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Canadian Interiors
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The A+D industry’s official stance, at least if the associations that represent it are any indication, is not dissimilar to the unofficial one: that AI is poised to reshape design practice, but the profession’s responsibility remains unchanged. The Royal Architectural Institute of Canada’s new position statement, for example, argues that AI should augment design thinking rather than replace professional judgment, insisting that architects retain full accountability for every decision affecting public safety, ethics and the built environment. It also calls for greater transparency around AI use, stronger protection of intellectual property and client data, and equitable access to emerging tools so technological advantage does not deepen industry disparities. Innovation, the statement suggests, is most valuable when it strengthens human expertise, preserves trust and reinforces architecture’s public purpose.
When talking openly and honestly (and off the record) with designers about the topic, they admit that AI becomes more useful as projects become more complex. It can quickly synthesize workshop notes, identify recurring themes, analyze precedent images and propose alternative design directions, allowing teams to spend less time sorting information and more time evaluating it. Even so, the designers I’ve spoken with repeatedly acknowledge the limits of these outputs. AI cannot explain why clients respond emotionally to a space, because it lacks lived experience and contextual awareness. It can reveal patterns, but it cannot determine their significance without human interpretation, making critical judgment the profession’s most durable skill.
Resisting both utopian and catastrophic narratives, it is clear that AI will gradually reshape practice in much the same way earlier digital tools did. As a simple “writing on the wall” strategy (pun intended), designers should cultivate prompt writing as a professional competency, not because prompts replace design thinking but because they direct it. But also, a note of caution: AI introduces familiar concerns around bias, misinformation, environmental cost and overreliance, making thoughtful skepticism as valuable as technical fluency. The profession’s advantage may ultimately rest not in producing more images or documents, but in knowing when the machine’s answer deserves to be challenged.
Yet in a more immediate and tangible way, artificial intelligence’s first impact on the office may not be algorithmic at all, but architectural. As venture capital pours into AI firms, those companies are converting investment into leased square footage, creating a direct pipeline from financing to workplace demand. In Canada, technology companies accounted for 32.2 per cent of all office leasing in the first quarter of 2026, more than double the previous year’s share and the highest level recorded in a decade. Rather than displacing the office, AI is accelerating its return as a physical destination for talent, collaboration and growth.
For architects and interior designers, this marks the earliest measurable design consequence of the AI economy. Long before artificial intelligence reshapes how buildings are conceived or documented, it is already generating commissions by expanding the footprint of companies racing to recruit specialized talent. Toronto, Vancouver and Montréal all recorded stronger technology leasing activity, with Toronto posting a 2.4-fold increase between 2023 and 2025 while also reducing office vacancy, placing it among the healthiest technology markets as tracked by CBRE.
The broader lesson is that office recovery is becoming increasingly selective. Venture capital is concentrating in innovation ecosystems with established research institutions, technical expertise and mature urban infrastructure, making design quality a competitive advantage rather than an amenity. AI companies are seeking workplaces that support rapid expansion, reinforce culture and attract scarce talent, placing renewed emphasis on adaptable interiors capable of evolving alongside fast-moving businesses. For Canada’s design profession, AI’s most immediate legacy is not digital automation, but a fresh cycle of workplace projects driven by unprecedented investment in technology.