Green and yellow Eames chairs fill Tacofino Ocho restaurant in Vancouver

This taco restaurant in Vancouver, designed by local studio September, is filled with fibreglass Eames chairs and stools, lush plants and curvy black tables.

Located in the city's Mount Pleasant neighbourhood, the Mexican eatery occupies a former factory building that Australian architect H H Simmonds completed in 1942.

September designed the restaurant called Tacofino Ocho to riff off the existing industrial space.It features concrete floors, walls rendered in cream-coloured plaster and others covered in grey square tiles.

Steel-frame factory windows bring natural light into the 2,800-square-foot (260-square metre) space, while volumes of gridded metal panels hang from the ceiling.

"The industrial quality of the space is emphasized through the use of minimal and unfinished materials such as concrete, steel, plaster and wood paired with a muted colour palette of greys, greens and black," September said.

There is roughly 100 moulded fibreglass dining chairs by mid-century designers Charles and Ray Eames in a variety of green and yellow colours. Other curved details, including rounded edges on tables and pony walls, reference the shape of the chairs.

September sought to strike a balance between the building's industrial past with the eatery's Mexican menu and opted to reference the 1960s countercultural movements with a floral motif.

"The intention of the project was to reference both the existing spatial condition, that of the heritage industrial building, and contrast it with the non-traditional ethos that characterises the client and their food," said the studio.

"These rough materials and minimal colours are contrasted throughout the space by the use of a formal flower motif," it added.

The motif references "flower power" and is represented in the shape of a tabletop around a circular concrete planter. Smaller black tables repeat this flowery outline.

Foliage plays an important role in balancing between decoration and function, and large dragon trees fill the large urn.

"While there is always a tension between experimenting with form and providing the functionality and durability that is required in a restaurant, much like in folk-art the approach here was to integrate the ornamental and utilitarian," September added.

The studio was founded by Brendan Callander and Shiloh Sukkau in 2019. Before creating September, Sukkau also designed another outpost for Tacofino in Vancouver called Tacofino Oasis.

In addition to Tacofino Ocho, Vancouver is home to a number of restaurants, including Caffè La Tana by Ste Marie, Studio Roselyn's pita shop Superbaba and Como Taperia tapas joint also by Ste Marie.

Photography is by Vishal Marapon

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Project credits:

Project architect: MGBA
Contractor: Pacific Solutions Contracting
Graphic design: Courtney Presber

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Live interview followed by exclusive performance by singer-songwriter Beatie Wolfe

As the final part of today's VDF x Beatie Wolfe collaboration, the musician speaks live to Dezeen founder Marcus Fairs before performing three of her tracks.

In a specially pre-recorded performance from her Los Angeles home studio, Wolfe performs three of her tracks: As You, What I Feel Inside and Oh My Heart.

The performance concludes the day-long collaboration with Wolfe that also featured the online premiere of the Orange Juice for the Ears documentary about her work, an exclusive preview of her upcoming From Green to Red installation, and an essay about the power of music to help people through difficult times.

About Virtual Design Festival

Virtual Design Festival runs from 15 April to 30 June 2020. It intends to bring the architecture and design world together to celebrate the culture and commerce of our industry, and explore how it can adapt and respond to extraordinary circumstances.

To find out what's coming up at VDF, check out the schedule. For more information or to join the mailing list, email vdf@dezeen.com.

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Superimpose’s Ollie Olanipekun creates dystopian campaign for Cat Footwear

Taking London's constant evolution as a starting point, the campaign was also inspired by the footwear giant's narrative 90s ads.

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"We have a tendency to look at representations of new cities as a kind of pornography" said Michael Sorkin

Ahead of Monday's collaboration between Virtual Design Festival and reSITE , the Prague urbanism conference has shared a video of a lecture by Michael Sorkin, in which the late architect and critic quashes the lure of glamorised future city proposals.

In the talk, which took place at the 2015 reSITE conference, Sorkin highlighted problems of the idealistic representations of future urban plans.

"We have a tendency to look at representations of new cities and quarters as a kind of pornography, the gaze that maligns and entraps," Sorkin said.

"For many years, these representations have often come in a protective, dystopian wrapper, reinforcing the idea that the visionary is ipso facto evil."

Sorkin was a "fierce and brilliant critic, perhaps the best"

Sorkin, who died last month of complications due to coronavirus, was regarded by many as the most important architecture critic of our time.

"I am heartbroken. This is a great loss," tweeted New York Times architecture critic Michael Kimmelman on hearing news of Sorkin's death.

Financial Times architecture correspondent Edwin Heathcote described Sorkin as a "fierce and brilliant critic, perhaps the best".

In his reSITE lecture Sorkin, who was director of the graduate programme in urban design at City College of New York (CCNY), recounted asking students to bring in visuals of ideal cities.

"Images of undeniable graphic power but ultimately completely sinister meaning"

He said he became concerned when a number chose dystopic, science fiction films, like Blade Runner, which presented a heavily controlled, futuristic Los Angeles in glamorous cinema.

"There was a long and troubling period when a very large percentage of them brought in an image from Blade Runner, the Fifth Element or similar," Sorkin continued.

"Images of undeniable graphic power but ultimately completely sinister meaning," Sorkin added. "I think this reflects both the incompetence and bad motives of authority and a kind of negative celebration of popular empowerment."

"One of the bugaboos of the politically correct is the idea of the masterplan"

Sorkin said that beyond these idealistic visuals, plans for cities are also associated with the idea of the all-powerful planner and authority.

"One of the bugaboos of the politically correct is the idea of the masterplan," he explained.

"Stinking of patriarchy, authoritarianism, insensitivity and the hubris of every kind of overreach, this territory of expressive inquiry is simply too suspect."

To contrast the dystopian and authoritarian examples, he cited Eutopic and historic city plans that pervaded his youth and early start in architecture. The "formidably planned Washington DC" where he grew up, a Kibbutz and a model he created of Brasília are among his references.

"My first architectural model sometime in grade school was a Brasília," he said. "Unable to think of another way of constructing a dome, I used a half grapefruit for the Congress Hall, an obvious early example of my commitment to green architecture."

Sorkin developed proposal for a self-sustaining New York City

Sorkin focused on the masterplan to provide a backdrop for projects created by his non-profit research group Terreform and his eponymous architecture studio.

The examples he cited are a self-sustaining New York City and Weed, a prototype for "a small sustainable, post-industrial, post-automotive city" in Arizona.

Sorkin headed architecture firm Michael Sorkin Studio and was president of Terreform. He had also taught at a number of institutions including London's Architectural Association and American schools Cooper Union, Harvard University and Columbia University.

He death on Thursday 26 March 2020 triggered shock and an outpouring of warm tributes from architects, critics and writers around the world.

Sorkin's talk took place at the 2015 reSITE conference called The Shared City.

On Monday 27 April, reSITE will take over Dezeen's Virtual Design Festival, presenting a series of highlights from its 2019 REGENERATE conference including talks by Ravi Naidoo of Design Indaba and Chris Precht of Studio Precht. For full details see the VDF schedule.

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Süddeutsche Zeitung Magazin assembles a crack team of Magnum photographers to spread a message of hope

Looking at how coronavirus and lockdown are affecting communities across the globe, the issue shows an intimate side to photojournalism.

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