Silicon Valley nerds have been lonelier since Fry’s Electronics shut down in February 2021 in the midst of the pandemic. The electronics store chain was an embodiment of the valley’s tech roots. But Micro Center, an electronics retailer from Ohio, has opened its 29th store in Santa Clara, California. And so the nerd kingdom has returned. I see this as a big deal, following up on the opening of the Nintendo store — the second in the country after New York — in San Francisco earlier this month. After years of bad economic news, it’s nice to see signs that the Bay Area is coming back. No. To answer your question, nerds cannot live at the Micro Center store. But this isn’t just any store. It’s a symbol — a sign that shows tech still has a physical presence in Silicon Valley, in addition to places like the Buck’s Restaurant, the Denny’s where Nvidia started, the Intel Museum, the Computer History Museum, the California Academy of Sciences and the Tech Museum of Innovation. Other historic hangouts for techies like Walker’s Wagon Wheel, Atari’s headquarters, Lion & Compass — even Circuit City — have long since closed. But hey, we’ve got the Micro Center store, and the Apple spaceship is not that far away. The grand opening week has been going well and I got a tour of the superstore from Dan Ackerman, a veteran tech journalist who is editor-in-chief at Micro Center News. As I walked into the place, Ackerman was finishing a chat with iFixit, a tech repair publication which has its own space for podcasts inside the store. That was unexpected, as I’ve never seen a store embrace social media in such a way. Can you stump the geniuses at the Knowledge Bar at Micro Center? Nearby was the Knowledge Bar, where you can get all your tech questions answered — much like the Genius Bars in Apple Stores. And there were repair tables out in the open. There are a lot of things for tech enthusiasts can like about Micro Center. First, it’s not as sprawling as Fry’s, which had zany themes like ancient Egypt and a weird mix of electronics goods as well as household appliances, cosmetics, magazines and tons of snack foods. (The Egyptian-themed Campbell, California Fry’s store that I drove by often was 156,000 square feet, and now it’s home to a pickleball court complex). Fry’s was a store that stereotyped nerds and Silicon Valley, which also had its own HBO television show that carried on the stereotypes. Nvidia’s latest RTX 50 Series GPUs were in stock at Micro Center. The Micro Center store, by contrast, is smaller at 40,000 square feet and stocked with many more practical nerd items. For the grand opening, this store had the very practical product of more than 4,000 graphics processing units (GPUs) in stock from Nvidia (which just launched its 50 Series GPUs) and AMD, Ackerman told me. Some of those graphics cards cost as much as $4,000. Not to be outdone. AMD has a row of GPUs at Micro Center too. “There were people waiting to get to the GPUs,” Ackerman said. On display was a gold-plated graphics card that was being auctioned off for charity. It was signed by Jensen Huang, Nvidia CEO. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang signed this GPU being auctioned for charity at Micro Center. “I joke that whoever wins the bid should get a Jensen leather jacket as well,” said Ackerman. And this Micro Center store has a good location (5201 Stevens Creek Boulevard in Santa Clara) that is just a six-minute drive from Apple’s worldwide headquarters and (perhaps better yet) a one-minute walk from the Korean Hair Salon. Micro Center had a previous store in Silicon Valley, near Intel’s headquarters in Santa Clara. But that store close in 2012 because the company couldn’t negotiate better terms with the landlord. For its return to the Bay Area, Micro Center bided its time and came back at a time when many other retail chains were failing. It proves that the once proud region — the birthplace of electronics — still merits its own electronics store. You can buy dyes for liquid-cooled tubes at Micro Center. Sure, we have Target, Best Buy and Walmart selling lots of electronics gear. But there’s nothing like the Akihabara electronics district in Japan, which is full of multi-story electronics stores and gaming arcades. But this store is loaded with today’s modern top gear, like AI PCs, Ubiquity home networking gear, and dyes for multi-colored water-cooling systems. Vendors like Razer and Logitech had their own sections. Ackerman was pleased to show me the USB-C to USB-A adapter in stock, among many obscure items. And he showed me the inventory machine that could rotate its stock of 3D-printing filaments and give you the exact SKU that you scanned with a bar code. Tech hobbyists can find their love at Micro Center. “That’s super fun. I call it Mr. Filaments,” Ackerman said of the inventory robot. There’s a section for hobbyists who like single-board computing and DIY projects. There’s a set of video, audio and digital content creation tools for content creators. All told, there are more than 20,000 products and over 100 tech experts who can help. It even has the numbered cashier locations where you can check out — the same kind of checkout stands that Fry’s had. The Mr. Filaments robot inventory system at Micro Center. Customers can receive authorized computer service for brands like Apple, Dell, and HP, benefiting from same-day diagnostics and repairs, thanks to over 3,000 parts on hand through partnerships with leading OEMs. I only wish it had a help desk for Comcast. Micro Center has gear to entertain geeks. Micro Center started in 1979 in Columbus, Ohio. It’s a surprise there aren’t more nerd stores, given how ubiquitous tech is around the world these days. But Ackerman said, “These guys are really doing it right, picking and choosing, finding the right cities, finding the right locations. That’s why Charlotte is great. Miami is a big tech hub, especially for health tech. And we’re literally five minutes away from Apple headquarters and plenty of other places. People from HP and Nvidia and other companies are coming in today to hang out.” “Even though this store is big, the CEO (Richard Mershad) is really into curation, making sure it’s the right mix of stuff. He’s making sure it doesn’t go too far afield. So you’re not going to come in here and find, you know, hair dryers or lawncare equipment,” Ackerman said. “You’re going to find computer and home entertainment stuff, and DIY gear. There are components, just like in a Radio Shack, that hobbyists care about.” Dan Ackerman knows how to install a TV on your wall. As for the Micro Center News, Ackerman told me he has around 10 regular contributors and 20 more freelancers writing gadget reviews and other stories about tech gear. It is a kind of refuge for that vanishing breed of professional tech journalists. No wonder I was so nostalgic visiting Micro Center.

Even as children, we in the U.S. learn that June brings good things—warmer weather, ice cream trucks, and most significantly, summer break from school. As an adult, all of those things still matter to me (substitute summer break for outdoorsy weekends), but the arrival of summer produce has crept up to the top of my June list of good things. In this monthly article, I take a look at the fruits and veggies coming into season and some incredible ways you can use them. Let’s dive into June's offerings. Why seasonal and local produce is greatLong distance shipping for out-of-season produce is convenient, but there is usually a price to pay with literal higher prices or lesser quality (or both). Using seasonal produce is a step toward supporting smaller farms situated somewhere closer to where you live rather than a monoculture farm somewhere far away. A big, healthy harvest with shorter shipping distances likely means a cheaper price tag for you. And hopefully the produce exhibits the best possible flavor profile since it doesn’t have to travel great distances to arrive at your market. Buying local and in season means you’ll possibly see a greater variety of tender greens and delicate fruits that don’t travel out of state well. Those little strawberries that pop up at the farmers market are so juicy and delicate you’d never see them packed up and shipped out across the country—they’d be turned into jam before they got a chance to leave. Go to those summer farmers markets downtown and reap the benefits of the juiciest summer fruit.  What’s in season right nowYou’re probably seeing it already, but everywhere from tiny produce markets to big box grocery stores are growing fuller with the very beginnings of summer produce glut, and the prices are dropping. Personally, I’m celebrating the low berry prices with morning smoothies. (If you’re a fruit smoothie-enthusiast like I am, here are a couple great blenders that might interest you.) For those who are growing their own food, keep up with our Home and Garden section for tips.The new produce coming in for June:ApricotsSweet Cherries (not quite yet for tart cherries)StrawberriesBlueberriesRaspberriesBlackberriesBeetsBroccoli Cabbage Garlic scapesGreen peasMustard greensZucchini & summer squashSay, "au revoir" to:AsparagusArugulaRampsParsnipsProduce in peak season:Beet greensLettuceRadishes and their greensRhubarbSpinachTurnipsChardSnap peasSnow peasNote that your specific region may be warmer or cooler, or farther away—so don’t worry if floods of strawberries haven’t arrived yet, or if you still have loads of wild ramps growing in the yard. Nature will do its thing, and we’ll continue trying to keep up.What to cook with your spring bountyFruitsJune is the beginning of having all the fun you want to have when it comes to recipes. Let’s start with fruit. We’re looking at loads of berries for the next few months and the beginnings of stone fruits, so I recommend warming up those ovens. I know that sounds too hot, but think of the pies! Cherry pies, Strawberry-rhubarb, apricot and blackberry, blueberry-goat-cheese tarts—you simply must make some. To help you along, here’s my fail-proof way to lattice pie crust, and my best advice on preventing soggy fruit pies. They’re well worth a read if you’ve had trouble in the past.If you’d rather be stuck in a room with a pack of wild 7-year-olds than make a pie, OK fine. Make a fruit trifle with leftover cake, stuff delicious biscuits with summer fruit and whipped cream, and why not take a crack at your own homemade berry ice cream. I made vanilla bean ice cream with a swirl of fresh raspberry compote and I felt pretty damn pleased with myself. If you’re shopping for affordable ice cream machines, I just tested and reviewed this Cuisinart.As I mentioned, fruit smoothies always welcome a handful of frozen berries. I should mention (and I’ll say this again at the end of the season): Freezing your berries is the best way to reduce waste. (Here’s the best way to freeze fruit.) If you’re using berries to top yogurt or granola, there’s no need to freeze it, but if you’re baking with fruit, making jams, or blending smoothies, freezing is extremely helpful. Pop the fruit in the freezer in the container it came in (hull strawberries first, and halve the big ones). After a few hours, they’ll be solid and you can dump them into a zip-top freezer bag for easier freezer storage.Vegetables All the cruciferous veggies are going strong right now, so go ahead and get that fiber. Use shaved broccoli and cabbage in a salad. Wilt spinach, chard, or mustard greens down in a hearty soup. My absolute favorite thing to do with summer zucchini is to make Thai kai jiao. You can use different vegetables in this dish, but zucchini is my all-time favorite. You also can’t go wrong with grilling big, fat planks of summer squash and drizzling them with a light vinaigrette. Got lots of crisp lettuce? Well, you can always bulk up your warm salads or do what I do and add it to every sandwich. Bacon, egg, cheese, and lettuce. Meatball parm sub and lettuce. Peanut butter and—OK, maybe not that one. Pay special attention to the fleeting produce like rhubarb, ramps, and scapes. They’re around for just a blink so grab them up. Try roasting your rhubarb with strawberries for a sweet, tart, and caramelized treat. Enjoy the best of June produce, and hopefully we’ll get a peek at tomatoes at the end of the month. 

A new developer diary video has been released by Hangar 13 for the upcoming Mafia: The Old Country. The 5-minute video, which you can check out below, features various developers of who worked on the game from Hangar 13 and Italian studio Stormind Games talking about the upcoming title. Among the notable talking heads in the video are game director Alex Cox, lead writer Matthew Aitken, and art director Steve Noakes, among others. Stormind Games’ senior project manager Salvo Fallica also chimes in about the title, saying “Our priority has always been to ensure that everything in the game feels authentic.” Authenticity is a key word in this developer diary, with even Cox and Aitken talking about the steps the developers had taken to make sure that things in Mafia: The Old Country feel exactly how they should. “The details are absolutely key in keeping the immersion of the player,” said Aitken in the video, before being followed up by Cox talking about how much of the title is grounded in real-world history of the Sicilian Mafia. According to Cox, the studio got field experts to help it realise its vision for the game and provide context. “We need to make sure that the game is grounded in the real history of the Sicilian Mafia,” said Cox. “Experts in their field are able to kind of help us contextualize things that we read in the stuff that we see on the screen with real lived experiences.” Noakes also spoke about how much attention was paid to the details in some of the smallest aspects of Mafia: The Old Country. He brings up knives, which can be used in the game, and how much work the studio had to do to figure out what knives would look like in the time period in which Mafia: The Old Country takes place. “When it comes to something like the knives in the game, there’s very little reference that’s available for that. Right?” said Noakes. “And so really we had to dig very deep. We went into some tiny little backwater of a machine shop where this guy and his son were still crafting knives by hand, imbuing them with their particular regional styles, known for their thumbprints, if you like, of their particular approach to building knives. We just wouldn’t really experienced that any other way.” Associate art director Jakub Vavrik also spoke about how different Mafia: The Old Country will feel when compared to its predecessors, since the previous games in the franchise take place in dense cities. “The upcoming title, on the other ”Previous Mafia games were more or less city heavy, and now we are moving to more organic wildlife setting of Sicily,” he said. Mafia: The Old Country was announced back in August 2024. The game, under development for PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S, is slated for release on August 8. The release date was announced with a trailer that also showcased some gameplay. In the meantime, if you’re planning on playing the title on PC, check out its hardware requirements.

The housing catalogue includes 50 low-rise home designs, including for garden suites, duplexes, four-plexes and six-plexes. Each design was developed by local architecture and engineering teams with the intent of aligning with regional building codes, planning rules, climate zones, construction methods and materials. TEXT John Lorinc RENDERINGS Office In Search Of During the spring election, the Liberals leaned into messaging that evoked a historic moment from the late 1940s, when Ottawa succeeded in confronting a severe housing crisis.  “We used to build things in this country,” begins Prime Minister Mark Carney in a nostalgic ad filled with archival images of streets lined with brand new post-World War II “strawberry box” bungalows, built for returning Canadian soldiers and their young families.  The video also includes montages from the now-iconic design “catalogues,” published by Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC). These supplied floor plans and unlocked cheap mortgages for tens of thousands of simple suburban houses found in communities across the country. “The government built prefabricated homes that were easy to assemble and inexpensive,” Carney said in the voice-over. “And those homes are still here.”  Over the past year, CMHC has initiated a 21st century re-do of that design catalogue, and the first tranche of 50 plans—for garden suites, duplexes, four-plexes and six-plexes—went live in early March. A second tranche, with plans for small apartments, is under development.  Unlike the postwar versions, these focus on infill sites, not green fields. One of CMHC’s goals is to promote so-called gentle density to residential properties with easily constructed plans that reflect regional variations, local zoning and building-code regulations, accessibility features and low-carbon design. As with those postwar catalogues, CMHC’s other goal was to tamp down on soft costs for homeowners or small builders looking to develop these kinds of housing by providing no-cost designs that were effectively permit sets. The early reviews are generally positive. “I find the design really very compelling in a kind of understated way,” says SvN principal Sam Dufaux. By making available vetted plans that can be either pre-approved or approved as of right, CMHC will remove some of the friction that impedes this scale of housing. “One of the elements of the housing crisis has to do with how do we approve these kinds of projects,” Dufaux adds. “I’m hoping it is a bit of a new beginning.” Yet other observers offer cautions about the extent to which the CMHC program can blunt the housing crisis. “It’s a small piece and a positive one,” says missing middle advocate and economist Mike Moffatt, who is executive in residence at the Smart Prosperity Institute and an assistant professor at Western’s Ivey Business School. “But [it’s] one that probably captures a disproportionate amount of attention because it’s something people can visualize in a way that they can’t with an apartment tax credit.” This kind of new-build infill is unlikely to provide much in the way of affordable or deeply affordable housing, adds Carolyn Whitzman, housing and social policy researcher, and author of Home Truths: Fixing Canada’s Housing Crisis (UBC Press, 2024). She estimates Canada needs about three million new dwellings that can be rented for $1,000 per month or less. The policies that will enable new housing at that scale, she says, involve financing subsidies, publicly owned land, and construction innovation, e.g., prefabricated or factory-built components, as well as “consistent and permissive zoning and consistent and permissive building codes.”  Indeed, the make-or-break question hovering over CMHC’s design catalogue is whether municipalities will green-light these plans or simply find new ways to hold up approvals.   An axonometric of a rowhouse development from the Housing Catalogue, designed for Alberta. A team effort Janna Levitt, partner at LGA Architectural Partners, says that when CMHC issued an RFP for the design catalogue, her firm decided to pitch a team of architects and peer reviewers from across Canada, with LGA serving as project manager. After they were selected, Levitt says they had to quickly clarify a key detail, which was the assumption that the program could deliver pre-approved, permit-ready plans absent a piece of property to build on. “Even in 1947,” she says, “it wasn’t a permit set until you had a site.” LGA’s team and CMHC agreed to expand the scope of the assignment so that the finished product wasn’t just a catalogue of plans but also included details about local regulations and typical lot sizes. Re-Housing co-founder Michael Piper, an associate professor at U of T’s John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design, came on board to carry out research on similar programs, and found initiatives in places like Georgia, Indiana and Texas. “I have not found any that moved forward,” he says. “Canada’s national design catalogue is pretty novel in that regard, which is exciting.” The noteworthy exceptions are California, which has made significant advances in recent years in pre-approving ADUs across the state, and British Columbia, which last fall released its own standardized design catalogue.  He also carried out a scan of land use and zoning rules in Ontario for 15 to 20 municipalities. “We looked to see [what] their zoning permitted and what the rules were, and as you might expect, they’re all over the place,” he says. “Hence the challenge with the standardized design.” At present, high-level overviews for the 50 designs are available, including basic floor plans, 3D axonometrics, and building dimensions. Full architectural design packages are expected to be released later this year. Levitt says the architects on the team set out to come up with designs that used wood frame construction, had no basements (to save on cost and reduce embodied carbon), and drew on vernacular architectural styles. They researched representative lot sizes in the various regions, and configured designs to suit small, medium and large properties. Some versions have accessibility features—CMHC’s remit included both accessible units and aging-in-place as objectives—or can be adapted later on.  As for climate and energy efficiency considerations, the recommended materials include low-carbon components and cladding. The designs do reflect geographical variations, but Levitt says there’s only so much her team could do in terms of energy modelling. “How do you do heat energy calculations when you don’t have a site? You don’t have north, south, east, west [orientations] and you don’t have what zone are you in. In B.C. and Ontario, there are seven climatic regions. There was a lot of working through those kinds of very practical requirements, which were very complicated and actually fed into the design work quite significantly.” As Levitt adds, “in 1947, there were no heat loss models because the world wasn’t like that.” LGA provided the architects on the team with templates for interior elements, such as bathrooms, as well as standards for features such as bedroom sizes, dining areas, storage sufficient to hold strollers, and access to outdoor space, either at grade or via a balcony. “We gathered together these ideas about the quality of life that we wanted baked into each of the designs, so that [they] expressed a really good quality of life—modest but good quality,” she says. “It’s not about the finishes. People had to be able to live there and live there well.” “This isn’t a boutique home solution,” Whitzman says. “This is a cheap and mass-produced solution. And compared to other cheap and mass-produced solutions, whether they be condos or suburban subdivisions, [the catalogue designs] look fine to my untrained eye.” A selection of Housing Catalogue designs for the Atlantic region. Will it succeed?  With the plans now public, the other important variables, besides their conformity with local bylaws, have to do with cost and visibility to potential users, including homeowners, contractors and developers specializing in smaller-scale projects.  On the costing side, N. Barry Lyons Consultants (NBLC) has been retained by CMHC to develop models to accompany the design catalogue, but those figures have yet to be released. While pricing is inevitably dynamic, the calculus behind the entire exercise turns on whether the savings on design outlays and the use of prefabricated components will make such small-scale projects pencil, particularly at a time when there are live concerns about tariffs, skilled labour shortages, and supply chain interruptions on building materials.  Finally, there’s the horse-to-water problem. While the design catalogue has received a reasonable amount of media attention since it launched, does CMHC need to find ways to market it more aggressively? “From my experience,” says Levitt, “they are extremely proactive, and have assembled a kind of dream team with a huge range of experience and expertise. They are doing very concerted and deep work with municipalities across the country.” Proper promotion, observes Moffatt, “is going to be important in particular, just for political reasons. The prime minister has made a lot of bold promises about [adding] 500,000 homes.” Carney’s pledge to get Canada back into building will take time to ramp up, he adds. “I do think the federal government needs to visibly show progress, and if they can’t point to a [new] building across the road, they could at least [say], `We’ve got this design catalogue. Here’s how it works. We’ve already got so many builders and developers looking at this.’”  While it’s far too soon to draw conclusions about the success of this ambitious program, Levitt is well aware of the long and rich legacy of the predecessor CMHC catalogues from the late 40s and the 1950s, all of which gave many young Canadian architects their earliest commissions and then left an enduring aesthetic on countless communities across Canada.   She hopes the updated 21st-century catalogue—fitted out as it is for 21st-century concerns about carbon, resilience and urban density—will acquire a similar cachet.  “These are architecturally designed houses for a group of people across the country who will have never lived in an architecturally designed house,” she muses. “I would love it if, 80 years from now, the consistent feedback [from occupants] was that they were able to live generously and well in those houses, and that everything was where it should be.” ARCHITECTURE FIRM COLLABORATORS Michael Green Architecture, Dub Architects, 5468796 Architecture Inc, Oxbow Architecture, LGA Architectural Partners, KANVA Architecture, Abbott Brown Architects, Taylor Architecture Group  As appeared in the June 2025 issue of Canadian Architect magazine  The post A housing design catalogue for the 21st century appeared first on Canadian Architect.

It's a compact and portable laser, perfect for the craft fair and small studio.

When I launched my third “brilliant” side project last year (don’t ask about the first two), I was hit with an annoying realization: having a website is crazy expensive. Ten bucks here, $15 there, and suddenly I was paying more to keep it alive than I was hoping to make selling my cute little stickers. So I started looking for alternatives, and that’s when I stumbled onto BonoHost’s lifetime web hosting plan. No monthly bills. No tiered “basic” vs “pro” nonsense. Just one payment, unlimited everything. Naturally, I was suspicious. But I took the plunge, and months later, I haven’t paid another cent, and everything still runs like clockwork. Here’s what you actually get For a one-time fee ($58.50 with code BONO10 at checkout, normally $64.99), you get unlimited websites, domains, bandwidth, email addresses, databases, and storage. No caps. No creeping usage fees. It also includes a beginner-friendly control panel and one-click installs for 1,500+ apps—like WordPress, e-commerce stores, CRMs, and more. Basically, BonoHost gives you the tools most other providers hide behind paywalls—and the support staff hasn’t ghosted me once. What it doesn’t include (but that’s OK) You’ll still need to buy your own domain name (think: myweirdproject.com), which usually runs $10–$15/year through registrars like Namecheap or GoDaddy. There’s no way around that. Also, this is shared hosting. So, while it works great for blogs, portfolios, and small business sites, it’s not meant for running a high-traffic SaaS empire or spinning up an AI chatbot with GPU needs. A no-brainer for anyone tired of paying monthly forever If you’re launching a blog, freelancing, selling art, or just want your own corner of the internet, this hosting plan gives you what you need without the recurring charge. It’s like buying your own coffee maker instead of paying $6 at a time for someone else to do it at Starbucks. Use code BONO10 at checkout to drop the price from $64.99 to $58.50 (MSRP is usually $1,614.60, so this is a crazy-good deal on an unlimited web hosting plan). StackSocial prices subject to change. _ BonoHost Unlimited Plan: Lifetime Web Hosting Subscription See Deal

View of the south façade before construction of a new residential project that now conceals Le Christin from Boulevard René Lévesque. PROJECT Le Christin, Montreal, Quebec ARCHITECT Atelier Big City PHOTOS James Brittain   PROJECT Les Studios du PAS, Montreal, Quebec ARCHITECT L. McComber in collaboration with Inform  PHOTOS Ulysse Lemerise   Nighttime, April 15, 2025. A thousand volunteers are gathering in Montreal, part of a province-wide effort to try and put numbers on a growing phenomenon in cities like Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto, and many others. The volunteers are getting ready to walk around targeted areas in downtown Montreal and around certain subway stations. Temporary shelters are also visited. First conducted in the spring of 2018, this survey showed that 3,149 people were in a vulnerable situation at the time. Four years later, a similar effort revealed that Montreal’s homeless population had risen to 4,690 people—and that there were some 10,000 people experiencing homelessness in the whole of the province. The 2025 numbers are expected to be significantly higher. For the organizers, this one-night snapshot of the situation is “neither perfect nor complete.” However, for nonprofit organizations and governmental bodies eager to prevent a vulnerable population from ending up on the streets, the informal census does provide highly valuable information.  Two recent initiatives—very different from one another—offer inspiring answers. The most recent one, Le Christin, was designed by Atelier Big City (led by architects Anne Cormier, Randy Cohen, and Howard Davies) and inaugurated in 2024. Studios du PAS, on the other hand, was designed by Montreal firm L. McComber, and welcomed its first tenants in 2022. Both projects involved long-standing charities: the 148-year-old Accueil Bonneau, in the case of Le Christin, and the 136-year-old Mission Old Brewery for Studios du PAS. Le Christin was spearheaded, and mostly financed, by the Société d’habitation et de développement de Montréal (SHDM), a non-profit, para-municipal corporation created in 1988. Studios du PAS was first selected by the City of Montreal to be built thanks to the Rapid Housing Initiative (RHI) program run by the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC). Le Christin also received a financial contribution from the CMHC towards the end of the process. Boldly coloured blind walls signal the presence of Le Christin in the center of a densely occupied city block, with entrance to the left along Sanguinet Stree. Le Christin Although sited in a very central location, near the buzzing St. Catherine and St. Denis streets, Le Christin is hard to find. And even when one suddenly spots two seven-storey-high walls, coloured lemon-zest yellow and mango orange, it’s difficult to figure out what they are about. A stroll along the tiny Christin Street finally reveals the front façade of this new facility, now home to some of Montreal’s most vulnerable citizens.  View of Le Christin’s modulated front façade. Galvanized steel panels at ground level add a soft touch while protecting the building from potential damage caused by snow plows. Le Christin is unique for a number of reasons. First among them is its highly unusual location—at the centre of a dense city block otherwise occupied by university buildings, office towers, and condo blocks. Until a few years ago, the site was home to the four-storey Appartements Le Riga. The Art Deco-style building had been built in 1914 by developer-architect Joseph-Arthur Godin, who was a pioneer in his own right: he was one of the first in Montreal to experiment with reinforced concrete structures, a novelty in the city at the time. A century later, Le Riga, by then the property of SHDM, was in serious need of repair. Plans had already been drafted for a complete renovation of the building when a thorough investigation revealed major structural problems. Tenants had to leave on short notice and were temporarily relocated; the building was eventually demolished in 2019. By that time, Atelier Big City had been mandated to design a contemporary building that would replace Le Riga and provide a “place of one’s own” to close to 150 tenants, formerly homeless or at risk of becoming so.    Le Christin – Site Plan and Ground Floor Plan The entire operation sparked controversy, particularly as Le Christin started to rise, showing no sign of nostalgia. The architects’ daring approach was difficult to fathom—particularly for those who believe social housing should keep a low profile.  The program, originally meant for a clientele of single men, gradually evolved to include women. In order to reflect societal trends, the architects were asked to design 24 slightly larger units located in the building’s east wing, separated from the rest of the units by secured doors. Thus, Le Christin is able to accommodate homeless couples or close friends, as well as students and immigrants in need. A tenants-only courtyard is inserted in the south façade. In order to provide the maximum number of units requested by SHDM, each of the 90 studios was reduced to 230 square feet—an adjustment from Atelier Big City’s initial, slightly more generous plans. In a clever move, an L-shaped kitchen hugs the corner of each unit, pushing out against the exterior wall. As a result, the window openings recede from the façade, creating a sense of intimacy for the tenants, who enjoy contact with the exterior through large windows protected by quiet Juliet balconies. Far from damaging the initial design, the added constraint of tightened units allowed the architects to modulate the building’s façades, creating an even stronger statement. On the unit levels, corridors include large openings along the south façade. Each floor is colour-coded to enliven the space; overhead, perforated metal plates conceal the mechanical systems. An extra floor was gained thanks to the decision to expose the various plumbing, electrical, and ventilation systems. Well-lit meeting rooms and common areas are found near Le Christin’s front entrance, along with offices for personnel, who are present on the premises 24 hours a day. Apart from a small terrace above the entrance, the main exterior space is a yard which literally cuts into the building’s back façade. This has a huge impact on the interiors at all levels: corridors are generously lit with sunlight, a concept market developers would be well advised to imitate. The adjacent exit stairs are also notable, with their careful detailing and the presence of glazed openings.  The fire stairs, which open onto the exterior yard at ground level, feature glazing that allows for ample natural light. Le Christin has achieved the lofty goal articulated by SHDM’s former director, architect Nancy Schoiry: “With this project, we wanted to innovate and demonstrate that it was possible to provide quality housing for those at risk of homelessness.” The low-slung Studios du PAS aligns with neighbourhood two-storey buildings. Studios du PAS In sharp contrast with Le Christin’s surroundings, the impression one gets approaching Studios du PAS, 14 kilometres east of downtown Montreal, is that of a small town. In this mostly low-scale neighbourhood, L. McComber architects adopted a respectful, subdued approach—blending in, rather than standing out.  The project uses a pared-down palette of terracotta tile, wood, and galvanized steel. The footbridge links the upper level to shared exterior spaces. The financing for this small building, planned for individuals aged 55 or older experiencing or at risk of homelessness, was tied to a highly demanding schedule. The project had to be designed, built, and occupied within 18 months: an “almost impossible” challenge, according to principal architect Laurent McComber. From the very start, prefabrication was favoured over more traditional construction methods. And even though substantial work had to be done on-site—including the installation of the roof, electrical and mechanical systems, as well as exterior and interior finishes—the partially prefabricated components did contribute to keeping costs under control and meeting the 18-month design-to-delivery deadline. Les Studios du PAS The building was divided into 20 identical modules, each fourteen feet wide—the maximum width allowable on the road. Half the modules were installed at ground level. One of these, positioned nearest the street entrance, serves as a community room directly connected to a small office for the use of a social worker, allowing staff to follow up regularly with tenants. Flooded with natural light, the double-height lobby provides a friendly and inclusive welcome. The ground level studios were designed so they could be adapted to accommodate accessibility needs. Some of the ground floor units were adapted to meet the needs of those with a physical disability; the other units were designed to be easily adaptable if needed. All studio apartments, slightly under 300 square feet, include a full bathroom, a minimal kitchen, and sizeable storage space hidden behind cabinet doors. Most of the apartments include a small exterior alcove, which provides an intimate outdoor space while creating a subtle rhythm along the front façade. Inside the studio units, storage cupboards for clothes and belongings were added as an extension of the kitchen wall. Conscious of the tradition of brick residential buildings in Montreal, yet wanting to explore alternate materials, the architects selected an earth-toned terracotta tile from Germany. The 299mm x 1500mm tiles are clipped to the façade, allowing for faster installation and easier maintenance. All units enjoy triple-glazed windows and particularly well insulated walls. A high-performance heat pump was installed to lower energy demand—and costs—for heating and cooling needs. Wood siding was used to soften the upper-level balconies, which provide protected outdoor spaces for residents.   Pride and Dignity Le Christin and Les Studios du PAS have little in common—except, of course, their program. Architecturally speaking, each represents an interesting solution to the problem at hand. While Le Christin is a high-spirited, flamboyant statement, Studios du PAS is to be praised for its respectful attitude, and for the architects’ relentless search for interesting alternatives to traditional construction norms. Atelier Big City is one of few firms in Canada that has the guts—and the talent—to play with bold colours. Decades of experimentation (not just with public buildings, but also within their own homes), led up to Le Christin, which is perhaps their strongest building to date. Their judicious choices of colour, brick type, and materials transmit a message of pride and dignity. Both projects demonstrate enormous respect and generosity to their residents: they provide architecture that treats them not as an underclass, but as regular people, who need the stability of dignified housing to start rebuilding their lives. Odile Hénault is a contributing editor to Canadian Architect.   Le Christin CLIENT Société d’habitation et de développement de Montréal (SHDM) | ARCHITECT TEAM Anne Cormier, Randy Cohen, Howard Davies, Fannie Yockell, Gabriel Tessier, Sébastien St-Laurent, Lisa Vo | STRUCTURAL DPHV | MECHANICAL/ELECTRICAL BPA | CIVIL Genexco | LIGHTING CS Design | AREA 4,115 m2 | Construction BUDGET $18.9 M | COMPLETION November 2023   Les Studios du PAS  CLIENT PAS de la rue | ARCHITECT TEAM L. McComber—Laurent McComber, Olivier Lord, Jérôme Lemieux, Josianne Ouellet-Daudelin, Laurent McComber. Inform—David Grenier, Élisabeth Provost, Amélie Tremblay, David Grenier | PROJECT MANAGEMENT Groupe CDH | STRUCTURAL Douglas Consultants | MECHANICAL/ELECTRICAL Martin Roy & associés | CIVIL Gravitaire | CONTRACTOR Gestion Étoc | AREA 1,035 m2 | BUDGET $3.4 M | COMPLETION September 2022 As appeared in the June 2025 issue of Canadian Architect magazine The post A Place to Call Home: Le Christin and Les Studios du PAS, Montreal, Quebec appeared first on Canadian Architect.

The lab as we know it today is being transformed by how we think about medical research and drug discovery, as well as the intersection of artificial intelligence and biotechnology. As someone who has transitioned from a doctor to a tech CEO, I’ve witnessed firsthand how our mindset around medicine and innovation needs to evolve to keep pace with the accelerating changes in technology. In my journey, one of the most important lessons I’ve learned is: You can be too smart for your own good. It may sound counterintuitive, but when building a company or investing in new technologies, the smartest people often fall into the trap of overcomplicating things. A brilliant idea isn’t always enough. You need the right people who can think creatively, take risks, and make it happen in the real world. For me, the mindset shift from doctor to CEO was about understanding that it’s not just about medical knowledge; it’s about building the right ecosystem to nurture that knowledge and turn it into real and transformative change. I believe that a crucial part of that ecosystem for my company, Owkin, is a new form of intelligence: a biological artificial superintelligence (BASI) to complement the ingenious human minds working with us. Next generation AI tools, like K Navigator, Owkin’s agentic co-pilot for researchers, and K Pro for pharma, which is in the pipeline, will allow us to understand the full complexity of biology that has been beyond human understanding so far. This forms the backbone of Owkin’s mission: We are creating the next-generation pharma focused on discovering cures and significantly enhancing pipeline value by developing a new intelligence system capable of decoding biological truths at scale. AI can fill the innovation gap left by pharma As the pharmaceutical industry increasingly focuses on a handful of blockbuster drugs, it’s leaving behind many areas of medicine that are crucial for the future of healthcare. Too many diseases remain uncured as traditional pharma struggles to navigate the complexity of biology to augment care with efficient new molecules and diagnostics. From rare diseases to precision oncology, there’s an innovation gap that AI is perfectly positioned to fill. AI can identify previously overlooked opportunities and streamline the development of treatments that are highly personalized and targeted. Unlike traditional pharmaceutical companies that are heavily reliant on large-scale, high-risk projects, AI companies can operate in a more agile, data-driven way. We can make smaller, more informed bets, leveraging machine learning and vast datasets to uncover insights that were once out of reach. This shift enables faster and more efficient drug discovery, with the added benefit of offering solutions for diseases that may not have attracted the attention of big pharma. Cell lines alone aren’t going to work Most traditional biological research has been based on cell lines—cells removed from the human body and grown in petri dishes. But as we look to the future, there’s a growing realization that cell lines, and other traditional research methods, are becoming outdated. While once a staple in biomedical research, they do not accurately replicate the complexity of human biology, and they fail to capture the diversity and variability that exists in real patients. AI-driven models are capable of moving beyond the limitations of cell lines by integrating data both from research done in cells and tissues removed from the body (in vitro) and from research done in living animals (in vivo). This validation approach, which incorporates multiple data types and sources, allows us to create more reliable and predictive models of human diseases. Science is advancing, and so is regulation. The FDA’s recent announcement of plans to phase out animal testing in favor of “more effective, human-relevant methods” means that we are entering an era where therapies can be tested on human tissue models from the very start. In collaboration with leading academic centers, Owkin has developed a patient-derived, lab-grown organoid (a mini version of a human organ), a breakthrough that brings us closer to faster, more accurate, and humane drug discovery. The combination of clinical data, genomic insights, and AI not only accelerates the development of new treatments but also increases their chances of success in clinical trials. The lab of the future The lab of the future will be one where AI is at the center, guiding discovery, improving precision, and increasing efficiency. Validation using real-world data will allow us to make better decisions and achieve higher rates of success. The traditional research process is being upended by these new technologies, and that’s a good thing. The future of medicine will not just rely on human expertise, but on the power of AI and data to transform how we understand and treat disease. AI will deliver transformative therapies at an exponential scale, addressing the complexities of biology that traditional pharmaceutical approaches often cannot solve. Labs will become automated and serve as the ultimate playground for scientists, driving the future of drug discovery by harnessing the full potential of advanced AI systems. In these dynamic labs, organoids and agents will come together to work in synergy, allowing scientists to model and simulate human biology with greater accuracy. AI-driven technology will decipher biological patterns to identify the patients most likely to respond to specific treatments, significantly improving the chances of success in clinical trials and beyond. Seamlessly integrating these cutting-edge tools into the lab environment will transform the way we approach drug discovery, targeting diseases with a level of precision that was previously unimaginable. By pioneering the use of data, biology, and AI to decode the fundamental mechanics of disease and advance medical science, it will be possible to establish a foundation for the future of a “positive singularity” in medicine. Through this innovative ecosystem, AI can revolutionize medicine. The time to innovate is now, and the possibilities are endless. Thomas Clozel is cofounder and CEO of Owkin.

As if early June wasn't already going to be a wild enough time in the gaming world with the arrival of the Nintendo Switch 2, that's also when a whole host of showcases takes place as part of Summer Game Fest. Along with the two blockbuster events — Summer Game Fest Live and the Xbox Games Showcase — there are a bunch of other ones in store, including the always-delightful Day of the Devs. There could be even more on the docket. There's always a chance that Nintendo and Sony will run a Direct or State of Play, respectively, over the next few weeks. Ubisoft hasn't yet announced a Forward event for this year — perhaps because it has delayed a bunch of big games and isn't ready to talk about them.  As things stand, SGF is slated to run from June 6 until June 8. With E3 officially dead (organizer Entertainment Software Association is planning an industry-focused event for next April instead), SGF is now the de facto replacement and the biggest event for announcements and updates this side of Gamescom in August. We'll update this preview as more details about the showcases emerge, including additional events in the SGF nebula. We'll embed videos for each stream as they become available as well. Engadget will be on the ground in Los Angeles for the in-person side of SGF, which is for media and creators. We'll be bringing you hands-on impressions of many of the games that are featured during SGF Live. Most folks will be keeping up with everything from home, though. To that end, here's a breakdown of how to watch Summer Game Fest 2025 and what to expect from the extravaganza (we're bound to get a Hollow Knight: Silksong release date this time, right?!?!). Summer Game Fest 2024 schedule Summer Game Fest Live — June 6, 5PM ET Day of the Devs — June 6, 7PM ET Devolver Direct — June 6, 8PM ET Wholesome Direct — June 7, 12PM ET Women-led Games Showcase — June 7, 1PM ET Latin American Games Showcase — June 7, 2PM ET Green Games Showcase — June 7, 4PM ET Xbox Games Showcase — June 8, 1PM ET Death Stranding 2: On The Beach Live Game Premiere — June 8, 10PM ET How to watch Summer Game Fest Live — June 6, 5PM ET Watch on YouTube or Twitch Putting aside our annoyance at the timing of this showcase — late on a Friday evening in the UK and right when many folks on the East Coast are clocking out for the weekend — Summer Game Fest Live is one of the bigger events in early June. It starts at 5PM ET and will run for two hours. Organizers are promising "spectacular new video game announcements, surprises and reveals." That's pretty compelling, especially since host Geoff Keighley (rightfully) downplayed expectations ahead of last year's show.  We do know about a few games that will appear. SGF Live will include a fresh look at Wuchang: Fallen Feathers, a Soulslike action RPG from Leenzee, a studio based in China. That game will arrive in July. Open-world MMORPG Chrono Odyssey will make an appearance as well. Oh, and Hideo Kojima will be there, of course. SGF Live takes place just a couple of weeks before Kojima's Death Stranding 2: On the Beach arrives, so we'll likely get another peek at that game before a more in-depth event on June 8 (more on that momentarily). Perhaps some of the other projects Kojima's working on will get some time in the limelight too. We’re proud to welcome a record-setting 60+ partners for #SummerGameFest 2025, a global celebration of video games in Los Angeles this June. pic.twitter.com/1TZkEbKlHt— Geoff Keighley (@geoffkeighley) May 28, 2025 Keighley has also released an initial list of partners for SGF. It includes big names such as PlayStation, Nintendo Switch 2, Xbox, Steam, 2K, Epic Games and Square Enix. On the list is IO Interactive, so perhaps we'll get more information about the James Bond game that the Hitman studio has been working on for several years.  Embark Studios is there as well, and given that there's a lot of hype around its upcoming extraction shooter, Arc Raiders, there'll be high hopes for a release date for that one. On top of that, CD Projekt Red will be at SGF, but it's more likely to be promoting Cyberpunk 2077's arrival on the Nintendo Switch 2 than shining a spotlight on The Witcher 4 (it feels a little too early for the latter after the reveal trailer at The Game Awards in December). You can watch SGF Live on more than 20 platforms, including YouTube (that stream will be available in 4K at 60 fps), Twitch, X, TikTok, Steam and international services. The event will stream live from the YouTube Theater, and you can attend in person, if you like. In any case, we'll be bringing you all the major news from Summer Game Fest Live. We just can't promise we won't have an adult beverage with an umbrella next to us while we're covering the event. How to watch Day of the Devs — June 6, 7PM ET Watch on YouTube (the same stream as SGF Live above) or Twitch  Immediately after SGF Live ends, the YouTube and Twitch streams will segue into the summer 2025 edition of Day of the Devs. This indie-focused showcase invariably has a fantastic lineup of games worth keeping an eye on. Among the games making appearances are Possessor(s) from Heart Machine and "nightmarish RPG" Neverway from Coldblood and co-publisher Outersloth. We'll also see something from House House (Untitled Goose Game) — presumably the co-op "walker-talker" Big Walk that was revealed in 2023. In all, Day of the Devs will feature 20 games.  Last year's show included 2024 game(s) of the year contender UFO 50, the very intriguing platformer Screenbound, survival climbing game Cairn, the delightfully kooky-looking Building Relationships and sci-fi mystery Phoenix Springs. My Steam wishlist somehow expands quite significantly after each Day of the Devs showcase. Weird how that always happens. How to watch Devolver Direct — June 6, 8PM ET Watch on YouTube (the same stream as SGF Live and Day of The Devs above) or Twitch  Sorry to everyone who was hoping for Baby Steps and Skate Story release dates from the SGF edition of Devolver Direct. This installment will be entirely focused on one game, and it's neither of those. Devolver Digital will be showing off a previously unannounced title called Ball x Pit: The Kenny Sun Story. The publisher hasn't revealed any more details about this game yet, but apparently it's one that the Devolver "team themselves can't even put down — hundreds of hours later." Devolver's got a strong track record, so this will probably be worth your attention. How to watch Wholesome Direct — June 7, 12PM ET Watch on YouTube or Twitch Definitely don't overlook the smaller events that take place during SGF, as you can always find plenty of treats among them. One such event is the Wholesome Direct, which will feature around 60 cozy games. It will include world premieres, demo announcements and updates from publishers and developers including Playstack, btf Games, ustwo games and Wētā Workshop (whose Tales of the Shire: A The Lord of The Rings Game arrives in July). How to watch Women-led Games Showcase — June 7, 1PM ET Watch on YouTube This one does what it says on the tin. It's a showcase featuring games from women-led and majority-women studios. Women-led Games will feature 39 titles, including world premieres and release dates. How to watch Latin American Games Showcase — June 7, 2PM ET Watch on YouTube The Latin American Games Showcase will feature more than 50 games, all of which are from Latin American developers, oddly enough. Expect world premieres, game update news and more from this one. How to watch Green Games Showcase — June 7, 4PM ET Watch on YouTube The Green Games Showcase is a new addition to the lineup for 2025. This will focus on the game's industry's "growing commitment to the environment." It will feature games that make direct contributions to green initiatives. Other titles in the showcase center around sustainability, and some are designed to raise awareness or drive action regarding environmental causes. Amazon Games, Skybound Games and Team17 are among those taking part. The stream will include a Q&A about how games can inspire meaningful action on climate change. There will also be a fundraising drive to help plant 50,000 trees. How to watch Xbox Games Showcase — June 8, 1PM ET Watch on YouTube or Twitch (there's a separate ASL stream on Twitch too) What's the over/under on the number of times the phrase "day one with Game Pass" will appear on this stream? That's one phrase you can definitely expect to hear, but Microsoft will have plenty to share here. It's the biggest Xbox showcase of the year. There will be reveals and updates from across Xbox Game Studios, Bethesda and Activision Blizzard. Games that the company has in the pipeline include Fable (2026), Perfect Dark, Gears of War: E-Day, Everwild, State of Decay 3, Clockwork Revolution, Hideo Kojima's OD and Contraband. It feels a little early for an update on The Elder Scrolls 6 since that game is still years away. But we may find out more about those other games and some we don't yet know about, such as whatever Double Fine and Toys for Bob are working on.  I have my fingers crossed for more info on the Blade game that Arkane Studios is working on. It's a reasonably safe bet that we'll see something about the next Call of Duty here as well. There's always going to be space for offerings from Microsoft's partner studios and publishers too. Plus, you never know, we might get a peek at what Halo Studios has been cooking up. One game we'll definitely hear more about on June 8 is The Outer Worlds 2. That's getting its own time in the spotlight, with a dedicated event that will start as soon as the main Xbox Games Showcase ends. How to watch Death Stranding 2 Live Game Premiere — June 8, 10PM ET Watch on YouTube Kojima will join Keighley at the Orpheum Theatre in LA to kick off a world tour of events to celebrate the arrival of Death Stranding 2: On The Beach. There will be a panel discussion with some special guests, as well as a live demo of the highly anticipated game. In case you can't make it in person (ticket registration is open now), you can watch the hour-long event live at home.  Meanwhile, several publishers and other organizations are hosting their own shows around SGF. Here's when those will take place:  Access-Ability Summer Showcase — June 6, 11AM ET, on YouTube, YouTube with British Sign Language and Twitch (featuring games made by disabled developers and the accessibility options in each title) IGN Live — throughout June 7 and 8, on YouTube and Twitch Southeast Asian Games Showcase — June 7, 3PM ET, on YouTube Future Games Show — June 7, 4PM ET, on YouTube (featuring more than 40 games)  Frosty Games Fest — June 7, 7PM ET, on YouTube (showcasing "the coolest upcoming and recently released games made in Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand") PC Gamer's PC Gaming Show — June 8, 3PM ET, on YouTube (with 50-plus games) Phew. Get ready, gamers. Details on many, many new games are coming your way very soon.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/summer-game-fest-2025-what-new-game-announcements-to-expect-and-how-to-watch-162140617.html?src=rss

Lyse Martel is a Berlin-based “Color, Materials, and Finish” (CMF) designer and strategist in the mobility and consumer electronics industries. Her work combines craftsmanship and emerging technology to shape design strategy, drive material innovation, and create new sensory experiences. Lyse is fascinated by design’s power to shape how people feel and act. She believes design can foster emotional connection and wellbeing at a time when AI and automation are making their way into many new consumer product experiences, from the car to the living room. Below, Martel explores the emotional dimension of circular design and how the CMF field is evolving to meet the global challenges of circularity and sustainability. Fast Company: Please introduce yourself to our readers.Lyse MartelLyse Martel: I’m Lyse Martel, a CMF designer and design strategist, working primarily in automotive and consumer electronics. CMF, which stands for Color, Materials, and Finish, is about how a product looks, feels, and connects emotionally. So my work focuses on those elements as well as on strategy, brand identity, and sustainability. Although I mainly work in automotive and consumer electronics, CMF can apply to many different areas. Over the years I’ve worked with brands like Bang & Olufsen, Hopium, and NIO. And most recently I was directing a circular design project at Volkswagen Group—designing for circularity from the start with a large team of designers from different disciplines. How did you find your way into this field? It was step by step. My love for design was always there, even before I knew what to call it. It was shaped by my family’s craftsmanship, as well as my own curiosity for shapes, textures, colors, and sensory experiences. On my father’s side, I grew up around a lot of woodworking and carpentry. And on my mother’s side are generations of tailors. So that gave me an appreciation for textiles and textures and detailing and crafts. And I’ve always loved illustration and drawing and building small architectures with natural elements—everything that could involve materials and aesthetics. And I think that brought me to materiality and storytelling and eventually to CMF design. Were you able to find an educational path that encouraged your interests? I went to a specialized high school for applied arts and design, where I grew immensely as a creative person, and had a teacher who supported me and saw my potential with conceptual thinking. At university another teacher encouraged me to apply to a design internship in the automotive sector in Paris, and that’s how I formally entered the CMF design field. I was immediately drawn to the innovation and complexity of using material and color to shape the brand identity for a mobility project. [Photo: Lyse Martel]How do you stay on top of trends in color and material?Much of it is intuitive, but we also learn to connect the dots and see trends. I’m very much inspired by psychology and by what’s going on in the world—anything that could possibly impact human experiences and emotions. I’m paying attention to developments in architecture, interiors, digital and physical design, and material innovation. I’m also looking at global trends that have nothing to do with the design industry, including culture and the natural world. Nature plays a big role because you can look at how light interacts, how materials evolve with time, the functioning of ecosystems, and agriculture. I’m also very interested in how CMF design intersects with concepts like wellbeing and happiness, so I follow influential practitioners like Ivy Ross from Google, and Susan Magsamen, who works on neuroaesthetics, and Carol Gilligan, the psychologist and philosopher. Could you share more about neuroaesthetics? Neuroaesthetics looks at how design makes people feel: how beauty and art and design influence our brain, and how things like color, textures, light, and sound make us react cognitively or emotionally. We know that certain visual experiences will calm or excite us, while others make us feel uncomfortable. Designers can leverage those insights to create more meaningful and intuitive interactions. I’ve always been fascinated by how design makes people feel, and neuroaesthetics gives us the scientific reasoning behind those ideas. For instance, when I’m working with color and material for a car interior, I can decide to craft a more calming atmosphere with natural materials, or use soft lighting or a color gradient that can guide the user’s eye. I can think about how textures and tactility will influence the user’s feeling of comfort, or their perception of product quality or durability. When it comes to sustainability, there are a lot of materials that may not be readily acceptable to a user. In that case it can be helpful to lean into the authenticity of that material, perhaps by making it warmer or softer, or relating it to nature through colors or grain. So if we can somehow elevate or upscale the experience with that material, then we can start to shift the mindset to embrace sustainable materials or choices. Earlier you mentioned your work in circular design. Could you share more about that? Circular design is rethinking how we create and use products. It means designing for longevity, adaptability, and regeneration. We seek out the right materials, we design for easy reuse and repair, and we try to ensure that the product stays in circulation for as long as possible. Longevity is the number one criteria, because the longer you use a product, the less impact it has in terms of greenhouse gas emissions and other waste metrics. With circularity do you encounter pushback from industries that simply need consumers to keep buying more stuff? It does clash with short-term profit models, so it’s not easy for businesses to embrace it completely. But there is momentum for circular design, which is driven by consumer expectations, tighter regulations, and a growing recognition that resource efficiency is also smart business. I’ve seen mobility and consumer electronics firms try out concepts like modularity, repairability, and designing with disassembly in mind. Neuroaesthetics seems to be a strategy for tapping into people’s innate preferences for certain colors, materials, and finishes. But could also instigate behavior change, by tapping into the emotional layer of circularity? Absolutely, it can be surprisingly comforting, even if the materials are unexpected. When designing a circular product, you’re often working with waste, like a polymer that’s meant to circulate between cars. The challenge is making that material feel good, both emotionally and physically. What works is embracing the material’s character, maybe it has a soft texture or a slight irregularity, like a grain or uneven thread. Or it comes in a natural color that feels ultra-fresh. These little details shift the focus from what it is to how it makes you feel. You might not even realize it’s recycled plastic, but it just feels right. Sometimes, a car interior can feel like a cozy cabin, all because of the right textures and tones. That emotional layer is what really connects circularity.How could neuroaesthetics help make people comfortable with something new, like self-driving cars? It’s really about how shapes, colors and textures support the digital experience; all the micro-details working together to help the user feel at ease. I’ve been testing self-driving vehicles recently, and it’s surprising how much the environment impacts your reaction. In one case, the layout was minimal, with just the right number of buttons, and that simplicity helped me relax. But I also tested a car that was entirely gray, and it felt dull and dated. Light tones or soft gradients, something that evokes a sunrise or sunset, can go a long way in making the space feel more inviting.With automation, trust becomes a key part of the brief. How easily will someone understand what’s happening? Are they okay letting go of the wheel? That’s where CMF design needs to be fully integrated. I have to work closely with the interior and UX designers so that everything speaks the same language. If I propose a soft, natural palette and the shapes are cold or aggressive, it creates a disconnect.[AI Image: courtesy Lyse Martel]Can you share how you use AI in your work, or how AI factors into the CMF design process? It’s part of my creative process in that it helps me visualize materials, colors, and sensory experiences I’m considering for a project. It’s a great way to communicate an idea visually, and also to put it out there so someone else can pick it up and build on it. So for me, it’s really a tool that helps us be more precise in how we express and share ideas.There are also really promising use cases in circular design, where AI can help us map local resources and integrate them more intelligently into products. For example, there’s a lot of bamboo in China, linen in the north of France, or paper waste around Berlin. So what can we do with that knowledge? We can see where materials are available, but also think about how to reduce waste, predict life cycles, or imagine new reuse scenarios. Anything that involves localizing or optimizing can be supported by AI.And as the digital world increasingly shapes the physical one, I think there’s real potential in using these new, hyper-sensory AI-generated visuals to inspire physical experiences. Neuroaesthetics helps us design for emotion, and AI can help translate those emotional cues into visual concepts that, when made real, feel meaningful and multi-sensory. Do you ever get any pushback for the decisions that you or your team might make as CMF designers? Sometimes there’s a strong reaction to a particular color or material choice. I remember working on a concept car called Eve, developed with a strong focus on emerging markets and innovative design languages. I proposed an exterior in a rose gold tone, which could be read as pink. That sparked some discomfort in the room. I think it challenged certain expectations of what a car should look like, especially in Western automotive culture. But in China, rose gold is often associated with refinement and quality. It’s not seen as gendered in the same way. So for me, it was an opportunity to bring a fresh, culturally relevant aesthetic into the project. I understood the hesitation, but that’s part of the role. Sometimes CMF invites us to gently shift the visual language and open up new emotional possibilities.[Image: Felix Godard Design]Are there certain colors and finishes that are timeless and others that are more transitory? In the last decade we used a lot of neutrals, like beige and gray. Many brands also decided to shape themselves around their core colors—“our black,” “our white,” etc. And they would build up from there to include more exciting colors into their identity. Today I see those approaches being challenged. Gen Z is coming in and they have other ideas about what’s fresh. In the past few years we saw a lot of yellows. Recently, dark reds have been popping up everywhere, and they’re a powerful, timeless choice that adds richness and sophistication. These colors grab attention and can work well, but we need to be mindful of their relevance for long-term products.I believe there is still a need for that core timelessness. You might use black as a core color, but you might tint it blue to make it more interesting or less intense. When I was at Bang & Olufsen, we often discussed how to stand out from typical black consumer electronics. For a more lifestyle-oriented, subtle design in the home, why not use gray?[Image: courtesy NIO]Are you ever surprised when a particular color takes off? The latest Pantone color of the year is a brown-beige shade, which honestly surprised me. I’ve used warm grays before when I wanted to give a product a cozier, inviting feel, but this one doesn’t feel as fresh to me. I’m not sure it resonates with the moment in the same way other trends do. I love when a heritage brand takes an unexpected turn, like the paper company GF Smith, which recently rebranded with vibrant, poppy colors and introduced a bespoke, rounded sans-serif typeface, GF Smith Homie. I like to see they are brushing off the history to embrace different values and just be human. They want to stand for inclusivity, so they’re going to speak up about that and make sure it’s seen in the brand.Where do you draw creative inspiration? It’s really what makes me burn, what is calling my heart. I also need to talk to people—not only creatives, but people from all walks of life. I enjoy traveling through my city and looking at how people live. I learn a lot simply from riding the train, overhearing conversations, and observing how the mood changes with the seasons. I also read the news and check out certain magazines. There’s one I like, Imagine5, that focuses on how to make sustainability joyful. It explores that from all angles and it’s very accessible. You don’t have to be a sustainability expert to enjoy it. [Image: courtesy NIO]Could you share some of the projects you’ve worked on that you’re most proud of? I joined the global smart EV brand NIO in its early stages, when the brand vision was still taking shape, and contributed to the initial direction of color, materials, and finishes as part of the design team. The objective was to align with their vision of “Blue Sky Coming,” so we had to come up with progressive aesthetics and human-centered design, which later evolved into design principles. Shaping that brand was extremely rich for me in terms of learning and collaborating with so many talented designers. I also led a couple of projects – one was the previously mentioned concept car called Eve. I had the opportunity to introduce more natural materials and different colors that were not commonly used in the automotive space.Introducing new aesthetics became an important theme for my later work with Bang & Olufsen, which was about connecting the dots between sound and material and design. And then more recently, the circularity project I’ve been leading for Volkswagen Group is really close to my heart. The brief was to introduce longevity, adaptability, and recyclability across all design touch points for Volkswagen. To that end we provided creative direction that considered everything from exterior design, interior, user experience, and materiality.It was an interesting challenge to find the emotional layer of circularity, while staying on brand for Volkswagen. Circularity has a lot of very technical aspects, but as designers we can make circularity tangible. How do you deal with mistakes or failure in the creative process? I view mistakes or failure as an opportunity to test more, to rethink, and to reframe. If a design doesn’t work, how can we regroup and find a solution that’s way more interesting and beyond the obvious? In the creative process there can be a lot of fear associated with going against the grain. What I’ve noticed is that if we stay in that fear space, we close ourselves off to opportunities. It’s important to be in an open space of creativity and curiosity. Allow mistakes and failure to happen. When there is joy in the process and a strong intuition, you produce better results in the end. What advice would you give to aspiring designers, but also anyone who wants to enter the world you inhabit? Great design comes from a constantly growing and inspired mind. Stay curious and know that inspiration comes from everywhere. Embrace your uniqueness, but also be able to evolve from that. Be open to change and to new perspectives. There will be tough feedback and creative disagreements, but the important thing is how you receive those situations. Maintain a mindset of abundance and try to see the positive in anything you do. Finally, as creatives it’s important for us to take time alone to recharge, to reflect, and to work on our magic. When you’re feeling well and thriving individually, your creativity also does. At that point it’s crucial to rejoin the collective, where you have a chance to collaborate and experience the diversity of perspectives that fuels creativity. It can be a tough road for aspiring designers, but I would encourage them to proceed with care and openness, and to leave their fears behind.