At the foot of the Appuan Alps, where the marble-veined mountains soften into rolling farmland, a house was left unfinished. It had been conceived as a spa, complete with a sunken pool and the bones of a wellness retreat, but it never opened its doors. What it left behind was a rare kind of opportunity: a generous shell, a spectacular setting, and a private client with a very different vision.

In a city where century-old semis and narrow lots define the streetscape, the Bellwoods Residence takes a quieter kind of risk. Tucked into Toronto's West End, the home doesn't announce itself with a dramatic silhouette. Instead, it works from the inside out, letting daylight do the talking.

In Toronto's Financial District, where the pace of Bay Street rarely slows, a new steakhouse asks diners to do exactly that. Shinji, opening July 8th from Harlo Entertainment, is a modern Japanese steakhouse built on an idea as much as an ingredient: that true hospitality, like true craftsmanship, is felt long before it is seen.

In a design landscape often caught between minimalist restraint and maximalist excess, Toronto-based Lori Morris Design has built a career on refusing to choose. The studio's latest residential project, aptly named Urban Opulence, is a masterclass in that philosophy: a home where sculptural lighting, couture-level finishes, and a confident black-and-white palette collide to create something that feels less like a house and more like a fully realized world.

Somewhere in the heart of Georgian Bay, Ontario, a family retreat rises quietly from the water's edge, so at home on its rocky perch that it seems to have grown there. Pine Island Cottage sits on a secluded island, its form cascading gently along the site's natural stone formations rather than fighting against them. This is architecture as listening rather than imposing — a lesson in restraint that feels especially resonant now, as more designers look to the land itself for d

Along the shores of a Huntsville lake, where the Muskoka region has long drawn Ontarians in search of stillness, a new kind of getaway has taken shape. It is not a cottage in the traditional sense, nor a showpiece built to impress. It is a home engineered, room by room, to slow everyone down the moment they walk through the door.

In the suburb of Rosemère, just north of Montreal, a school is reconsidering what a sports pavilion can be. Long before students step onto a court or lace up for practice, the building itself starts teaching — through colour, texture, and the shape of a room. At Externat Sacré-Cœur's new 4,675-square-metre pavilion, learning does not wait for a classroom door to open.

s Montreal's offices fill back up, a quiet question is being asked in boardrooms across the city: what is a workplace actually for now? For the Business Development Bank of Canada, the answer wasn't more desks. It was space — generous, adaptable, human-centred space where people could gather, train, celebrate, and be together again.

High above the rooftops of Plateau-Mont-Royal, where wrought-iron staircases spiral past century-old brick and small cafés spill onto the sidewalk, a penthouse on Des Pins recently reached a turning point. Its owners' children, now mostly grown and gone, had left behind a home too spacious for its old rhythms yet far too full of memory to hand over to someone else. The question the owners faced was a familiar one for families at this stage of life: let go, or start again.

In a city that moves at the brisk pace of any growing capital, a 35-square-metre (377 sq. ft.) vegan café is making a quiet argument for slowness. Tucked into a new residential district in Minsk, Belarus, Goodies doesn't shout for attention with bold colours or dramatic gestures. Instead, it offers something rarer: a room built almost entirely around stillness.

In a city that moves at its own speed, a new 142 Sq. Mt. (1528 Sq. Ft.) room in Minsk, Belarus, asks visitors to do something increasingly rare: stay a while. MARKS Coffee & Books is not built for the rushed transaction of a to-go cup. It is built for lingering — for opening a book, ordering a second coffee, and watching the light shift across warm timber walls.

Designed and executed in full by Studio Kimi Interior Inc., the project spans just over 6,000 square feet and represents the studio's most comprehensive commission to date. Kimi handled everything — the interior design, the millwork, the trades, the finishes — shaping a home that carries a single, coherent vision from the foundation up.

For decades, high-end design has focused almost entirely on the eyes. Top-tier architects obsessed over the perfect marble countertops, the flow of natural light, and the perfect colour palette. But today, the definition of luxury has expanded to include a different sense altogether: hearing.

When a space requires a bold refresh, the standard flat white paint can finally be left behind. By embracing deep colours and seamless transitions, any room can become a perfectly balanced sanctuary. Ultimately, the most brilliant design choices are often found simply by looking up.

The end of the open concept is not a step backward in design; it is a step toward everyday comfort. By layering rich textures, warming up the color palette, and creating clearly defined spaces, homes are stepping away from the showroom look. Instead, they are turning back into true, private sanctuaries.

True luxury has always been about comfort and peace of mind. By hiding the wires and silencing the screens, invisible tech allows homeowners to escape the digital noise of the outside world. The ultimate smart home isn't the one with the most gadgets—it's the one that lets people forget the gadgets exist at all.