Swipe Design | Books + Objects

The Centre for City Ecology and Creative Urban Projects have been actively preparing for the launch of their City Builder Book Club, which is set to kick off on February 1. And what better volume to start proceedings with than that veritable classic of urban discussion, Jane Jacobs’ The Death and Life of Great American Cities? Fifty years ago, in this enormously influential work on town planning, Jacobs argued that urban diversity and vitality were being destroyed by powerful architects and city planners. Her words, and her demonstration of the value of the experiences of people who live and work in cities, still hold sway today: a 50th Anniversary Edition of Death and Life was published late last year, with an insightful new introduction by the book’s original editor, Jason Epstein. (2011: Random House Publishing Group; ISBN 9780679644330)

CCE and CUP welcome you to strengthen their discussion of this book by joining the conversation on their blog, on Facebook, and on Twitter. Your experience in your own city is a valuable part of this conversation about what makes a city welcoming and vibrant.

Copies of The Death and Life of Great American Cities, 50th Anniversary Edition are available for sale at Swipe for $25.95.

Mention the City Builder Book Club and receive a 20% discount on your copy.

Bad puns aside, Arne Jacobsen’s sleek Cake Server will add modernist flair to your cake-serving ceremonies this holiday season. Hell, it might even make your cake taste better! AJ cutlery was designed by Arne Jacobsen in 1957 for the restaurant in the Royal SAS Hotel in Copenhagen, a project on which he was also the architect. Manufactured in stainless steel by Georg Jensen, AJ has been in continuous production since it was designed. With its modern, simplified lines, AJ was deemed a sufficiently radical departure from traditional cutlery design that it was featured as a prop in the 1968 film 2001: A Space Odyssey. A range of pieces are available at Swipe, but the cake server, at $69.95, is a perennial favourite.

AJ Cake Server: $69.95

Streamridge Vintage Wooden Toboggan

These steam-bent Ontario ash toboggans are a direct continuation of a Canadian tradition going back possibly a millennium. Distinct from a sled with runners, the flexible toboggan is ideal for use on rough ground and was the standard wintertime sledge for Innu and Cree living below the tree line. Additionally, Streamridge toboggans, from the Bauman Sawmill near Saint Jacobs, highlight a second venerable Canadian tradition: that of rural sawmills producing toys and amusements outside the building season (think Victoriaville).

Six Foot Vintage Toboggan with Pad: $199.95

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To purchase any of the products or titles mentioned here, please visit our downtown Toronto location, call us toll-free at 1-800-56-swipe or e-mail us at: info@swipe.com.

Spring and Summer may now be fading memories, and the leaves of Fall all but off the trees and clogging up the gutters, but doesn’t the thought of impending snow simply make you want to frolic?

It’s certainly had that effect here at 401 Richmond, where plans are firmly in place for the first official Frolic – the building’s inaugural annual open house, and a celebration of the art, culture and community that make this place so inspiring to visit, and such an enviable spot to work.

From Thursday, December 8 to Sunday, December 11, there’ll be more artisans, artworks and amazingly creative gift ideas than you can poke a finely whittled stick at. The 401 Artisans Marketplace (now in its 19th year) runs across all four days, with late-shopping hours on Thursday and Friday, and Swipe in attendance with a collection of sale-priced goodies.

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Of course, we’ll also have a delightfully tempting array of books and objects in store, including design books on everything from unventions to urbanism, the entire Lego Architecture series, new Aalto vase colours, quirky Takumi tea sets, recent additions to our children’s section from Kid-O, HaPe and Seedling, and instantly essential stocking stuffers. (Tried out the Tapi tap squeeze drink fountain yet?)

We’ll also be open every day from December 1 to 24 (except Sunday 18).

So come and frolic. Or just come and see us at Swipe.

On September 9th, we will be celebrating the world premiere of Urbanized as part of the Toronto International Film Festival.

Gary Hustwit (Helvetica/Objectified) returns with the final documentary in his design film trilogy.  Urbanized focuses on the design of cities and features some of the world’s foremost architects, planners, policymakers, and thinkers, including Sir Norman Foster, Rem Koolhaas, Jan Gehl, Oscar Niemeyer, Amanda Burden, Enrique Peñalosa, Alejandro Aravena, Eduardo Paes, Rahul Mehrotra, Ellen Dunham-Jones, Ricky Burdett, James Corner, Michael Sorkin, Bruce Katz, Candy Chang, Edgar Pieterse, and many more, including extraordinary citizens who have affected change in their cities.

Who is allowed to shape our cities, and how do they do it? And how does the design of our cities affect our lives? By exploring a diverse range of urban design projects in dozens of cities around the world, from massive infrastructure initiatives to temporary interventions, Urbanized frames a global discussion on the future of cities.

Check out the TIFF schedule here!

Thursday to Saturday, September 15th to 17th

11am to 6pm

So, this year, once again, join us inside 401 Richmond Street West for a great selection of sale items including leather notebooks, Umbra products, assorted Melissa & Doug puzzles, Marimekko bags, and Anker Stone building sets.

Walking Home: The Life and Lessons of a City Builder

? 2011: Ken Greenberg

Ken Greenberg has worked in an enviable number of cities around the world – Amsterdam, New York, St. Paul, Montreal, Boston, San Juan, Toronto … we could keep going – and in his new book Walking Home he brings this experience and knowledge to a discussion of city building. Eschewing the negative outlook of many urban writings, Greenberg’s book is filled with positive, constructive dialogue about how we can improve the conditions in our cities, from building better public spaces, to increasing density in smart and sensitive ways, to connecting cities back to their waterfronts.

For Greenberg, city building is best done incrementally, inserting density and contemporary buildings into the existing fabric of the city, building upon what is already there as opposed to starting with a blank canvas. In this way we can create more dynamic and organic spaces, allowing our cities to evolve over time. He calls this an open-platform kind of city building; the role of the urban designer is to create flexible spaces that can adapted to different uses over time.

For Toronto, this book is both timely and important. It should be a wake-up call to those at City Hall: a reminder that city building takes work, courage and collaboration, but that the potential for vibrant places to live is worth it.

Walking Home enjoyed its official launch on Wednesday 25 May, and Swipe Design was thrilled to be partnering with 401 Richmond’s Urbanspace Gallery to perform the honours. Oh yes, and Greenberg was wielding his authorly pen on the night. (2011: Random House Canada; ISBN 9780307358141)

$29.95

Grounded: The Work of Phillips Farevaag Smallenberg

? 2010: Julian Smith, Ken Greenberg, Bruce Kuwabara, Doug Paterson, Jacqueline Hucker, Eduard Koegel & Kelty McKinnon; forward by Michael Van Valkenburgh

With a book called Grounded, it’s hardly surprising that the founding partners of Phillips Farevaag Smallenberg are so, well, down to earth. We had the pleasure of meeting the Smallenberg and Farevaag components of the PFS team at a recent Toronto gathering, celebrating the launch of the Vancouver firm’s impressive monograph.

Showcasing PFS’s planning, urban design and landscape architecture works, Grounded is also an intriguing walk through time and place, featuring seven commissioned essays by some of today’s most influential architects, planners and historians. Jacqueline Hucker discusses commemorative architecture, including the Canadian memorial in Vimy Ridge, France, and the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Ottawa; Bruce Kuwabara explores landscape architecture’s civic role; and Ken Greenberg, Douglas Paterson, Julian Smith, Eduard Koegel and Kelty McKinnon offer a range of PFS-oriented perspectives.

All of this is wrapped up in the lush, clean design of Argentinian-born Canadian Pablo Mandel. Oh, and that cover? It may look like a Legoland paradise, but it’s all real. Check it out next time you’re hovering over the Washington Mutual Centre’s Roof Garden in Seattle. (2010: Blue Imprint; ISBN 9781897476208)

$83.95

We’re at the Images Festival with Pages Beyond Bricks and Mortar from April 1st to the 9th! Hours are Noon to 7pm. Come and visit! Our permanent location will still be open Monday to Friday 10am – 7pm and Saturday 11am to 6pm.

Illustrated by Gary Taxali, this little book provides a compact vehicle for TAXI’s creative manifestos and is a source of both entertainment and inspiration. Doubt has long been an influential concept at the company’s core, and indeed shapes their philosophy: “Doubt the conventional. Create the exceptional.”

Although he lives in a world where he is shunned by pop song lyricists, house cats, big-box shoppers, classic rock radio programmers, grandmothers, and all left-brain thinkers, Doubt continues to throw dynamite at history and use his outlaw thinking to move us all forward. Some love him. Others hate him. But nobody ignores him.

The book presents 12 insights into how to use doubt as a catalyst for change. These insights are delivered by a cocky little character called Doubt.

Doubt’s teachings are supported by 38 contemporary Disciples of Doubt whose stories attest to the power of unconventional thinking to bring about positive change, and range from classic game changers like the Sony Walkman and Fuzzy Logic to less-heralded discoveries like Y-Chromosomal Adam and the Intensive Care Checklist. (2010: TAXI; ISBN 0986741809)

Each: $21.95

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To purchase any of the products or titles mentioned here, please visit our downtown Toronto location, call us toll-free at 1-800-56-swipe or e-mail us at: info@swipe.com.