Brandon Donnelly — Daily insights for city builders. Published since 2013 by Toronto-based real estate developer Brandon Donnelly. — Page 1133

Last month Curated Properties and Windmill launched a “ residential agri-tecture ” project on Toronto’s Queen West called The Plant . 

The entire development is oriented around our connection to food. The building will have an interior greenhouse and an industrial style common area kitchen for food prep and events. Each unit will have micro-garden beds for fresh herbs and lattices for growing your own food.

This is a trend that I hope we see more of going forward. Toronto developers such as TAS have been incorporating urban agricultural elements into their projects for a number of years now and I believe it has the potential to become quite common, particularly for end user buildings. 

I grew veggies and hot peppers on my terrace one summer and there was something really nice about walking outside to harvest a salad. The hardest part for me, though, was getting enough sun exposure. Some of my crop wasn’t getting enough sun, but for whatever reason my hot peppers really thrived.

If all of this does really catch on, I could imagine a world where condos and apartments get marketed based on the precise amount of sunshine hours they receive throughout the year. Perhaps some developers are already doing that.

I am fascinated by the way the Japanese think about housing. It is very different than the way we think about housing here in North America. Below is a small house tour that reinforces that. If you can’t see it below, click here .

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4fEeh-8OFT8?rel=0&w=560&h=315]

I took the above photo at The Miami Beach EDITION . I know it’s no longer the newest hotel on the strip, but as far as design is concerned, it’s probably my favorite. I love the interiors. It feels quintessentially Miami Beach to me. The lobby is white and minimal, but at the same time there’s a tropical warmth to it.

The interiors were done by the Toronto and New York-based Yabu Pushelberg. If you haven’t been, here and here are some photos of the hotel. Before EDITION, the building housed the Seville Beach Hotel. As should be the case, some of that hotel’s original details were preserved in the renovation.