A Place to Play, A Place to Grow

We had a lot of fun with this project! The LWG design team did our best to look at design of this Daycare Centre from a child’s point of view, and this design shows that perspective. This project incorporates graphic wallcoverings, playful lighting and a soft, colourful palette of finishes and textures.

Interior Designer: Bryan Wiens, ARIDO
Design Firm: LWG Architectural Interiors
Photographer: Kevin Belanger

A climbing wall in the colourfully decorated play room

The main design feature of the main motor skills room is a stylized tree, subtly referencing the ever changing world of a growing child. Entrances to each play room feature stylized architectural house elements, giving a nod to this Daycare Centre as a home away from home.

Lots of shelving and storage and small sinks and fun accent colours on the back of the shelves and on the ceiling and bulkheads
Storage cubbies in fun colours

At the same time, this space was designed with much rigor, as the Ministère de la Famille in the Province of Québec has strictly defined standards that need to be adhered to in the design of a Daycare Centre. The health and safety, and overall wellbeing of the children and daycare caregivers are at the heart of this design.

Washroom equipped with tiny toilets and sinks, and plenty of storage cabinetry

We worked closely with the authorities and daycare Director to ensure all aspects of this design were considered and designed with intention. In addition to the various playrooms, rest areas, and a myriad of tiny toilets and sinks, this Daycare Centre also includes a commercial kitchen, staff support spaces, laundry facilities and lots & lots of cubbies!

ARIDO’s Eastern Ontario Chapter at Capital Pride!

On August 27th, 2023 the ARIDO-EOC participated in Ottawa’s Capital Pride Parade for the first time. It was a beautiful day filled with joy, laughter, fun, and entertainment from our own local drag queen! EOC Past-President Jeremy Cheff, ARIDO was sashaying and looking incredible in drag!

As ARIDO pushes for equity, diversity, and inclusion, this is sure to be the first of many times we participate and it’s bound to get bigger and better in the coming years.

Keep an eye out next summer for the invitation to participate!

An Awesome Launch for the inaugural CityBuildHERS event in Ottawa!

On June 10th, at the #RedBlacks CFL home opener football game TD Place in Ottawa, a new movement was kicked off at the new East End Zone Lounge… CityBuildHERS was born, a new vehicle to celebrate and connect women in the design, engineering, architecture, construction, and real estate industries.

ARIDO’s own, Lynn Ferron was part of the organizing committee for this initiative, she reports:

There was a strong presence of ARIDO EOC Members, as we made meaningful connections with women in our industry, promoting, collaborating, elevating each other, and forming partnerships to promote female driven leadership for major city, provincial, and federal development projects.

A panel discussion was moderated by Jennifer Cross, Business Development Manager for MARANT Construction, featuring Taya Cook from Urban Capital Developments.

Taya shared her project, “Reina Condos”, the first all-women development in Canada. She explained how she formed a team from several sectors, how they collaborated much differently to come to non-typical, innovative and more human centric design as a result.

She also encouraged us to talk business, make connections and start making plans, to move forward with female leadership in our industry. There were metaphoric moments all evening with the exciting atmosphere of a home opener, with fighter jets flying up top, fireworks exploding for a first touch-down.

This was only the beginning, as it was a home opener for City BuildHERS, with 150 women leaders inspired to make change, be heard, and promote women-run projects in our capital city and beyond. The inspiration was electrifying. The social media coverage following the kick off was explosive. It is the dawn of a new era: CityBuildHERS.

A special thank you goes out to Jennifer Cross who led the initiative alongside committee members Lauren Epp of CFL Redblacks OSEG, Sarah Vandenbelt of Koble Koble Commercial Real Estate, Kristen Buter of Mastercraft Starwood and Lynn Ferron, @aridontario and HOK, who organized this inaugural event.

  • Lynn Ferron, ARIDO