2020 Interior Design Show Toronto launches into new decade with Design Your Future - Look Local

Canada’s largest design exposition and conference, the Interior Design Show (IDS20), returns to Toronto with a future-forward vision for 2020. IDS20/20 will bring together global minds, leading designers, makers, changers, shapers and dreamers of today who are creating the new worlds of tomorrow.

Canada’s premier showcase of new products, furniture, superstar designers and avant-garde concepts became a hybrid event last year, catering to trade construction, design professionals and design-savvy consumers. IDS20 takes place January 16-19, 2020 at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre.

“For over 20 years, IDS has been both a catalyst and authority for Canadian design,” says Karen Kang, National Director, IDS Canada. “During the past two decades, we have witnessed a lot of change. Yesterday’s designer has become today’s problem solver and tomorrow’s visionary. This year’s IDS 20/20 theme will explore how designers now create experiences at the intersection of technological and social problems, imagining new roads to alternative realities.”

IDS Contract

In 2019, IDS expanded to include IDS Contract, a hyper-curated B2B trade-only exposition and conference focused on all verticals of design including: workplace, healthcare, retail, hospitality, education, public spaces, government and more.

IDS Contract Trade Days will continue in 2020 on Thursday and Friday. New this year, Trade Day attendees will also benefit from full access to the IDS Main exhibit hall.

IDS Contract brings an additional 100+ exhibitors and several new feature areas aimed at B2B trade professionals. Along with IDS Contract is IDS Conference, a series of 65+ sessions including keynote speakers, fireside chats, seminars and workshops. The 2020 installment will explore the business of design, the future of work, the future of living and technology.

IDS20 Concept House

RESET HOME: Design for the Senses

This year’s IDS Concept Home is a multisensory experience of the future of living and an exploration of the role that our homes can play in improving our overall wellbeing. Blending theories of spatial perception and human wellness, Hummingbird Hill Homes, VFA Architecture + Design and Victoria Taylor Landscape Architect bring you the RESET Home; a space that transcends contemporary design to reset the way we perceive, interpret, experience and thrive within our living habitats. The fully realized space will allow IDS20 guests to walk through the home and explore how materials, textures, sounds, scents and light affect the five senses, mind and body, impacting the way we live and interact within the private sanctuary of our home.

Keynote Conference Speakers

Frida Escobedo

Joining IDS20 as a keynote conference speaker for the Dezeen Trade Talks on Thursday, January 16th is Mexican architect and designer, Frida Escobedo. Principal and founder of her studio based in Mexico City, Escobedo is known for her interesting use of materials. Her work focuses largely on the reactivation of urban spaces that are considered to be residual or forgotten, through projects that range from housing and community centers, hotels, galleries and public art installations. The intention to provide possibilities for growth and flexibility can be read as much in large scale social housing projects, such as those developed for INFONAVIT, as in more modest interventions like Casa Cruz Castillo or Casa Negra. In addition to her practice, Escobedo has taught at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation and during spring 2019 was a visiting professor at RICE University. She is currently teaching at Harvard Graduate School of Design. She is the recipient of the 2016 Architectural Review Emerging Architecture Award, the 2017 Architectural League Emerging Voices Award, and in 2018 was the youngest architect to design the 18th Serpentine Summer Pavilion in London.

Francis Kéré

IDS20 is pleased to be hosting internationally acclaimed architect Francis Kéré as a keynote conference speaker for the AZURE Trade Talks on Friday, January 17th. Kéré has garnered critical praise from the beginning of his architectural practice when awarded the prestigious Aga Khan Award for Architecture (2004) for his first ever building – a primary school he designed, raised the funds for and realised in collaboration with the residents of his native Gando, Burkina Faso. Kéré is regarded as one of the most distinguished contemporary architects thanks to his pioneering of a communal approach to design and his commitment to sustainable materials and modes of construction. He has gathered a diverse, agile team at his Berlin-based Kéré Architecture offices, to take on projects across four continents. Most prominently these include his design for the Burkina Faso National Assembly, the Léo Surgical Clinic & Health Centre (2014), the Lycée Schorge Secondary School (2016), the Serpentine Pavilion (2017) and Xylem (2019), a gathering pavilion for the Tippet Rise Art Center.