In the living room of their Vancouver home, Omer Arbel and Aileen Bryant sit on a Coronado sofa by Afra and Tobia Scarpa for B&B Italia. They are joined by their Weimaraner, Bowie, boa constrictor, Picasso, and milk snake, Legs. “I have a casual approach to prototyping that involves our day-to-day life. I am always tinkering, and I have lots of transformers to run electricity through things, but Aileen lives with me now, so I have to be respectful. Before she moved in it was like a total madhouse; now I can’t pour concrete in the kitchen. It is a collaboration in a sentimental sense. This work is my life, and the objects are my objects, but how they are arranged and the flow of each room are something we’ve created together here.”

From the outside, an unassuming 1942 cottage overlooking Vancouver’s harbor is an unexpected place to find Omer Arbel, a designer known for his experimental, amorphous creations for the Canadian furniture and design company Bocci. But inside the 2,600-square-foot home he shares with his girlfriend, musician Aileen Bryant, and a collection of exotic pets, Arbel’s rich imagination and exuberant love of objects are on display. Here, he takes us on a personal tour.

Cultivating a garden not only helps you and your family live a greener lifestyle, but also saves on grocery bills, too. Start a fruit and vegetable patch in your backyard or roof terrace; and if you live in an apartment with limited outdoor space, try growing herbs and even vegetables inside.

We also toured inside Arbel’s home along the Vancouver cliffs. Pick up our September issue, on newsstands August 5. to see his home filled with collectibles, animals, and Bocci prototypes.

A shot of the stunning view from Arbel’s backyard.

“I am obsessed with glassware. Whenever I go to antique stores, I always come home with suitcases full of glass. The pieces on the plate rail in the kitchen are Depression-era glass, and the green pieces are nuclear glass (a material now illegal due to its radioactive uranium content). They have an amazing iridescence, and it’s fun to drink wine from them. We threw a dinner party using the whole set and serving green food. It was really beautiful."

An Alvar Aalto table is surrounded by a quartet of the designer’s Chair 65.

Designer Omer Arbel develops his latest works inside an eclectic Vancouver home filled with a teeming assortment of pets and prototypes. Hanging over the bench is our first Bocci 14 light fixture. I feel like it would be bad luck not to have it in the house. Other pieces in the kitchen—like the wooden island Aileen found in an alleyway and the yellow ceramics by Knabstrup, a Danish company active in the 1960s—we’ve collected along the way.” Photo by José Mandojana.

The Bocci 19 series is made with a sandcasting technique, which Arbel favors because it creates a unique product each time. “Our jobs as designers now is to build systems with enough looseness in them so that they result in different pieces” he explains. Here, Arbel checks the mold before the molten metal is brought in.

A 28 prototype is stowed away with some books in the bedroom.

“The backyard, which was kind of the focus of the project, was overgrown and quite disconnected from the house itself,” said architect Nigel Parish. The glass doors of the addition open onto a patio and lawn where the kids can play.

For our In the Modern World section, we shared a process shot of a Bocci 19 series. Here is a finished product of a Bocci 19 series bowl. Photo by Gwenael Lewis.

In the backyard, Kunigk “montaged” what she admired in the work of John Pawson, Tadao Ando, and Piet Oudolf, the Dutch garden designer who collaborated on landscaping for New York’s High Line. She plans to reconfigure the plantings again with the landscape designer Rina Zweig, who worked on the front yard.

Architect Oliver Lang and his partner, Cindy Wilson, created Monad, a multiunit prefab prototype in Vancouver.

Sitting Pretty The ground floor was originally two rooms; now it’s been transformed into one continuous space. To compensate for a low ceiling, Kiely’s team dug into the ground to create a true sunken seating section leading to the garden. Built-in sofas, an Eames rocker, a stool by G Plan, and concrete tiles outfit the space. Kiely chose a neutral charcoal finish for the Malm fireplace to balance the green linoleum floor and her own Rhododendron wallpaper in Sunflower.

Kitchen Confidential Kiely and architect Maxim Laroussi designed the kitchen unit. “I originally didn’t want an island, but I liked what we did because it feels like a piece of furniture. It’s cozy to cook around,” Kiely says. Panels of orange and olive Formica accent the 1950s-inspired piece, which houses a cooktop by Smeg. A checkerboard of closed cabinets and open shelves offers storage against the far wall for Kiely’s collection of dishes, knickknacks, cookbooks, and small appliances, like the KitchenAid stand mixer and radio by Vita Audio. The floor is green Marmoleum, selected because it feels warm underfoot. Kiely’s own Stem dish towels and ceramic storage jars add more lively color to the room.

Textile designer Orla Kiely’s renovated London Terrace House is punctuated by her distinctive palette and motifs.

The light is pictured here in a transparent shade.

The final form is created once the glass cools; the fabric is temporary. A flat LED lamp is inserted, creating a diffused illumination. Each piece is completely unique and they are meant to hang together in a group.

The amorphous shape of 73, so named for the chronological place in Arbel’s design continuum, is the result of gray glass blown straight into heat-resistant ceramic fabric. First a loose fabric vessel is created, next the hot glass is blown inside. Just like all of Arbel’s glass works, the piece is created without a mold of any kind.

Vancouver-based designer Omer Arbel is constantly experimenting with process and form, and his latest debut is a dynamic progression in his series of organically shaped pendants.

A close-up view of the lamp's fabric-like texture.

Home of the Brave In the ground-floor eating area, the design team wrapped the walls in rich walnut to instill warmth often found in mid-century homes. “Sometimes one bold move is enough. Be brave with fewer statements,” Kiely advises. “Go for the big thing rather than lots of little things.” Kiely’s Upholstered Dining Chairs from her House collection surround a Danish vintage dining table. Her Gloss vases adorn the hallway console, which is also from her House line.

A portrait of the designer. “Architecture, to me, is the most beautiful of the arts. I always knew that I wanted to design, but only [if I could] create products over which I had total control.”

Designer Christiane Hogner, Bruxelles

Designer Omer Arbel develops his latest works inside an eclectic Vancouver home filled with a teeming assortment of pets and prototypes.

While the building is mostly zoned industrial uses—it features a kiln, wood shop, dark room, dance studio, machine shop, music practice space—this was one of the few units that allowed for a live/work arrangement. The chandelier is from a local furniture store, now out of business, and Meredith crafted the Finn Julh-inpsired chair out of teak. The light on the side table is a flea market find, probably from the 1960's, while the bar stool chairs are IKEA.

The laneway house features Kentwood engineered-wood floors, Cascadia windows, and aluminum-bar grating. The Eames DAX chair is vintage.

"Across the room is the first 25 bench I ever made; it was salvaged from a now-closed restaurant I codesigned, called Ping’s Cafe, where Aileen and I met. Hanging over the bench is our first Bocci 14 light fixture. I feel like it would be bad luck not to have it in the house. Other pieces in the kitchen—like the wooden island Aileen found in an alleyway and the yellow ceramics by Knabstrup, a Danish company active in the 1960s—we’ve collected along the way.”

Barbara Hill's Dancehall/House in Marfa, Texas September 14, 2010 Misty Keasle

“Before, the house turned its back on the landscape,” said Parish. “This renovation and addition really animates the garden.” Sliding glass doors match those of the living room beyond the deck, and both can be completely open to the yard.

Omer Arbel, the creative director at industrial design firm Bocci, was given three parameters when he began designing a home for his colleague Randy Bishop: Create a “profound” connection between the internal and external spaces; build only one level; and, most crucially, utilize a wealth of 100-year-old beams salvaged from a series of warehouses owned by Bishop’s ancestors.

On the north-facing facade, it’s easy to discern where the original glass doors used to open directly to the deck. In spring of 2012, Block Island contractor John Spier replaced the entire wall of glass panels.

While most homes have their front doors centered on a flat wall, this home in Canada by Omer Arbel is entered through two solid walnut doors at the corner of the home.

Originally, glass doors opened to the deck, but after years of gusty winds, it was decided that a side entrance, protected by a sliding steel door, would be the preferred entrance.

A bright-yellow “R” sign, from a truck that used to deliver furniture from Jens Risom Design, sets off the southern facade. When Jens designed the house, he stipulated that he wanted cedar shingles, not the asphalt ones that came with the original design from the catalog.