entro communications
canadian architect 09/14
inSiteS
36
the floral patterns enlivening the glass curtain wall at the University of Waterloo School of Pharmacy are a poetic reference to the plant-based origins of many pharmaceuticals, and inject vitality into a gritty party of downtown Kitchener.
abovE
Having undergone several architectural iterations in its history (the most recent being the Frank Gehry expansion and renovation in 2008), the Art Gallery of Ontario subsequently unveiled its reconceived art education facility for children and adults—now called the Weston Family Learning Centre ( WFLC)—in October 2011. Hariri Pontarini Architects opened up the building’s formerly impenetrable concrete western edge to Beverley Street, creating a transparent and welcoming space. Substantial architectural manipulations to the building interior facilitate community creativity and learning, including the provision of a variety of meeting rooms and teaching studios. The WFLC ’s reinvention required a branding strategy, and Entro responded with a new graphic identity which is now evident on the western edge of the gallery’s Dundas Street façade, and which is used on all of the WFLC’s communication materials. Highly appealing, the bright reddish orange chosen as the dominant colour backgrounds three overlapping amorphic outlines that were inspired, appropriately, by a scribble—the blue, green and yellow wavy bands encircle the words “learning centre.” Clarity of wayfinding is essential in an institution of this size, and Entro contributed an economical but effective signage system that fulfills its purpose, with large adhesive vinyl letters rendered in attractive and playfully bright colours. Worthy of note is the ingenious overhead coat rack designed by the architect team as a space-saving feature; the serpentining form is suspended from the ceiling and can be easily raised or lowered with the push of a button via a motorized pulley. To facilitate coat retrieval, Entro collaborated with the architects on the coat rack to create an organized and coded system, demarcating sections through numbered and coloured segments that echo the colours used in the WFLC ’s wayfinding elements. For more commercially oriented projects, Entro has proven its success in the creation of comprehensively branded environments. KPMB Architects’ TIFF Bell Lightbox (see CA, February 2011) has become a cultural hub and locus of activity in Toronto’s buzzing Entertainment District, the new headquarters for the Toronto International Film Festival and a host of other specialty film programs and exhibitions. Based upon a recommendation from KPMB —with whom Entro has a long-established working relationship—the client hired Schliemann and team, and tasked them with designing and implementing a comprehensive wayfinding and donor recognition system for the entire project. A fairly complex building pro-
gram means that this was an extensive job, as the signage components begin on the exterior of the building and continue through to all the main circulation areas, theatre spaces, gift shop, exhibition and meeting spaces, and the two expansive donor walls on the second and third floors. Striking as they are, these walls are minimally elegant, unobtrusive and complementary to the interior architecture, comprised of large frosted glass panels illuminated from behind with LED strips. Moreover, Entro is responsible for the brand identity and signage elements for the three Oliver & Bonacini restaurant properties situated within the Lightbox—Canteen, Luma, and the exclusive and private Malaparte event space on the sixth floor. With several properties scattered throughout the city, O&B is a slick Toronto-based restaurant chain with whom Entro has worked previously in developing their master brand, one that is expanding as new restaurants are being added to the group. The execution of brand identity is thorough: the vibrant restaurant logos are boldly expressed on the building’s glazed façades in numerous locations, clearly visible to passersby on both King and John Streets. With Entro in control of all of the Lightbox’s signage and branding elements, there is a seamless integration of architecture and design, and a palpable synergistic quality to the experience. Perhaps one of the most distinctive projects that Entro has worked on is the building for the School of Pharmacy at the University of Waterloo (see CA, June 2010). Designed by Hariri Pontarini with Robbie/ Young + Wright Architects, the School of Pharmacy is a highly expressive project whose rigorous orthogonal geometries contrast with the decorative floral motif of the glass panels that clad the building. Intended to reference natural healing and ancient remedies employing medicinal herbs, the four different species of plants represented on the School are the result of meticulous research on botanicals indigenous to the Kitchener-Waterloo region. The building’s curtain-wall façades take on a rather Baroque feel through the colourful patterned glazing, invariably evoking stained glass of the 17th century. Possessing an artist’s sensibility, Siamak Hariri knows how to infuse his buildings with uncommon beauty. He commissioned his brother-inlaw and London-based artist Sky Glabush to create a delicate watercolour painting of these selected species, which was then passed on to Entro to determine how to apply and magnify the watercolour to an appropriate scale for the building’s expansive glass panels. The solution was to phototransfer selected portions of the painting to DuPont vinyl film, forming an interlayer that is literally sandwiched between the panes of glass comprising the curtain wall. In keeping with the painterly and composed feel of the original watercolour, Schliemann’s hand is evident in the careful manipulation and placement of the plants and flowers on the façades: the foliage is more concentrated on the lower levels and entrances, becoming more sparse as it progresses up the building. The result is unlike anything else seen in recent memory, and the building has become a refreshing and poetic landmark in gritty downtown Kitchener. Despite this article’s focus on local work in Ontario, Entro is currently engaged in a number of high-profile projects both here in North America and in more exotic locations. Contracts with the Museum of Modern Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Whitney Museum of American Art keep the firm busy in New York. An outpost of the Guggenheim in Abu Dhabi anticipates Entro’s contributions, as does Project Jewel, a mixed-use complex at Singapore’s Changi Airport. But one project in particular that Schliemann eagerly awaits is the Bahá’í Temple of South America in Santiago, Chile by Hariri Pontarini Architects (see CA, December 2004). Involved during the very early stages of the project in the exquisite design of a handprinted and embossed book that no doubt helped HPA snag the competition victory, Entro is also contributing impeccably designed signage and wayfinding elements that will be featured in the project and on site. Schliemann’s role extended to the design of the textual quotes from Bahá’u’lláh, founder of the Bahá’í faith, which will be inscribed on the translucent white stone layer sheathing the interior surface of the temple’s intricate steel structure. Sure to be an architectural game-changer on a global scale, we—with bated breath—also await its completion.