Canadian Interiors July August 2021

CANADIAN INTERIORS

CDN $8.95 JULY AUGUST 2021

Month Month 2020

Cents and Sensitivity

A bright world of lighting

Dyonne Fashina on empathy and value in hospitality.

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Natural Adair® Limestone

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07/082021 Features

17 GIVING THE BOTTOM LINE A DESIGNER’S TOUCH

A trio of projects by Denizens of Design illustrate why an approach that blends empathy and profitability is so important when working with hospitality clients. By Peter Sobchak

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HOT AND FRESH Atelier Zébulon Perron delivers slices of modern retro in a new Montréal pizzeria project. By Peter Sobchak

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CLEAN SLATE +VG’s restoration of the Royal Canadian Yacht Club’s historic Toronto Island Clubhouse is a hit with hearty sea dogs, landlubbers and members alike.

By David Lasker

30 FELT: ACOUSTICALLY AND SUSTAINABLY SOUND Felt ceilings offer hospitality designers an expanding world of options. By Robert Marshall

34 CHANGE OF ADDRESS Is converting a hotel into affordable housing a viable option? By Qaiser Mian

36 INTERN(AL) AFFAIRS Ethical and professional standards for interns in A+D practices. By Toon Dreessen

Regulars

10 CAUGHT OUR EYE 12 THE GOODS Lighting is a critical extension and

an added value to interior design and is now more than ever essential to the success of a project. 38 OVER & OUT What should lighting design look like for a lunar habitat?

COVER – Dyonne Fashina, principal designer at Denizens of Design, the firm behind the reinvention of the McMichael Canadian Art Collection café. Portrait by Stacey Brandford Photography / Background photo by Scott Norsworthy

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com Welcome to our new podcast series, where we step away from the photographs and talk with interesting folks about interesting ideas and issues facing the design world today. Available now for listen or download on our website as well as on a variety of streaming platforms, including

Episode 10 Why Designers Must Pivot w/ Johanna Hoffmann

The Living Museum: Montreal’s Biodome KANVA revamps the Biodome into a space that maximizes the value of the building’s architectural heritage.

E to xcl D o u ED IGI ur sive

Embracing the Past: Residence de l’Isle

IT TA IO L N

Chevalier Morales revisit domestic architecture of the 1950s for a new Montréal suburban residential project.

Home Is Where the Heart Is: The Broth­ er’s Residence

FELT

From acoustic management to unique aesthetics, felt ceilings offer hospitality designers an expanding world of options, while decreasing environmental impact.

Alva Roy Architects design a complex multi-unit residence on a narrow midtown lot backing onto a laneway in Toronto.

Stairway to Habi­ tation: Gounod Residence Vertical elements dominate a new residence on a narrow lot in the Villeray district of Montréal by ISSADESIGN.

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Visit the expanded digital edition at

www.canadianinteriors.com

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inside

from Yelp). There are many overlapping factors for why this happened, but an oft-cited one is the growth of “ghost kitchens”: a cooking facility set up for the preparation of delivery-only meals. Meaning: no fancy dining room.

Roll With the Punches

Few can argue that hospitality industries have taken a beating during the COVID-19 pandemic: hotels, restaurants, bars and cafés have been at the mercy of governments’ yo-yo approach to lockdowns, partial reopenings or capacity restrictions. Almost all have had to do the “pandemic pivot” dance: a now-common euphemism for adjusting one’s business model to accommodate COVID-related restrictions. For restaurants, on-site examples included walk-up bottle service and offering grab-n-go take-out items, often coupled with joining a delivery service like Uber Eats. In most cases these small interventions barely kept heads above water, and given the distressing number of “Closed” signs in windows one would be forgiven for assuming that things looked dire.

But not so fast. Results from a project initiated by Shauna Brail, an associate professor at the University of Toronto Mississauga’s Institute for Management & Innovation, titled “Toronto After the First Wave” shows that more restaurants opened than closed in Toronto between May and November 2020: 244 versus 214 (based on data

The emergence of ghost kitchens and websites supporting delivery/ pick-ups as a remedy for the bruised food service industry may be of small comfort for designers whose client base has largely been brickand-mortar restaurants. But there are lessons to be learned here. “In order for restaurants and food service providers to survive, we need them to be innovative and find new ways of reaching customers,” said Brail in an article in University of Toronto Magazine’s spring 2021 issue. Swap “restaurants and food service” for “interior designers” and the statement is equally accurate, something emphatically repeated

by Johanna Hoffmann, CEO of Oomph Group Inc., in our Bevel podcast interview. “The goal is to get your firm through the crisis by finding creative ways to generate revenue,” says Hoffmann. “Every interior design specialty has unique skills that are transferrable to ancillary sectors. With the growth in mixed-use projects and new typologies, hospitality and retail elements are now important features in education, healthcare and retirement/long-term living facilities.” If I may borrow a euphemism: hospitality sectors may be down, but they are definitely not out. So be prepared to help them with your space planning, project management and procurement skills and, if they ask, a beautiful new dining room as well.

09 Peter Sobchak

psobchak@canadianinteriors.com

CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS! 24th Best of Canada Awards, the only national design competition in Canada to focus on interior design projects and products without regard to size, budget or location!

All winners will be published in the Nov/Dec issue of Canadian Interiors.

Submission Deadline: Thursday, September 9th, 11:59 pm

www.canadianinteriors.com/BoC

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caught our eye …for the trees Grove, a large-scale multi-media installation by Philip Beesley, the Living Architecture Systems Group and several other contributors, is part of the main exhibition titled “How Will We Live Together?” at the 17th La Biennale di Venezia International Architecture Exhibition. A canopy of lace-like clouds embedded with liquid-filled glass vessels hovers above a central pool-shaped screen, onto which a film called Grove Cradle is projected, and surrounded by basket-like columns embedded with speakers that project a multi-channel spatial sound environment. www.livingarchitecturesystems.com

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Heads Up A visually and physically imposing temporary installation called DUCkT by Vancouver-based Revery Architecture is currently representing Canada at Somerset House for the 2021 London Design Biennale. Intended to draw attention to our reliance on mechanical heating and cooling systems, two massive metal air ducts made from reflective golden aluminum are inserted across the gallery, forcing visitors to duck under them to get by. www.reveryarchitecture.com

A Fun Ride For the second year in a row, it was Canadian students who won the FORM Student Innovation Competition. Bénédicte Laurent and Martin Gonzalez Godoy, second year Industrial Design students at the Université de Montréal, were fêted for Toboom, a multi-use piece of children’s furniture.

The competition invites North American design students to create furniture using products from the 2021 Specialty Collection by Formica Corporation.

In addition to a cash prize, Toboom will be shown at NeoCon in October. www.formica.com/studentcompetition

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the goods Shapes & Elements | Nanoleaf Hexagons and Triangles were among the first smart lighting panel lines in the Shapes collection, all with interoperability thanks to the company’s Connect+ technology. Using snap-on mounting systems, the lines share touch reactivity, Wi-Fi compatibility and extensive colour customizations to create a broad array of design layout options. A brand-new addition to the collection is Elements Wood Look Hexagons, which feature a unique wood grain texture and a range of cool to warm lighting temperature options, many pre-programmed to mimic natural lighting effects like fireplaces or sunrises to aid in Circadian rhythms. www.nanoleaf.me

Always Look on the Bright Side Compiled by Peter Sobchak

Lighting is a critical extension and an added value to interior design and is now more than ever essential to the success of a project.

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Gigi | Studio d’Armes This part­nership with Verre d’Onge (two Montréal studios and experts in their respective fields of light and glass) resulted in a new pair of hand- blown glass lamps: a table version and a 42-in.-tall floor version, both emanating bidirec­ tional light engines that can be dimmed to a warmer shade.

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Lady Galala | Martinelli Luce Designed by Peluffo& Partners, this suspension lamp is composed of an internal body that combines three different conical-shaped diffusers of different diameters and colour shades: yellow/orange, inspired by sunsets; and blue/ white, inspired by sea foam created by waves.

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Opéra Collection | Barovier&Toso Inspired by the baroque Opéra Garnier in Paris for this collection of suspension, table, and sconce lighting, French designer Philippe Nigro applied a modern edge to the lighting com­pany’s patented, century-old “rostrato” method to serve as the key design element. This complex technique was invented

by Ercole Barovier in 1938 and consists of “freehand” shaping of Venetian Crystal to obtain a continuous series of multi-faceted prisms.

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Waffle Disc | Luxxbox New to the company’s arsenal of acoustic lighting solutions is Waffle Discs and Waffle Disc Backlit. Available in various sizes, two designs in over 40 colours and specifiable with an LED backlight, the pure wool fabric materials are 100 per cent recyclable and manufactured from recycled content.

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www.luxxbox.com

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the goods Aloft | A-Light This Québec-based company scored a couple Red Dot Awards this year, for its Align and Aloft lighting systems.

Aloft (shown) is a low-profile, tubular structure that can be shaped in countless ways using a horizontal rotation of 200° then locking in place. An easily re-configurable endcap and 360° rotation joiner structure enables full control of the light’s direction.

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Trapeze | Archilume This Vancouver-based studio revisited their Balance luminaire first launched in 2018, which consists of a pair of disc shapes suspended by twinned cables. This new iteration suspends the same single disc from two independent micro canopy ceiling mounts in a way meant to mimic kinetic energy ball sets on desks or trapeze artists frozen in time.

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www.archilume.com

Bump | Foscarini Italian design duo Ludovica and Roberto Palomba experimented with texture and its relationship with light projection for this pendant, denting both the exterior and interior surfaces to not only emit downwards but simultaneously spread defused beams to its surrounding areas for a dappled effect.

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TURN+ | Ambientec Having already designed a portable work and desk lamp for this Japanese lighting brand, designer Nao Tamura was tapped for a residential version. Inspired by natural light and the familiar lines of classic lanterns, a palette of aluminum, brass, or stainless steel for the exterior and solid glass for its diffuser was employed.

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www.ambientec.co.jp

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Bellhop Floor | Flos This new addition to the Bellhop Collection

by Edward Barber and Jay Osgerby flips the top of the existing collection and adds a combination of new materials for the floor version: a concrete base; aluminum body available in brown, green, red and white; and white glass diffusers are for all of the colour options (except for white, where the diffuser is grey).

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Lafleur Velvet | SLAMP “We pushed towards the unknown to find new compositional semantics,” says Marc Sadler in describing this new battery powered undulating table lamp. Composed of Lentiflex, a technopolymer that is hand molded at controlled temperatures, the black matte base has an integrated magnet and accompanying disc that anchors the lamp under textiles, or that can be screwed into vertical surfaces.

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Ambitus | Zumtobel A perennial winner at the Red Dot Awards, Zumtobel once again scored three trophies in the Product Design category this year, including a Best of the Best for the Ambitus.

Designed by Yorgo Lykouria from Rainlight Studio, the light follows a predefined shape but can still change direction, using a distribution source of almost 360 degrees. www.

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Lago | Studio davidpompa This pendant lamp, available in two sizes (40 and 22), combines a powdercoated metal shade with a semi-translucent onyx stone diffuser, hand-sculpted in workshops near the quarry from which it is mined near Oaxaca in Mexico.

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www.davidpompa.com

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Giving the Bottom Line a Designer’s Touch A trio of projects by Denizens of Design illustrate why an approach that blends empathy and profitability is so important when working with hospitality clients.

By Peter Sobchak

Photography by Scott Norsworthy

Business school graduates will tell you a common axiom hammered into them during their studies is “do not mix business and emotion.”

But for Dyonne Fashina, not only does she side-step this mantra, but she wholeheartedly eschews it. For her, blending the two is absolutely essential when it comes to good design.

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Absorbing and adapting elements of this belief learned during her fine arts education and even from the initial stages of her career in design now animates how she embraces interiors projects as founder and principal designer of Toronto-based Denizens of Design. This is particularly evident in a string of recent café and restaurant reinventions in and around the Greater Toronto Area: Clay Restaurant in the Gardiner Museum of Ceramic Art (Canadian Interiors, January-February 2020); an as-yet-to-be-named dining space in the McMichael 7/8 2021 CANADIAN INTERIORS

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Kelsey Blake

during my formal education in fine arts where I specialized in painting.” Denizens took design cues not only from the visual language of these paintings — subject matter, palettes, textures and lines (“I actually painted renderings, which is something I wouldn’t normally do!”)

— but also the vernacular architecture of the building itself.

Previous page and this spread Denizens of Design studied the history of the McMichael building, its surroundings, the art and artifacts but with an eye to not overshadow these aspects. Additionally, the Café is designed to facilitate restaurant service that easily flips to evening and weekend events. Weight and mobility were key: moveable privacy screens, modular service stands and flexible furniture mean easy reconfigurability. The result is the functionality of a high-traffic cafeteria with the comfort and aesthetic of an upscale flagship restaurant. This flexibility is especially handy during uncertain times, as businesses are forced to pivot their service models.

“The gallery is a huge statement about Canada in itself: a vast modernist take on the log cabin idea and built of huge recycled logs and fieldstone, with views directly out on to the unspoiled Humber River with its 12,000 years of history as the location of the Carrying Place Trail,” says the gallery’s executive director, Ian Dejardin. “Designing a café for such a place, in the gallery’s massive and imposing Entrance Hall, had to reflect all of that.”

Canadian Art Collection in Kleinburg; and Pantry, in the Columbus Centre portion of Villa Charities’ campus.

What all three of these projects illustrate is the commitment to a foundational ethos that guides how Denizens works: an emotional investment in transforming spaces into both profitable and empathetic ones. What are empathetic spaces? “It’s a concept we’re really passionate about at Denizens,” says Fashina. “It’s partly about being empathetic to the space; I have a certain intuition as a designer that responds to the ‘feel’ of the environment where I’m working. But it’s also about the space being empathetic to its intended users.”

A small example of responding to the “feel” is how for Clay, Fashina crafted a real clay pot from materials pulled out of the Nottawasaga River, brought it to her pitch meetings and sat it on her desk to make sure the elemental nature of the museum’s identity was incorporated into the redesign. A similar approach was used for McMichael, which is arguably most famous for its collection of paintings by the Group of Seven. “I have a personal connection to this space and this area,” says Fashina. “I grew up nearby, in the Hockley Valley. I have fond memories of visiting the McMichael, first on school trips and later

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Reflecting a “statement about Canada” went beyond just aesthetics.

It informed their decisions about material and product selection, as well as who they wanted to work with, specifically local makers who they asked “to put their own spin on the design intent,” as Fashina describes it. Examples include slatted divider screens inspired by indigenous gathering-circles that incorporate inner layers of felt created by local textile artist Diana Watters, and a dramatic host stand

by Heidi Earnshaw that greets patrons with a unique walnut façade referencing the surrounding landscape of trees.

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But these choices were only part of Denizens’ approach. Being a truly empathetic designer requires an understanding of the business needs of your client. Working closely with The Food Dudes, the hospitality partner on all three projects, Denizens carried lessons learned from their redesign of Clay Restaurant in creating profitable dining spaces to both McMichael and Pantry. Like Clay, the new McMichael Café is designed to facilitate lunch service and easily flip to evening and week7/8 2021 CANADIAN INTERIORS

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end events. A key move was to invest in new set-up/tear-down friendly furniture that not only reinforces the aesthetic but also creates an opportunity to take that revenue stream away from third-party rental companies and funnel it back into the client.

“Denizens’ specifically keys into the importance of the business value of our projects, including ideas that allow us to draw on new sources of revenue through design changes, which help to offset the upfront costs of the renovations,” says Lindsay Klein, CEO of The Food Dudes. How does Denizens do that? By continually asking: what is the value proposition for the client? “What are the important features that are lacking within the space that could really contribute to profitability, and keying into those things and considering them through the story of the design, so that it’s not only profitable for the stakeholders, but it’s also authentic to the brand,” says Fashina. “It’s proven by the work we did for Clay. They were able to recoup their upfront renovation costs in less than a year. And not only were they able to do that, the patrons who are coming for events see a reduction in what they pay for their event because they no longer must rent furniture on top of it.”

Finding a strategy that clearly works, Denizens took their experiences from Clay and McMichael and applied it to Pantry just when “profitability” became critically important. “We began this project in a time when the hospitality world was just trying to survive,” says Fashina. “The project required an approach that was sensitive to the challenges of ever-changing lockdown protocols and considerate of construction costs while building in flexibility for the future.”

Working closely with Villa Charities and Pantry’s teams, a proactive “phased” approach was implemented: only elements critical to walkin and delivery service were constructed to meet the minimum requirements of a restricted service model. The space was split in half, with the service counter, grab n’ go millwork and take-out areas completed for immediate use; while the shell of the dining area was finished but left without furniture and fixtures.

“With indoor dining on pause for the foreseeable future, there wasn’t any sense in fitting out the entire restaurant,” says Fashina. “This allowed our client to not only not construct what they don’t need right now, but not even pay for the design of that portion of the space nor have to pay for the contractor or furniture makers to build that part of the space. [It] allows them to focus on what they need right now, while giving them flexibility to determine when and how they complete the rest of the space.”

This spread With respect for the previous cafe and the community that has grown around it, the new Pantry location puts a modernist spin on Italian detailing. Slatted and panelized millwork is paired with porcelain that mimics ceppo di gre stone, commonly seen in traditional Milanese architecture, and installed along the curved service counter as a modern deconstruction of Corinthian fluting. The same tile is intermixed with ardesia nero porcelain tiles installed on the floor in a pattern that evokes oversized mosaics seen in the streets of Florence.

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A take-out window, dedicated counter area and entrance for delivery partners, and smart storage solutions were the areas of focus for Denizens. As this is Pantry’s fourth location, these additions — while new to their typical setup — grew from feedback gleaned from working through the early stages of the pandemic at their existing restaurants.

In addition, rather than putting the brakes on the project entirely, the client was able to open in the digital realm to start pulling in revenue.

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“That is what distinguishes successful hospitality designers: the ability to create environments that are not only beautiful and comfortable, but also profitable,” says Fashina. “It’s also why businesses should choose specialized interior designers, who have the methodologies and experience to positively impact the bottom line.”

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Beauty Beyond Natural

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Hot and Fresh

By Peter Sobchak Photography by Jean-Sébastien Senécal

Atelier Zébulon Perron delivers slices of modern retro in a new pizzeria project.

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Who doesn’t love pizza? Can you name another food that for so many of us helped launch gastronomic journeys and to which we have such strong emotional associations? The intense memories that only pizza can deliver served as the driving force behind Atelier Zébulon Perron’s approach to the new Gentile Pizza Parlour in Montréal.

After originally tapped by the owner, Anthony Gentile, to design the Westmount location of Café Gentile in 2016, Atelier Zébulon Perron was brought back to create a new adjacent 3,000-sq.-ft. pizzeria. The design team drew heavily on a concept of nostalgia inspired by the family’s history, with tributes to the flagship Café Gentile first opened in 1959 in Montréal’s Garment District by Ignazio Gentile, as well as to a family arcade where the current owner spent much of his youth.

“Many of the settings and design elements that Anthony referenced reflected a memorable past,” says Zébulon Perron. “We wanted to honour aspects of those cherished memories as much as possible, without being too cliché.” Therein lies a key word: working nostalgia into any project is difficult, but particularly for restaurants, where the fallback approach is to just plaster the walls in replica pieces of tinCANADIAN INTERIORS 7/8 2021

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stamped advertising and have servers dressed in costumes. Whereas here, the character of the original space offered some naturally vintage qualities that the designers embraced, including an existing ceiling of rhythmic metal slats, designed for signage purposes, that the firm restored to its 1980s architectural sheen.

To break down the existing space’s natural linearity, the team developed a continuous diagonal tile pattern that covers the floors, walls and the bar. This strong and deliberate gesture is one of the most striking aspects of the final design. A juxtaposition of old and new materials includes a mix of marble and vinyl tabletops, layered, prefinished wood panelled walls with backlit mirrors, amber glass dividers, and old-fashioned vertical blinds. Vintage objects, including light fixtures, chairs, stools, and even an old Pac Man arcade machine, were acquired through personal collections and classified ads. “People are comforted by the familiarity of places that they recognize in visual and emotional ways,” says Perron.

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And comfort will go a long way in the post-virus hospitality landscape.

Although this project was completed during the coronavirus pandemic

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in September 2020, the concept for the Parlour was mapped out and work begun well before anyone had even heard of COVID-19. However, since then, the design firm has been addressing related questions from several of their clients. “Of course, a number of measures can be taken to adapt a restaurant to the current situation such as reducing total seating, creating more space between tables, or placing separators between them,” says Perron. “Restaurants can be adapted with some lighter interventions, however most restaurateurs see these as temporary since their business model is based on a minimum number of clients per square foot. If these types of sanitary measures were to be made permanent, I believe the business model of the whole restaurant industry will need to change, be it much higher prices to make up for loss of traffic or integrating more take-out or boutique areas within the space.

“These questions are definitely present in our current project discussions, and we are looking into adopting new strategies to create more intimate pods and seamlessly integrating dividing features within the architecture of the projects. That said, with vaccination campaigns going well, most people we engage with are cautiously optimistic about the prospect of getting back to a semblance of normalcy.”

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Previous page and this spread Gentile Pizza Parlour serves New York-style pizza (in a city that many food critics say is awash in Neapolitan-style pies), so naturally part of the new restaurant’s concept is to pay homage to classic pizzerias of 1970s and ‘80s New York City. A materials palette is dominated by marble, walnut, vinyl, pewter, leather, prefinished wood paneling and amber glass. Some of the old sign devices were maintained for their diffusion of rosy, subdued mood lighting. The design team, together with Planit Construction, overcame a series of technical challenges to update the concept, applying a metallic champagne paint finish and installing backlit screens to emit a soft pink glow.

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Clean Slate

By David Lasker Photography by David Whittaker

+VG’s restoration of the Royal Canadian Yacht Club’s historic Toronto Island Clubhouse is a hit with hearty sea dogs, landlubbers and members alike.

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Opposite page Before the renovation, there was no veranda bar. Now a half-racetrack bar top and similarly configured overhanging cedarstrip ceiling evoke a boat’s rounded stern and define a convivial lounge area. The mahogany bar top, polished-brass foot rails and high-gloss white-panelled bar front articulates a yacht-inspired materials palette.

Above The formal dining room’s original honey-coloured oak floors were restored and polished, and shipwright-crafted half-hull models (a model of a boat cut in half lengthwise, typically given as part of the purchase of a sailboat) makes a suitably nautical-themed backdrop.

The Royal Canadian Yacht Club (RCYC) may be one of Toronto’s more venerable institutions, founded in 1852, and able to boast possession of the city’s largest wooden building with the Toronto Island Clubhouse. But what it is not immune from is age. Worn and dysfunctional, the club’s landmark was in dire need of a thorough heritage restoration.

With a successful overhaul of the RCYC’s City Clubhouse in 2018 already under their belt, Peter Berton and Chris Hall, partners at The Ventin Group Architects Ltd. (+VG), moved on to update the 1922 Island Clubhouse, which was a modified version of the 1906 design by the Toronto architectural firm Sproatt and Rolph that was destroyed by fire in 1918. The team breathed new life into the old dame by repurposing its iconic veranda into an upscale bar, adding washrooms on the ground floor (a feature long missing), an elevator to improve accessibility, and other design details.

The existing building’s cornerstone, still gracing the entrance, was laid by the Prince of Wales (the future King Edward VIII and Duke

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of Windsor). Additional echoes of the club’s illustrious past live on in its expansive trophy displays befitting a sailing club that has won the prestigious Canada’s Cup nine times.

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+VG was a good fit for this project because retrofits and historic restorations of prominent civic buildings is one of the firm’s specialties.

Such projects include Toronto’s re-gargoyled and upgraded Richardsonian Romanesque-style Old City Hall, the exterior restoration of 7/8 2021 CANADIAN INTERIORS

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Left The Members’ Lounge was refreshed with new recessed lighting and spotlights emphasizing nautical artwork and the massive captain’s wheel. Large wing chairs with wraparound arms, and a skirted sofa, repose on a carpet tinted the RCYC’s official blue hue. Right In the spacious new main-floor powder rooms, glossy Caesarstone vanity counters with polished-nickel fixtures contrast with the warmth of walnut millwork and muted beige wall and floor tiles.

the Legislative Assembly at Queen’s Park, the restoration of St. Michael’s Cathedral and the modernization of Hamilton’s midcenturymodern Provincial Offenses Administration Courthouse.

After winning the Island Clubhouse commission, +VG prepared a Heritage Impact Brief, approved by Heritage Preservation Services as required by the Ontario Heritage Act, before commencing work on the 10,350-sq.-ft. renovation project. The building’s façade was given a thorough conservator’s restoration, with the stately porticoed veranda now boasting a new Sailors’ Bar that centres around a solidwalnut half-racetrack-configured bar situated to exploit the impressive view of Toronto’s majestic skyline.

for a really fun place, especially during sail-pasts, which just make you want to sidle up to the bar,” says Berton.

The bar’s indoor counterpart, a cocktail lounge with a sports-bar feel, continues the nautical theme and extends the life of the bar during inclement weather. A continuous palette of materials and colours intertwines both spaces. The other principal room on the ground floor is the Harbourview Room. Here, original oak floors and bronze chandeliers were polished to their original sparkle.

The Sailors’ Bar straddles the club’s interior and exterior. “Our inspiration was the outdoor bar at the Water’s Edge Wine Bar and Grill Restaurant at Lake Joseph Club in Muskoka,” says Hall of his firm’s upscale hospitality project in Ontario’s cottage country. In fairness, it’s easy to understand why the existing RCYC Island Clubhouse lacked a bar that faced the “money view”: today’s bustling, dramatic skyline was, in the club’s earlier days, an unsightly, polluted industrial waterfront.

Upholstery in the club’s official royal blue, and expanses of white paint evoking fresh canvas sails, establish a nautical theme. Original porch decking was restored, then given a marine-blue finish. The ceiling over the Sailors’ Bar is clad in cedar; the bar is mahogany.

Both woods are favoured for their weather-resistant durability and for fostering a warm and cozy ambience. “The outdoor bar makes CANADIAN INTERIORS 7/8 2021

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New main-floor powder rooms — surprisingly absent in any of the building’s “before” iterations — offer privacy and convenience. Their finishes include marble, grey tile and walnut millwork. One universal, barrier-free washroom is also provided. As part of the project’s mandate for improved accessibility, an elevator was added to the clubhouse to whisk members to the second floor: an impressive, barrelvaulted space proving to be a popular venue for weddings, receptions and Halloween balls.

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FE LT:

Acoustically and Sustainably Sound

By Robert Marshall

The cool grays and natural earth tones of this felt ceiling design work in conjunction with one another to create understated monochromatic effect that will stand up to fading over time.

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From acoustic management to unique aesthetics, felt ceilings offer hospitality designers an expanding world of options, while decreasing environmental impact.

option in this category. Recycled materials factor heavily into the production of many felt ceiling products. Some manufacturers offer 100 per cent recyclable felt products made from 60 per cent recycled PET content, including post-consumer recycled plastic bottles. These products are functionally identical to non-recycled felt and provide the same array of benefits to interior spaces.

Specifiers can find felt ceiling systems that are GREENGUARD Gold Certified and contribute to LEED V4 credits in four categories, including Building Product Disclosure (MR), Low-Emitting Materials (EQ), Indoor Air Quality Assessment (EQ) and Acoustic Performance (EQ).

Creating Acoustically Comfortable Spaces Natural or recycled, felt provides a distinctive appearance, creative freedom, as well as excellent sound absorption properties. Not only does felt meet sustainability needs, it helps to solve the complex acoustic challenges of increasingly common open plenum spaces.

Felt is composed of compressed fibers, varying in both thickness and density. Because of its fibrous nature, pockets of air are present within the material, allowing for sound to be absorbed. This means that felt products often boast a high noise reduction rating, up to .85 NRC. Felt ceilings are ideal for guestrooms, as this space is critical to overall comfort during stays, when sound absorption is most important.

Ballrooms and corporate meeting spaces are designed to host a large range of events, from weddings to trade shows. Felt can help manage acoustics within these large crowds to limit noise transference and increase speech privacy. Similarly, high-traffic hallways serve as a connector for the overall interior design, while guiding guests to their next experience within the space. Hotel restaurant spaces must provide a fresh, welcoming aesthetic to guests all the while managing acoustics that allow them to have comfortable and quiet conversations among their tables.

From our days spent in the art room at school, most of us will remember felt as a material used in many types of projects. You might even be at home right now helping your children or grandchildren work on felt arts and crafts. Regardless of your experience with felt, you know it as an extremely versatile material. It can be molded into shapes, used to upholster panels, and has helped blend the worlds of residential and commercial design long before “resimercial” was an industry term.

In any hospitality design, the star of the show is the lobby, and here, felt can do it all. The lobby area serves as the first impression for guests, so striking design is key. Whether using arresting colours, branded materials, or neutral tones to highlight other features within the design, felt caters to all of it. The space is the centerpiece and is built as a hightraffic hub, but should be acoustically sound. Using spot acoustics and partitions, felt can create private spaces that allow guests to provide private check-in information without being overheard.

As the architecture and design industry continues to demand alternative materials that marry sustainability with acoustic control, hospitality designers can answer the call with felt. Blending a warm aesthetic with superior acoustic performance, felt is becoming a goto choice. Whether creating inviting guest rooms, energetic ballrooms spaces, or striking lobby areas, felt allows designers to manage acoustics while incorporating unique shapes, colours, and finishes.

This beautifully soft material tells a unique sustainability story by leveraging recycled materials and adding to a building’s green footprint, and therefore increasing the likelihood of securing LEED certification. It also allows designers working on hospitality projects to create visual artwork within these spaces.

At the Intersection of Colourful and Contemporary Not only does felt help to create comfortable, acoustically-sound spaces, it brings a rich, inviting, and colourful aesthetic to contemporary commercial ceiling design. While many first-generation felt ceiling products were simple stick-on panels featuring monochromatic colours, manufacturers are now designing complete felt product families. Some are even incorporating curves and shapes that push the boundaries of traditional ceiling design.

Designing Sustainable Ceilings and Walls Never Felt So Good Felt products offer the feeling of comfort and well-being while meeting the growing industry demand for sustainable building products.

Wool felt is a natural product and features a manufacturing process that has very low environmental impact. And wool felt is only one

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“Similar to the trend in the furniture and fashion industries, felt ceilings have grown and evolved in the past few years as designers found new 7/8 2021 CANADIAN INTERIORS

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1 This open common area makes perfect use of linear felt panels by adding crisp lines, while creating warmth and acoustic comfort.

2 This lounge area blends the linearity of felt panels with the free-hanging format of organic circles, to create visual interest.

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uses for the material,” says Taylor Hemingway, Felt Product Manager for CertainTeed. “Traditional applications have given way to linear ceiling panels, large format baffles and clouds and open cell ceiling designs. The wide variety of products solve a variety of aesthetic and acoustic challenges in open concept and large interior spaces: an increasingly important consideration in today’s design world.”

and branded environments. Designers are often looking for acoustic ceiling products that tie in well with wood, metal, and other materials. White and grey do this well and add another layer of texture to the space, but the colour and texture options go well beyond neutral.

Unique colours, patterns and textures provide aesthetics that are unlike those of any other ceiling materials and surfaces.

Linear ceiling panels bring a crisp, clean look and unexpected softness and texture to a variety of ceiling and wall applications. Not only are linear panels compatible with industry standard lighting, HVAC, speaker, fire safety and security systems, but these lightweight products also clip in the modular carrier system, turning any ceiling into a visual and acoustic playground.

Modern greys, beige tones, and other neutrals add a sense of calm sophistication to hospitality spaces, while more vibrant shades can integrate a sense of uplifting energy to these high traffic spaces. Hospitality companies can even reinforce their brand in a space with custom colours that match their identities.

Despite a wide array of finish options, white and grey tones remain two highly versatile colours for felt ceilings. “Commercial designers are often looking for acoustic ceiling products that tie in well with wood, metal and other materials,” explains Hemingway. “White and grey do this well and add another layer of texture to the space.”

“Very rarely do designers reach out to specify a felt ceiling across an entire project or building,” says Hemingway. “They have targeted needs and want panels that can be installed using the same grid or installation method as other ceiling products. The same goes for linear panels and wall panels. This ease and convenience is a major factor as felt becomes more popular.”

As Design Trends Evolve, Felt Delivers

Manufacturers offer a wide variety of hues that allow designers to create everything from natural, biophilic spaces to bright, colourful

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During a time when health is of the upmost importance to individuals while traveling, biophilic design continues to take centre stage. Felt

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be used to achieve the look of monolithic wood panels without the expense. Colours beyond basic neutrals can be used to leverage modern interior paint colours and create a comforting palette that stretches throughout the entire space.

compliments natural elements including wood floors, green walls and natural lighting.

Designers are also frequently using hospitality design as an art platform to create eye-catching ceiling sculptures that draw the eye upward and capture the imagination. There’s more to felt than typical wall-to-wall grid installations. “As far as design trends are concerned, we have seen mostly linear and rectangular installations in commercial applications so far,” adds Hemingway. “However, this is beginning to change as specifiers create new designs by using linear panels and products in new and creative ways.”

No matter the application, the most recent felt ceiling and wall innovations augment a soft texture and provide endless options of hues, sizes, shapes, and textures. Today’s products boast construction of high-recycled content and provide incredible acoustical control capabilities. Designers now have limitless flexibility to transform hospitality projects into visually striking artwork that is warm and welcoming, for even the weariest of travelers.

A full range of trim products enables the same basic panel structure to take on countless creative forms. The material can be used to create curves, waves, and other shapes for an unexpected sense of motion. Designers can specify direct mount to walls or ceilings to boost design impact and acoustic performance, or even design islands and floating clouds to serve as visual focal points and add acoustic control in open spaces.

Another trend moving into the fold is incorporating warmth into these spaces, creating a home-like atmosphere for frequent travelers.

This trend implements felt in calming, natural colours, to create a welcoming, home-like feeling with expressive décor. Felt ceilings can

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Robert Marshall is the senior technical manager for CertainTeed Architectural and a lifelong participant in the commercial ceiling industry. He is the product of one of world’s first acoustic ceiling contracting businesses; a company founded by his family in 1927.

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Change of Address

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Is converting a hotel into affordable housing a viable option?

Converting vacant commercial properties, such as hotels, to affordable housing is not a new concept and could be an appealing business decision especially in light of rising construction costs, however there is much to consider. Business owners interested in converting their commercial establishments into rental housing need to look at the location of their properties and their proximity to amenities, followed by physical attributes including the layout, plumbing and HVAC. These features make hotels a very attractive option: they are often close to amenities and in desirable locations, though zoning could be a factor with many hotels located on employment lands, potentially requiring a zoning amendment. Their floor plans are similar to apartment buildings, with wide corridors, elevators and facilities such as pools and party rooms. Each suite already has a bathroom, heating, ventilation and air conditioning and in some cases they even have living rooms. The missing piece is functional kitchens in each suite.

especially as existing hotel design and service offering will have to evolve in the post-pandemic world, leading to new capital requirements and an altered operating environment.

By Qaiser Mian

Affordable housing is a growing crisis that many Canadians now face.

It’s a problem that doesn’t have a simple solution, however the Federal government has addressed it in their 2021 budget with $1.3 billion going towards the creation of new homes. In addition, $300 million of that will be dedicated to converting vacant commercial properties into 800 units of market rental housing and there is an additional $1.5 billion from the CMHC’s Rapid Housing Initiative (RHI) that can be tapped into as well.

Developing affordable housing has many attractive qualities: it is independent of economic cycles; has formidable amounts of funding behind it; is in high demand; and if we are in a pandemic era as some have predicted, it is not at the mercy of a virus.

Case studies are emerging to give credit to the conversion process, such as the Silvera for Seniors hotel conversion in Calgary. Silvera received $15.5 million from the RHI to acquire and convert the Lakeview Signature Hotel to 120 affordable senior housing suites.

This work includes $4.5 million of construction and, as part of the RHI funding, Silvera must complete this work and achieve occupancy within 12 months of funding.

Hoteliers wanting to explore the conversion route will need to consider not just capital costs but also re-zoning fees and processes, anticipated revenue and construction costs, including the rising costs of supplies and construction labour shortages in many areas, leading to higher wages. Proformas are also an important step to determine the feasibility and potential financial benefits of conversion.

The question then becomes: is converting a hotel into affordable housing a viable option? According to Smith Travel Research, the national occupancy in Canadian hotels, average daily rate (ADR) and revenue per available room (RevPAR) increased steadily from 2008, peaking in 2018. These numbers took a drastic downward turn in 2020 as restrictions brought the hospitality industry to a virtual standstill, and the future of the industry is very much in question.

Services such as AirBnB and Sonder were already cutting into hotel revenue, but the pandemic was a further blow for which the industry was not prepared.

Over the last year or so, with fixed costs staying virtually the same while revenue streams slowed down or stopped completely, hotels also faced additional costs tied to COVID-19 safety protocols. While many have been able to defer payments through their financial institution, they are still accruing interest and face an uncertain future

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There is expected to be “revenge travel” with people eager to get out and feed their pent-up wanderlust, but this is expected to taper off and the “new normal” demand for hotels will likely be lower than prepandemic levels. As well, certain areas of the hotel industry are anticipated to have a slower recovery, especially with regards to conference-related services, which impacts not only room revenue but also food and beverage. In a nutshell, there is uncertainty of what the future holds for the hotel industry.

This is not a secret opportunity, as many investors are already exploring the economic potential behind a commercial property to housing conversion. Property owners just need to do their due diligence to confirm if this is the right option for them.

Qaiser Mian is Senior Director of Research, Valuations and Advisory at Altus Group, who were hired to provide full development management services on the Silvera for Seniors project, including a cost

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planning exercise to map out the capital costs required for the conversion.

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Intern(al) Affairs Ethical and professional Many jobs require, or expect, some form of apprenticeship as a sort of interim between academic training and being fully qualified for the profession. Whether we call them apprentices, interns or articling students, in each of these cases, the individual expects to be paid.

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However, in many settings, interns are unpaid, leading to an inequitable playing field. According to a Forbes 2018 article, people of colour, LGBTQ and other marginalized people are less likely to be able to afford to work for free to gain work experience. While work experience is valuable, an exception in the Ontario Employment Standards Act (ESA) notes that unpaid internship is illegal, unless “the

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s

s

al

If one firm pays their architects and interns overtime, affording them the full protection of the Employment Standards Act, and another does not, the firm not paying overtime can offer a lower fee.

They rest their corporate profitability on obtaining more than 40 hours of billable time per week.

person providing the training derives little, if any, benefit from the activity of the individual while he or she is being trained.” This is, arguably, subject to interpretation.

In 2018, the Ontario Association of Architects (OAA) petitioned the government to revoke the exemptions in the ESA that allow employers to exploit their staff. The government declined to take action. As a result, unpaid internships and unpaid overtime for architects and interns remains legal.

This creates an uneven playing field. Firms who do comply with the moral imperative of fair pay for work are squeezed out of the market and unable to compete. Governments that buy professional services without considering this inequity perpetuate this culture.

Celebrating these firms with awards reinforces that acceptance.

The Washington Post reported that 43 per cent of internships at forprofit U.S. companies were unpaid. While we don’t have similar statistics in Canada, if this number holds true, we have to wonder at the relationship between for-profit companies and the use of this ESA category and its impact on a healthy society.

Large, award-winning firms who exploit this definition in the ESA can create a culture of fear. Interns and architects who want to be paid fairly worry about leaving their job, or filing complaints, because it can act as a black mark on their work history.

Architecture awards are a well-recognized way to celebrate excellence in the profession. The annual Pritzker Architecture Prize honours architects who’s built work demonstrates talent, vision and commitment to humanity through the art of architecture. Yet some of the world’s most prestigious award-winning firms are notorious for their unpaid internships, as reported by Canadian Architect.

Not paying interns and not paying overtime allows firms to undermine the public interest by creating a culture where corporate profits are paramount. Celebrating the work of these firms, whether at the provincial, national or international level needs to stop. Rewarding these firms by continuing to award projects to them based on inequitable fee structures creates an uneven playing field for procurement and fair competition.

In 2019, Junya Ishigami’s Serpentine Pavilion drew international attention for its beauty and grace. Less attention was paid to his firm’s notorious use of unpaid internships, despite Dezeen magazine’s coverage of this important issue.

While revoking the exemptions under the ESA is the goal, in the interim, employers need to be subject to professional standards.

And when assessing fair and reasonable fees for projects, assessment of ethical standards of practice needs to be a factor both in hiring, and in celebrating awards.

Let’s consider the role of architecture and the process of hiring in the public sector. Architecture internship starts after six years (or more) of university, and takes three to five years to complete, culminating in a set of examinations before becoming a licenced architect. In that time, interns must work on a range of aspects of different projects. In this period, their role in a company helps manage projects, design and complete drawings and specifications and administer construction. Interns provide billable time to their employer who profits from their labour. This seems to contradict the definition in the ESA.

Toon Dreessen, OAA, FRAIC is president of Architects DCA, an Ottawa-based architecture practice.

Toon served six years on OAA council, two years as president and was inducted into the RAIC College of Fellows in 2016 and the Order of DaVinci in 2020. A noted public speaker, writer and advocate, Toon leads the company’s activism in the role of architecture in social justice, gender equity, fiscal responsibility and the role of architects in a strategic, visionary, and thoughtful planning.

standards for interns in A+D practices.

By Toon Dreessen

Anecdotal information suggests that most intern architects in Ontario are paid so there is recognition that intern architects add value and contribute to their employer’s success. But are they paid fairly? A not uncommon story is that of an intern working at an award-winning firm who worked over 100 hours of overtime in one month, unpaid.

Closer to home, this issue needs to be better understood in procurement, the method the public sector uses to hire architects. When Requests for Proposal (RFPs) are scored, beyond a technical threshold, the lowest fee will win, often contrary to the public interest. But there is no discussion on how those fees are set.

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Photos courtesy of SAGA Space Architects

over & out

Light Side of the Moon

What should lighting design look like for a lunar habitat?

By Peter Sobchak

LUNARK experienced similarly difficult light conditions by being close to Earth’s North Pole in the Artic Circle. To combat this, SAGA partnered with Danish lighting brand Louis Poulsen to create custom-made Circadian Light Panels that discharged pseudo-natural daylight throughout the interiors and accurately emulated Earth’s subtle hourly variations of dawn, sunrise, daylight, sunset and dusk.

SAGA Space Architects, a Danish design practice specializing in outer space habitation research, wondered the same thing. With the goal of developing a Moon habitat suitable for regular people, not just trained astronauts, SAGA built and tested one for an analog Moon mission conducted near Moriusaq, Greenland in the high Arctic. From September to November 2020, Sebastian Aristotelis and Karl-Johan Sørensen deployed LUNARK and lived in it for 60 days, completely isolated.

A key factor to be considered for their psychological and physical well-being was the need for a stable circadian rhythm. In space, where every day is the same, senses become numb, cognitive abilities deteriorate and out-of-sync circadian rhythms make astronauts lethargic and unproductive. However, on the Moon, the sunlight environment is different. At the Moon’s equator, one will experience a 28 day-night cycle of 14 sunlit days followed by 14 days of darkness. At the Moon’s south pole there is almost always sunlight. The crew of CANADIAN INTERIORS 7/8 2021

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Simulating a healthy circadian rhythm stimulates natural sleep and wake hormone production in the body. Lowering the intensity of blue light towards the evening promotes production of the sleep hormone melatonin production, and likewise waking up to increasing blue light suppresses melatonin and promotes cortisol. To combat monotony even further, the panels were also programmed with variations between the days to mimic the different weather patterns we experience on Earth, from overcast and low light intensity to brighter, high intensity warm light. The lessons learned on the mission will be shared and implemented in future Moon habitat designs.

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Design: DLR Group Scope: Acrylic fin partitions with bronze mounting system Client: AC Hotel Grand Rapids

design / develop / deliver

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