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LOCATION:
Toronto, Ontario
PROJECT TYPE:
Institutional, Hospitality
CATEGORY:
Interior Architecture, Installation
The intended use of the AGO Galleria was a sculpture gallery and promenade linking a series of galleries. The quality of the architecture and natural light as well as its context within the city, inevitably created a strong draw, generating dynamic uses within the space. The Galleria has become its own destination, utilized for functions and events, but also a place of respite and recharge among the gallery spaces. In the original Galleria configuration the food and beverage services and seating divided and dominated the existing space with numerous small interventions. The design reclaims contiguous gallery space by consolidating food and beverage services into a unified secondary use that is sensitive to both the dynamic uses and existing architecture.
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While the bulk of the kiosk form and programme is consolidated and offset to one side of the Galleria, with a muted presence, the seating element extends out into the open gallery space, creating an overlapping programmatic area. Mimicking the materiality and simple repetition of the existing wood panel wall, the kiosk merges into the existing space. As the kiosk recedes from the gallery it transitions from bench, to counter, and then bar. Detaching from the wall and lifting off the floor, the kiosk subtlety transforms to adopt the dynamic and sculptural characteristics of the timber structure and fenestration, and further incorporate the nuanced use of wood present in the existing space. While the architecture is informed by the contrast between the heavy and opaque gallery interface versus the light, rhythmic and deconstructed exterior shell, the kiosk inherits the qualities of both.