Vela. Photo © Rick O’Brien
Architects & Firms
Evoking the constellation whose name it shares, Vela-a restaurant and supper club new to Toronto’s King West neighborhood-dazzles visitors with a curving, illuminated ceiling that unfurls above them throughout the 4,000-square-foot house designed by local firm PARTISANS. The starry-evening impact serves as a guiding light from the entrance, up seven steps to reception, and into the open champagne lounge and dining room, where it dips and swirls earlier than cascading down a wall as a glowing efficiency backdrop. “The clients have been impressed by thirties-era grand motels and lobby bars,” says architect Jonathan Friedman. “And they asked for a unique area for hospitality and music.”
Radiating from the 1904 building (1), Vela’s constellation of gentle meanders from the road into a dining room bordered by a bar and open kitchen (top), and down a wall (2). Photos © Jonathan Friedman / Partisans, click to enlarge.
The raw interior-in a 1904 brick-and-timber commercial-laundry constructing that extra not too long ago housed workplaces-had character, but was challenged with current infrastructure that triggered uneven and low ceiling heights. If you cherished this short article and you would like to acquire a lot more information concerning led linear light (https://www.blurb.com/) kindly pay a visit to the web page. The staff developed a scheme, rooted in natural land varieties, that allowed them to work around these obstructions with fluid partitions and a prefabricated solid ceiling that doubles as a sound-diffusing floor and ambient luminaire. A composition of custom glass-fiber-reinforced-gypsum panels hung with airplane cable, the ceiling was carved with sinuous channels that cradle 1,000 ft of formable LED tubes linked with clips. All of the pieces are unique. Fit like a jigsaw puzzle.
The dimmable 2700K lamping emits a warmth throughout the restaurant. It is supported by downlights to zero in on dining surfaces; table lamps that illuminate faces; and spots on the timber posts to graze the wood. Uplights at the bar shelves. A banquette area wash the brick partitions. In consequence, Vela presents different levels of intimacy. “By sculpting the ceiling, we made the house more snug,” says Friedman. “It solved technical challenges and in addition created a particular expertise for friends.”
Credits
Architect:PARTISANS – Jonathan Friedman, Alexander Josephson, Pooya Baktash, Ivan Vasyliv, Tanya Estrina, design workforce
Engineers:Entuitive Consulting Engineers (structural); Trace Consulting Group (m/e/p)
General Contractor:Aligned Construction
Consultants:Mulvey & Banani (lighting design); Patti Rosati (interior design); HGC Engineering (acoustics); The 192 Group (a/v)
Client:Vela
Size:4,000 square ft
Cost:Withheld
Completion Date:July 2021
Ceiling:Formglas (GFRC); USG (acoustical)
Lighting:LED Linear; RJCross; Lumenpulse; Techlighting; Viabizzuno; Juno; Rosco; QSC (controls)
Acoustic Wood Panels:Decoustics
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Linda Lentz is a senior editor at Architectural Record, responsible for the Record Interiors situation, the month-to-month interiors web page, the quarterly lighting sections, and such particular issue sections as Schools of the 21st Century and Good Design is sweet Business. She joined Record in 2008. Previously, the Brooklyn native worked as a contract author and editor masking design, supplies, and products for quite a few design and shelter publications-including Interior led wall washer Design, led neon flex Metropolitan Home, Robb Report, This Old House, and Building Products, along with Record, and its spin-off, My House. This adopted 10 years as Articles Editor at Home Magazine. She holds an M.A.
