Behind every striking rock formation is a story about the slow, sculptural forces of the past. In the design of Vela, a new restaurant in Toronto’s King West neighbourhood, architecture studio Partisans has related the idea of weathering and erosion to a sense of timelessness to address the rich layers of the project’s setting, the 1904 Parisian Laundry Building. “We wanted to respect the residue of brick and timber but also to breathe in new life,” says firm partner Jonathan Friedman.
Prior to its latest reinvention as a destination dining environment, Vela’s portion of the historic landmark most recently operated as an office. While the space provided attractive industrial character, its open ceiling’s cluttered ducts and pipes also posed the main obstacle to achieving the “grand hotel lobby bar without the hotel” that local hospitality heavyweights Amanda Bradley and Robin Goodfellow envisioned for their latest venture.
The solution: a canyon-like ceiling assembled on site from a series of prefabricated fibre-reinforced gypsum panels. Suspended with aircraft cable to conceal both the new mechanical system and several decades’ worth of old infrastructure, the sculpture dips down where it needs to accommodate pre-existing beams and new HVAC vents, then swerves back up where there are opportunities to maximize height. The curves also work to direct sound waves toward the soft surfaces installed along the room’s edge, where an open kitchen and bar are stationed against dramatic backdrops of glowing brick.
On its own, this overhead centrepiece boasts a quiet organic beauty. But turn on the lights and suddenly it manages to introduce a sense of pulsating nightlife as well, drawing intrigued passersby inside. “It’s sculpting with light — seeing how the architecture can become the main source of illumination,” says Friedman. His firm worked closely with German manufacturer LED Linear and local supplier TPL Lighting to source lighting strands flexible enough to keep up with the ceiling’s many dips and curves. Slots were then carved into each panel, with brackets added at 30-centimetre intervals to secure the glowing tubes in place. “We thought of the lights like a constellation,” Friedman says, “connecting different spaces.”
As they reach the northernmost point of the dining hall, the celestial strands cascade down to spotlight an area earmarked for future musical guests. “Lighting sets the stage, but it’s also its own performance,” Friedman notes. The 18 tracks of light can even be programmed to flash in different sequences, or to react to live recitals. Rarely has geology seemed so rock ’n’ roll — or so elegant.
Partisans Draws on Canyons and Constellations at Vela Restaurant
Woven into a wavy, topographic ceiling, ribbons of light traverse space and time.