Status: Built

Themes:

Adaptive reuse of a historic car garage to a food outlet

Haptic experience of making doughnuts which inspired construction techniques

Creamy, glazy, drizzle, pressed, squished, dripped

Materials:

Circular motif in paint and lighting

Oozing masonry textures

Bricks from previous use as car garage off-gassing

Weeping mortar joints at concrete blocks

Stucco texture on exterior sign and interior wall finishes

Gloss - stainless steel, rippled glass, shadows cast by window muntons, swirly door handles

Heritage building as a shell inhabited by interior, registered in layers from Lewis inwards

Flooring, polished to show aggregate similar to masonry blocks on the counter fronts

Dessert - an ephemeral and rich moment, a texture captured briefly with glossy glaze at it’s optimal temperature. These doughnuts are made using technology similar to a 3D printer, where batter is robotically mapped onto the surface of a moving pool of oil and automatically scooped when ready. They are boxed and drizzled with proprietary glazes that change on a weekly basis. The first bite of a hot doughnut is exquisite - so we asked what setting would prepare you for that moment?

Entering the space one’s gaze is drawn directly to the colourful and bright packaging used for the doughnuts. They are the only colours in a space that is otherwise monochromatic and highly textured. Facing west, the shop is filled with the rectilinear shadows of the windows facing Lewis Street during opening hours. The light filters through glass screens that are slightly larger than human scale and separate the front and back-of-house. The fluted glass elements are angled and direct you to the order and pick-up counters. LED circles ripple in the glass to create a dream-like environment, like a dopamine rush of pleasure. The reflections are extended in the large stainless steel countertops, shelves, frames, and mirror at the entryway.

The interior was designed to capture a delicious moment, where float spreads stucco and pressure extrudes mortar, like icing. Concrete was the focus of the study in creamy textures. Visitors are surrounded by the textures of creamines, frozen in time. The materials that capture this are visible in the exposed aggregate of the polished floors, stucco finishes on the exterior sign and interior walls, and the oozing mortar in the joints of the service counter.

Commercial car garages are a wild card in Toronto’s downtown. Often located in old buildings, these industrial conversions are the setting for some of the city’s popular social spaces: breweries, restaurants, and cafes. Their rich textures, exposed structures, and large openings allow for minimal renovations to result in beautiful daylit spaces. The century old brick shell with concrete floors was tarnished with decades of fumes, oils, and chemicals. There was an obvious parallel between the absorptive nature of the historic masonry textures and the rich textures of the doughnuts that would replace its industrial nature.