Making room for art  | National Post

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For the redesign of a Hazelton Hotel penthouse owned by art-collecting, design-forward clients, the aim was to create a serenely modern interior, with roots planted firmly in the past.  

According to Gianpiero Pugliese, founder and principal of Audax, the architecture, design and build firm that oversaw the project, the client is a beauty-industry entrepreneur with a collection of fine art and sculpture. Showcasing those works was top of mind when the design was being drafted.  

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Part of what’s striking about the suite’s interior is its low-key, monochromatic palette of limestone and concrete, light and dark-stained woods — notably Shou Sugi Ban, a charring technique that produces a soft, dimensional black surface on cedar. Illuminated by the abundance of light that enters through ceiling-height windows on two elevations, it’s a perfect backdrop for art that focuses mainly on large-scale sculptures and simple graphic forms.  

The inspiration for the suite’s layout was the architectural arrangement known as enfilade, in which rooms open sequentially, one into the next, rather than off a central corridor. Once a common feature of French country homes and palaces, today it’s a popular layout for art galleries, including the AGO. 

As Pugliese explains, enfilades – the Royal Palace of Torino is a splendid illustration – do feature a connecting corridor, but it runs down one side, with rooms facing off it. As the corridor progresses, it’s influenced a little or a lot by the character of each room it affords access to.  

In the penthouse, sliding panels allow adjoining rooms to either annex the corridor or close themselves off to it. The character of these interconnected spaces was heavily guided by the art collection. “Several pieces had already been chosen by the time we designed the apartment, so they became part of the overall composition,” Pugliese says. They also had a strong effect on the choice of materials and the colour palette: Works done in bronze and dark woods harmonize in the quiet setting, while others in bright metals almost seem to glow. 

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The unusual stepped profile of the two window walls, corresponding to bumped-out columnar windows on the exterior of the building, presented a creative challenge to Pugliese and his team. The solution was to “smooth out” these sequential bump-outs with a colonnade of repeating pilasters with low plinths, creating a single plane and simplifying the visual effect. In two places, the bump-outs also provided a natural stage for sculpture displays. 

The private elevator opens to a foyer that Pugliese describes as a “envelope” of different permutations of white oak, covering the floor and ceiling as well as the walls. Montreal furniture maker Gildas Berthelot’s spidery sculptural piece “L’Atlantique,” which dominates this room, has a practical aspect: one can sit on it to remove shoes before entering. From here, the penthouse opens to an office suite to the left, dining area straight ahead, and other rooms beyond, towards the corridor along the window wall.  

There is a division between the brighter, more open public areas — the corridor itself, the dining area, the great room — and more private areas such as the home office, bedroom and dressing area at the end, which are darker and more enfolding in design. This is most noticeable in the office, where the near-black Shou Sugi Ban-clad walls and ceiling are leavened by lighter grey natural oak bookshelves and furnishings. It’s a room where one can work in peace, though movable panels open it up to the light of the adjoining great room. 

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In fact, the great room enjoys light from two sides, with expansive and comfortable seating, some of it designed by Audax, and other pieces curated as carefully as the art. This convivial room is also populated by three of the most prominent pieces in the collection: “Three Elektras” by Lynn Chadwick, a series of near-life-sized bronze female figures. 

 The kitchen and dining area are on the light side of the spectrum. Greyed Tundra marble counters and brushed light oak create a soft, uncluttered finish, while the adjacent dining table is another work of art: an Oxymoron dining table from Henge, finished in sandcast bronze and walnut by Italian designer Massimo Castagna. Overhead is another Henge piece, a Starlight Horizontal light fixture in burnished brass. 

 As you move toward the more private spaces, both the design and the finishes begin to darken and become more enclosed. The massive and well-appointed dressing area is in keeping with a client who works in the beauty industry. It combines a Tundra grey marble wall with Shou Sugi Ban panels and cabinetry. Over the island at the front of this room, Massimo Castagna’s Tape Light from Henge adds a curvaceous line among all the straight geometry of the cabinets. 

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 Directly opposite the dressing area, the corridor takes on a slightly different character: here, conjoined pedestals display two dark bronze pieces by 20th-century French sculptor Gérard Koch, outlined crisply against high-gloss white casework. 

 The bedroom at the far end of the penthouse is the most intimate room of all, with a “headboard” consisting of a Shou Sugi Ban panel as a background for another Massimo Castagna light fixture, composed of a collage of blocks in various metals. 

 The blending of mid-century and modern art, classic and contemporary design, and a minimal material palette makes the penthouse feel both sophisticated and relaxed, a place to entertain and cocoon from a high-impact world.  

“Even though it’s very much a contemporary space, it references history in the design,” he says. “There’s a knowledge of, and a building on, what came before.”  

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