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July 04 - July 11, 2004 |
Combining Form and Functionality
Local designers Alessandro Munge and Sai Leung find their niches in pragmatism and artistry
By Mark Curtis
Originally Published: 2003-10-12
For Alessandro Munge and Sai Leung, interior design is equal parts creativity and pragmatism.
In partnership since 1998, the designers have honed their talents on commercial projects in which the ultimate goal has been to enhance a client's business success. "It's everything for me," says Munge, the firm's managing partner. Deal with practical challenges of a project first, he says, and the aesthetics can then follow.
They're hardly wanting in the creativity department, though. Munge Leung Design Associates are perhaps best known locally for their eclectic design of the sprawling 60,000 square foot Guvernment entertainment complex, including the adjacent Koolhaus, on Toronto's waterfront. Creative director Leung's favourite space among the nine separately themed areas of The Guvernment is The Orange Room, a 1970s styled space in which Munge Leung cleverly integrated an existing mural to create a startling new effect. It's great to have a limitless budget, Leung says, but when one can find subtle solutions to highlight a neglected element, so much the better.
The Guvernment owner Charles Khabouth likes to keep things fresh at his club, so Munge and Leung continue to update their work at the nightclub complex. In the main room, for instance, they recently enhanced a 20 by 70-foot mesh wall by adding fans backlit by spotlights. "Unreal" is the way Munge describes the feeling he gets when he sees a thousand club-goers blowing off a week's worth of steam in a space he and his partner designed.
Khabouth must be happy with their work as well. The local "king of nightclubs," as Munge calls him, is opening a new supper club on the former site of the legendary Bamboo club at Queen and Spadina. Munge Leung have been given the high profile challenge to design the space.
"It has some Old World details, but with a modern twist," says Leung of their design of the club, to be called Ultra. The Old World look comes courtesy of a 12 by 40-foot glass and metal mullion façade which is framed with reclaimed brick. The façade emulates an old style warehouse. Inside the club, the main room's ceiling has been raised to 14 feet from a former eight-foot height to give the space a loft-like feel. The look will be modern, but colours and textures will warm up the room to give it a familiar and comfortable quality. Ultra is scheduled to open next month.
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