THE JUGGERNAUT 09/17/08

Words  ::  Will Jones // Images  ::  Tom Arban

The warehouse district in downtown Toronto is cool. Not crowded with suits and shoppers, its streets are the domain of young companies – TV production houses, design studios, multimedia outfits, restaurants and bars – and older residents that know the difference between style and glamour.The buildings themselves are late 19th Century, and as such, solid, practical and strong. These aren’t properties that want upgrades and additions every few years. Instead, they need to be occupied in a manner that is sensitive to their history but which can stand up to the industrial aesthetic.
The new office for Juggernaut is a perfect example of this integration of new and old. Designed by Giannone Associates, it is inspired by Juggernaut’s desire for space that reflected its work as a post production, design and animation studio. The architect has interpreted this as a multi-layered, interactive world and created an interior charged with energy.
However, from the outside you only catch glimpses. “There were some restrictions with respect to changes to the exterior of the building,” says practice principal Pina Petricone, “but, we embraced the contrast between inside and outside as a tool, to defy expectations upon entering. The total containment of the new insertion as a kind of suit lining also echoes our cocoon idea – a light protecting wrapping that slowly unravels…”
Petricone and partner Ralph Giannone share a keen instinct for urban culture and the city, a passion for fashioning complex surfaces and an ability to search out unconventional uses of forms and materials to ensure freshness and richness of meaning. “We do many custom interiors – especially for organizations looking for a change or definition of identity, or a boost to their organizational structure,” Says Petricone. Their work often encompasses some type of layering and color and texture play an important part.

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