The piece nobody wanted to build.
Montreal · Commercial
- Type
- commercial fit-out and cabinetry
- Collaborator
- architect
The mandate
Adviso is a Montreal digital agency with major accounts among its clients. Growing, it was fitting out new offices and had entrusted the design to an architect.
At the heart of the project: a thirteen-foot reception desk. A front desk and two partition walls, one designed to hold documentation, the other perforated to show the awards won by the agency.
The site also included a large kitchen and several other fit-outs. The reception was the piece everything hinged on.
The reception, delivered
The constraint
The offices were leased for four to five years, and the company knew it would keep growing. Investing in hardwood for a piece of that size, in a space it would leave before the end of its useful life, made no economic sense.
So the agency was asking for a low-cost medium that would still give a rich result. The quotes received from other cabinetmakers reached up to four times our price.
What we proposed
Finish-grade plywood, doubled.
The doubling wasn't a compromise, it was the mechanism. It gave a false thickness, hence the visual mass of a solid piece. And it made it possible to hide every fastening point within the thickness, which is the real difference between a piece that looks built and a piece that looks placed.
The whole thing was assembled in blocks at the workshop, then put together and glued on site. That's what made it possible to deliver a thirteen-foot piece built in a workshop.
It isn't an invention. It's a known type of assembly, used in the right place, to keep the material cost to a minimum and the visual result to a maximum.
The result
The piece lasted the whole lease without visible wear. When the agency left, the company that took over the lease bought it rather than have it removed. It's now part of the premises.
The reception, bought by the next tenant
Go further
So, what are we working on?
Eight questions, two minutes. We call you back to talk it through, and we tell you frankly whether it's a project for us or whether you'd be better served elsewhere.