Located in downtown Toronto’s Queen West Art District, the design concept for Red Bull’s Headquarters is derived from the notion of spaces as vessels for transformation – for both personal transformation and as receptacles that capture and record one’s personal development.
The Music Academy is one vessel that encapsulates Red Bull’s corporate mantra of ‘mentorship instead of sponsorship’, functioning as a forum for the exchange of ideas – an inspirational hub where knowledge and experience are gained and disseminated. Recording these moments in time, the design features a “Memento Wall” reaching two-storeys tall in the atrium. The wall is affixed with clear, acrylic boxes containing objects, writings, and other ephemera that were inspirational to participating artists during their time at the Academy.
The Red Bull space was later expanded by 5000SF and focuses on four main components: a bar/lounge area, a linear open workstation concept, a wool felt-clad form, and a boardroom. The client’s brief was essentially three-fold: to create an inspiring space for staff in administrative/accounts who are normally relegated to bland, impersonal spaces; to predominantly utilize materials from a reclaimed source; and to create a space consistent in concept and form to the original, yet be a reinterpretation of it.
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