On the Rise
That’s quite the staircase. Tell me about how it came to be.
Well, my initial idea was an industrial spiral staircase, but because of code issues, a spiral staircase would have taken over half of the space. So back to the drawing board! I suggested, “Why don’t we go for something really fluid?” You see a lot of that in China — the sculptural trend. An artifact in the room — that’s how I wanted to treat it. The whole idea was to keep it as light and airy as possible: narrow walls, sleek handrails, but still sturdy. And I wanted to keep it open so that we can explore what’s going on underneath it. The whole thing came together as a calm, Zen space.
You have previously designed office towers in Montreal. How would you describe the difference between the architecture of Montreal and Ottawa?
I think Montreal has a long way to go. This shocks everyone. People think that the architecture I see in Montreal is what I’m doing here, which is so not true. What I’m seeing in the world is what I’m doing in Ottawa. Montreal has a lot of catching up to do.
You have said that you want your designs to fit into their surroundings but also have a distinguishing quality that reflects your clients’ lifestyle. How do you find the balance?
It’s so interesting how it always naturally comes about. For example, the current clients I’m working with — for them, art is super-important. In one of their first emails to me, they sent photos of all their art and artifacts and sculptures. So that is the priority: to find space for all this art. But I also need room for me to be creative in my own design ways. The open-concept approach means that having blank walls [for art] is harder to achieve, believe it or not. So the name of the next project is going to be Galleria. The art will be the inspiration. Because if I propose a project that is all glass, they’re going to say, “She didn’t listen to a thing I said! Glass is beautiful, but I have no place to put my art.”
In 2016, you won two GOHBA awards. What do these awards mean to you?