Renovatio ex ruina

Meet Arcana Materials and Daniel Gruetter, the team of designers and reclaimed material enthusiasts who have developed an experimental feature bar made from reclaimed bricks and wood. Although the materials come from buildings that stood for over a hundred years of Toronto’s development, their creative material reuse as a contemporary interior design feature will debut as part of DesignTO.

Join the public reception on Friday, January 30 from 6-10pm at the Ouroborous Studio Space, a recently launched showroom and workshop dedicated to celebrating reclaimed building materials.

THE ‘Renovatio ex ruina’ BAR:

Created in collaboration with furniture designer Daniel Gruetter, Arcana Materials has developed this experimental furniture item that demonstrates how reclaimed historic masonry and wood materials can be reimagined into contemporary interior design features. The piece celebrates the reuse of 110+ year old clinker bricks salvaged from recently demolished portions of the Danforth Baptist Church that were otherwise destined for landfill. Instead, these rare bricks have been salvaged and cut into stunningly irregular and colourful veneer tiles by Arcana, called ‘Cosmic’ for its outer-worldly appearance. Gruetter specializes in thoughtfully designed and meticulously crafted furniture that engages with issues of environmental stewardship and cultural heritage, thus inspired by this concept of using reclaimed brick in unique formats. This bar concept combines rugged texture with his signature sleek design forms to create pieces that explore what is possible with unconventional materials, and celebrates a piece of Toronto’s built history through avant-garde modern design.

The event will be a single night reception concurrent with Ouroboros Deconstruction’s DesignTO display in the same space, similarly aligned with the theme of repurposed historic materials.

Preview the behind-the-scenes work on Instagram @arcanamaterials @danielgruetter and website www.arcanamaterials.co