Toronto Fashion House | ?m | 12s | Freed | Core Architects

[atodaso]

Well, we haven't heard from owners themselves yet…

…but yes, there is light leakage. That photo above does not, however, give us a good idea as to how much, as the curtains are mostly open.

It will be interesting to see how bright the rooms are with all of the drapes closed at night. It will also be interesting to follow how problems are dealt with. This why some people become engineers, right? Get this figured out! 42

These photos clearly show what is going on with the lighting, drapes open or closed. And the only engineers involved in the design of this lighting/drape configuration were the value-engineers. This is a design question, not an engineering question. I would have painted the interior surfaces of the valance (the glaring surfaces of which are clearly visible from the exterior) a dark, flat, charcoal grey. Not white. This would reduce the reflectivity and make the source of the light less apparent, bringing emphasis to the red drapes - not the bright white bits.

Ideally though the lights should have been completely recessed into a slot with narrow focused beams of light shining down from an invisible source - like theatre lighting: red velvet illuminated with a wash of light but no visible source. But designy ideas seldom survive the value engineering process in these budget driven developer projects.

 

[junctionist]

Unless functionally perfect, no one will like the lights. Functional perfection includes not having any light visible inside the units, which is possible. Unless this building becomes iconic for the drapes, people aren't going to like not being able to choose their own drapes. It's like living in a hotel.

 

[ProjectEnd]

Most condos stipulate a particular colour for drapes and other window coverings, unfortunately.

 

[urbandreamer]

17 January 2014: I think the bright lighting is just for show as the building completes.

 

[Red Mars]

Pic taken Jan 23, 2014

 

[doug]

Based on observations of some of the occupied suites, the lighting has been turned off by the occupant.

there must be a circuit breaker within the suite that feeds the lighting (to conform to the electrical code), so it would be easy for the suite owner to just turn it off.

 

[RiverCity1]

Jan 28th

 

[One Nut Kruk]

Are those exterior lights and do they remain on all night? They look really great.

 

[Ramako]

The lights look a little harsh. It looks like Amsterdam's red light district. Couldn't they go with a subtler lighting system? Potlights?

 

[argus]

Are those exterior lights and do they remain on all night? They look really great.

No. It appears that the resident can turn them off. Most of the south-facing suite are not occupied right now, so that might be why all the curtains are lit up.

 

[doug]

Are those exterior lights and do they remain on all night? They look really great.

Have you read this thread?

 

[One Nut Kruk]

Have you read this thread?

No. I don't have the patience to sift through 48 pages.

 

[interchange42]

42

 

[devjohnson]

Passed by the other day. Really not liking the red curtains. The lighting is far too harsh, and from the inside, the red gives a really bad reflection off the windows. I don't think residents will like this!

 

[egotrippin]

This whole lit curtain "architectural" feature smacks of laziness and downright stupidity, primarily considering this is a residential development. If the developer/architect/whoever wanted splashes of red, why not just install panes of red glass? Hell, they could've given the glass frit or texture to replicate the wavy effect of curtains. Something other than this ham-fisted idea.