Assistant professor Vivian Lee and her LAMAS business partner, lecturer James Macgillivray, recently designed the interior of Avling Kitchen and Brewery, a new restaurant and taproom located in Toronto's Leslieville neighbourhood.

The space, which had been used by a previous occupant to grow bean sprouts, was in need of a total refresh. Lee and Macgillivray's soothing interior colour palette and cleverly designed rooftop garden caught the eye of Frame magazine, which published a story about the project.

Frame writes:

A wide mural by artist Madison van Rijn was inspired by Canadian geography and the connection between humans and the Earth. Lee and Macgillivray hoped to achieve a feeling of lightness and inclusivity with a subdued palette: the pale pink that softens steel beams overhead is the same tone found in Van Rijn’s mural.

But it’s the restaurant’s layout that most strongly alludes to the farm-centred concept, with four quadrants organized around the central bar. "We had worked on agricultural projects before," says Macgillivray. "What had resonated with us, especially relative to the restaurant programme, was the notion of crop rotation – having different fields and rotating the crops though them to keep the soil healthy. We thought this was a fitting analogy for how the restaurant could place different groups of users, depending on the time of day and what they wanted at that moment."

Read the full article here.

And here are a few more images of the space, starting with a section of the building:

A view into the dining room, towards the brewing tanks:

The brewing area:

The rooftop garden:

Photographs by Felix Michaud.