Low-key meets high-energy

His willingness to take risks, while maintaining a polished aesthetic, is making him a favorite among creative clients looking for urban style. And ho-hum clearly wasn't going to cut it for the Toronto headquarters of Red Bull Canada. Having leased 12,300 square feet split between the top two levels of a three-story building, the energy drink maker imagined interiors that reflected its focus on extreme sports and could also double as a hub for cultural activities.

The project demands a shift in expectations from the outset. Merely getting from the entry to reception requires walking through a long red tube dimly lit by color-shifting LEDs. The tube deposits visitors on a glowing frosted-glass block that sits on the floor like an oversize ice cube. Step down, and you're in the Red Bull clubhouse. Business visitors can check in at the reception desk straight ahead. However, most of reception is a gallery that's open to the public, and pivoting wall panels allow the room to be reconfigured for different exhibitions. Album-release parties take place here, too. "Beyond the coolness of the design, the space has really engaged the community," Red Bull Canada president Jim Bailey says. In the double-height atrium next to reception, magnetic boxes dot a wall of stainless-steel panels. The boxes hold inspirational CDs, sketches, and other objects donated by Red Bull- sponsored artists and collaborators. "Anyone who participates in an activity with Red Bull can leave mementos of the experience," Chou explains. Over time, the boxes will fill up the entire wall.

Some visitors will proceed directly to the upper level via the atrium's spiral staircase. For those who need to wait a few minutes, there's a lounge that looks like Chou removed the living room from a neighboring family home and reinstalled everything in an openfronted box-damask-pattern wallpaper, crystal chandelier, wooden folding chair, cowhide-covered drum table, and all. "It's sort of an abstract cottage," he continues. "The budget was extremely tight, so our strategy was to leave the base building as it was but develop these separate spaces within it."

Directly next door, the staff lunchroom offers a striking contrast symbolized by the two spaces' very different chandeliers: old-fashioned in the lounge and completely contemporary in the lunchroom. Less a single fixture than a suspended installation, it's constructed from horizontal glass tubes filled with loose crystals and lit from above. Below sit a hefty black granite table and benches made from cherrywood planks to match the floor.
The table in the lunchroom appears in slightly different forms upstairs, inside a shapely shell that seems to hover on a cushion of light. Built as a suite of recording studios for a Red Bull music event, the structure is now largely open, thanks to strategic sections that Chou cut away in converting it into three distinct meeting pods. They increase in formality from front to back. In the first pod, wrapped from floor to ceiling in red vinyl, jaunty polyethylene stools line the cantilevered bar. The second pod, dominated by a sunken seating area, is clad in strips of maple, as is the third.
Given its long conference table, this is the one that feels most like a standard boardroom.