MSDS Studio championed the "explicit materiality" of coarse concrete columns and floors when designing the offices for an advertising agency, located inside a former car factory in Toronto.
The local studio created the office for Agency 59 in the city's Tower Automotive Building ? a 20th-century production facility for auto parts.

Left vacant since 2006, the 10-storey industrial building reopened in 2017 following a major renovation. The project involved transforming the first five floors into the new home of the Museum of Contemporary Art in Toronto (MoCA).
The remaining levels are dedicated to studio and office spaces. Agency 59 ? an ad agency established in the 1950s as Junction 59 ? occupies the seventh and eighth floors, and its workplace is designed to celebrate the heritage of the historic tower.
"The building housing this office was built as an aluminium sheet-casting and car parts factory, so it has thick, coarsely poured concreted floors and great flanged concrete columns," said MSDS in a project description.
Measuring 12,000 square feet (1,114 square metres), the office includes an open-plan work area with exposed concrete ceilings. Furnishings are simple, including long white tables and brown leather chairs.

MSDS Studio employed a more playful aesthetic for the various ancillary spaces, where the material palette extends to include grey terrazzo, woodwork and brown leather.
These were chosen to complement the industrial aesthetic of the ...