Cafe 059 Rorschach Door

Type:
Installation

Team:
Denegri Bessai Studio

GALDSU

Location:
Toronto, ON

Photography:
Scott Norsworthy

Designed in collaboration with The Graduate of Architecture, Landscape & Design Student Union (GALDSU), the Rorschach Door was commissioned as part of a larger renovation to the Daniel's Faculty of Architecture, Landscape & Design student lounge space at 230 College Street.

The Rorschach Door separates the space between the student lounge and student-run cafe, replacing an older (non-functioning) sliding door. Built from a dark-stained poplar frame, sandwiched between two layers of translucent acrylic, the new door establishes a fluid connection between the two spaces. Even while the door is closed, light and sound are able to pass freely between the two rooms, creating an inter-connected student-run lounge/cafe space for students, faculty, and staff to eat, relax, gather and enjoy.         

Named after the Rorschach ink-blot tests, a psychological test in which subjects perception of inkblots are tested and recorded, the reading of the door pattern ambiguously shifts in scales between a geographic, or map-like reading, and axial urban street grid, while establishing a geometric dialogue with the architectural use of angled Warren trusses. The pattern implies a separate, but related connection across the various scales and design related disciplines contained within the school.