November 5, 2019

Text: Jesse Dorris

In STUDIO Designs Fun into Toronto Toy Company Spin Master’s Headquarters

In the café/town hall space, Light Art pendants hang above Naughtone’s Polly chairs and Cloud Quilt sofas, along with Magis’s Pina armchairs and Haworth tables. Photography by Gillian Jackson.

The modern office needs to do more than just create optimal environments for its employees; it needs to embody its brand. Luckily, Toronto-based children’s toy and entertainment company Spin Master’s brand is fun, which iN STUDIO has incorporated into every detail of the firm’s new 100,000-square-foot headquarters.

“The mandate was to strip away every ‘corporate’ aspect of this very corporate, mid-1990s office tower interior,” says iN STUDIO partner Anthony Orasi. “We wanted the look and feel of a toy and entertainment ‘workshop.’” A wayfinding ribbon starts at ground reception and leads to playgrounds of product displays and installations as it makes to the sixth floor, taking in a children’s library, tinker labs, and a 3D printing workshop along the way. Height-adjustable workstations and office suites take the pain out of work, while trophy walls highlight the rewards.

Behind the steel and concrete main interconnect stair with clear hard maple handrails, a feature wall holds shadow boxes containing toys and memorabilia upon a custom vinyl wallcovering paying homage to Spin Master’s Bakugan. Photography by Gillian Jackson.

Speaking of work, “We had to cut substantial openings in floor slabs, modify exterior glazing, sandblast concrete columns, and convert a portion of the tower’s main floor lobby into an interactive showroom, complete with a 20-foot touch screen wall,” Orasi says. But there was still time to play: The team whipped up a feature stair as an homage to Spin Master’s Jumbling Tower toy, while signage in the town hall is made of the brand’s sticky Bunchem balls.

An executive area on the sixth floor displays a collection of Toy of the Year awards, along with seating by Keilhauer and a Blu Dot table upon Shaw Commercial Carpeting tiles. Photography by Gillian Jackson.
The main feature stair connects reception to the second floor and is structural steel clad in eastern white pine and maple treads, suspended entirely from the third-floor slab by steel rods. Photography by Gillian Jackson.
Collaboration corridor; the vinyl woodgrain floor planks are by Interface. Photography by Gillian Jackson.
Board By Design’s conference table and Stylex task chairs furnish the flexible team collaboration room, with Luceplan pendants and Interface carpet tiles. Photography by Gillian Jackson.

Read more: PleasantHouse Design and Intact Studio Create Giant Pixilated Maze at GameOn Shenzhen

Recent Projects