The dance floor is crammed with thousands
of nubile bodies bumping and grinding under spinning disco balls.
You have to scream to be heard over the aggressive techno/jungle/drum&bass
beat. Upstairs in the VIP lounge, a pride of young men prowls
the room. A group of girls leans against a pillar covered in
fun fur, surreptitiously checking out guys reflected in the
mirrored walls. It’s a classic meat-market – and if any affairs
are hatched tonight, the barely legal-age lovers will have interior
designers Alessandro Munge and Sai Leung to thank for setting
the stage.
Located in a former warehouse on Toronto’s lakeshore, the Guvernment
is a sprawling complex owned by nightclub tycoon Charles Khabouth.
It opened just three years ago with Yabu Pushelberg-designed
interiors. Last year, when Khabouth decided to renovate – club
owners must perpetually reinvent their spaces or die – he turned
to former YP designers Alessandro Munge and Sai Leung. Munge
Leung Design Associates has recreated the three themed areas
attached to the Guvernment’s airplane-hangar-sized main dance
floor: the sixties-inspired Acid Lounge, which is filled with
fun-fur-covered beanbag chairs; the 1970s sci-fi-style Orange
Room; and the Drink, a cool high-tech VIP room. Each space has
a different DJ and a distinctive decor, allowing visitors to
club-hop without leaving the building.
On the second floor, the Drink serves as a VIP space for up
to 750 Beautiful People. It features a sensuous mix of synthetic
materials, artfully positioned to deliver what the club kids
really want. “It’s all about sex,” admits Munge with a laugh.
Mirrored walls maximize eye contact, he explains, while the
furry columns just beg to be stroked. The durable man-made materials
– including glowing fibreglass tables and copper laminate bars
– are certainly appreciated by the wait staff, who regularly
deal with drinks spilled by overly-refreshed patrons.
To get to the Orange Room, the Guvernment’s haven for hip hop
and R&B aficionados, you have to push through the gyrating crowd
on the main dance floor and head down a day-glo corridor. The
Orange Room is, well... orange. Orange on orange. Almost overly
orange. Here, the designers have paid homage to the disco decade
without resorting to bell-bottom clichés. Munge calls the fringed
hanging lamps “an exaggerated interpretation of dresses from
the seventies.” Elsewhere in the Orange Room, the designers
created Star Wars cantina lighting on a less-than-Lucasfilm
budget by stacking salad bowls together clamshell-style and
puncturing them, allowing beams of light to shoot out in all
directions. “It’s not how much you spend, it’s what you spend
it on,” says Munge.
Adjoining the Guvernment complex is Citrus, an art deco-inspired
ninety-seat restaurant that is upscale without being intimidating.
Folding doors gridded with porthole windows can be pushed back
in the summer to open the restaurant onto the outside world.
Open screen dividers and columns separate the boxy room into
distinct zones without rigidly dividing the diners from each
other, while the pale yellows and muted earth tones create a
relaxed feel. The deco aspects include a stepped ceiling, pendant
light fixtures and a stylized mural (by Moss & Lam, YP’s favourite
faux finishers). Offsetting these retro elements are up-to-date
touches, such as the sleek black bar and soft colours. The contrast
between the sophistication of Citrus and the wild world of the
Guvernment attests to Munge Leung’s versatility. “We try to
make each space appropriate to its needs,” says Munge. “It’s
about the place and the space, not about us.”
