Hospitality Design - February/March 2022 - 37

The penthouse suite at the Fives Downtown in Playa Del
Carmen, Mexico evokes the ocean with blue and green hues
Dyonne Fashina
Founder + Principal
Denizens of Design
Denizens of Design, the Toronto studio Dyonne Fashina founded in 2014,
is guided by the notion of empathy. This is evident in projects like the
McMichael Café at McMichael Canadian Art Collection in Kleinburg,
where she sourced everything locally, refl ecting the gallery's emphasis
on Canadian artists. In 2021, Fashina was honored with HD's inaugural
HDAC Awards of Excellence, which recognizes exemplary work in the
industry by those working to advance the fi eld through the promotion of
diversity, inclusivity, and equity. Here, she discusses how her work refl ects
her compassionate mindset.
Denizens of Design collaborates with a curated network of
individuals and smaller fi rms for each project. How do you
think the fi rm's name speaks to your ethos?
Initially, what it represented to me was this idea of traveling and
hospitality, because the word means inhabitants of a particular space. I
see it as inhabiting the design process as an idea, and then being able to
translate designs across boundaries-working internationally or locally, in
small or large communities.
What does empathy mean to you?
Empathy as a mode in business has become something where people roll
their eyes a bit. I want to challenge that. I'm an emotional person. I'm
an empathetic person. I come from a family that devotes themselves to
charity, and throughout my career, I'd learned that emotion and empathy
didn't belong in business. Or that's what I was told. As creators, we have
to use things like emotional investment to connect with our clients, to
connect with users, to even connect with the past.
Clay Restaurant at the Gardiner Museum in Toronto is the
project that set you on this path. How does it embody an
empathetic space?
We wanted to go in and honor what [KPMB Architects] did, but we also
wanted to dig into who the museum was. We started to think about its
identity as a ceramic arts museum and making sure that identity came
across in the restaurant. I went and got some clay and brought it to the fi rst
meeting and put it on the table and said, 'This is your concept. This is who
you are. This is my emotional investment and how I connect with your
space.' I love those sort of moments-the Eureka moment.
How does the restaurant at the McMichael Canadian Art
Collection in Kleinburg reinforce empathy?
I was connected to the identity of this gallery. I had gone there as a kid.
My great-grandfather had studied painting under Canada's well-known
Group of Seven. I told the team there about that so they knew how much I
cared about this space, but then I leſt it at the door and said, 'Okay, now it's
time to take that emotional investment and put it into the design and think
more about who you are and what you need rather than my personal ego.'
It is important that you're empathetic to not only the identity needs of the
space, but also the business goals of the stakeholders.
Complementing the gallery's collection, the café at the
McMichael is fi lled with furniture by Canadian makers. What
was that experience like?
We wanted each maker to represent themselves in the pieces they were
making. They created a sett ing of beautiful products that are collectively
meaningful to the identity of the space. The challenge was making sure
everybody was working with each other, but also that everybody had an
opportunity to take the design intent and put their own spin on it.
What draws you to hospitality?
There are so many aspects of hospitality that care for human needs
and human beings. I love that interaction and engagement with new
communities, and what it brings to not only the person coming to the
space, but the people working there. That feeling like 'I'm helping
somebody,' I love that.
HDAC Series: Holistic Wellbeing and Community by Design
Wednesday, April 27th
Noon to 1 p.m.
Location: DesignWell Pavilion
hospitalitydesign.com February/March 2022
037
Slatted millwork wraps the
Pantry café space in Toronto's
Columbus Centre
Photos by MARK BINKS and DENIZENS OF DESIGN
http://www.hospitalitydesign.com
Hospitality Design - February/March 2022

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