28 Eastern
by Truong Ly Design Inc.

At 28 Eastern Avenue in Toronto’s evolving Corktown neighbourhood, Truong Ly Design Inc. delivered a residential condominium interior that reflects the area’s transition from its industrial roots to an emerging urban identity. The scope encompassed the ground floor lobby, co-working amenity, social lounge, fitness zone, media lounge, common corridors and residential suites.

Truong Ly Design Inc. worked closely with the architecture and structural constructs, embracing the exposed concrete columns, challenging spatial variations rather than concealing them. These conditions became the foundation for a design narrative centred on asymmetrical harmony and unity in diversity. Throughout the project, contrasting elements are brought together to create a cohesive and deeply human experience.

The defining feature is the double-height lobby, where a bright, linear light tunnel of precise geometric form transitions into a low, dark lounge anchored by hand-finished ombré concrete columns. These structural elements become the project’s most expressive feature, introducing warmth, artistry and individuality within an otherwise highly technical environment. This dialogue between precision and imperfection continues throughout the building, including the co-working space, which intentionally reverses the lobby’s composition, reinforcing the project’s underlying concept across multiple levels.

The design succeeds because Truong Ly Design Inc. chose not to eliminate contradictions but to celebrate them. Industrial and domestic, light and dark, open and intimate, each contrast is carefully amplified rather than resolved. The suites continue this narrative with exposed concrete ceilings above warm oak millwork, light flooring and full-height glazing.

Specialist craftsmanship played a vital role, with local artists hand-finishing the gradient concrete columns that form the artistic heart of the project and embody its message of unity through contrast.