Aided by cutting-edge digital technologies, the façade of Royal de Versailles’ new Rolex Boutique embodies the high-precision craft, design, and construction that has defined the timepieces for over one hundred years. Designed using parametric modeling and CNC technology, a dynamic and graceful stone storefront is sculpted, bringing a modernist building in to the 21st century.
Taking over the ground level of a modernist high-rise, the fluidly sculpted limestone façade of Royal de Versailles’ new Rolex Boutique offers a magnetic juxtaposition against the present steel exterior. The existing 14-floor modernist high-rise was completed in 1970, at a time when Toronto began to depart the staid conservatism of the early 20th century, leaning into design ambitions centered around cultural ambition and urban regeneration. Royal de Versailles’ unconventional façade upholds this same zeal for design that is intended to be valued, preserved, and celebrated by future generations – an architecture that can become the heritage sites of tomorrow.
