Eight square meters is not a generous interior space for an office by any standard. So our initial instinct was to treat all the interior surfaces and furnishings with a monochromatic white material palette to ensure it was bright and filled with light. A glossy white epoxy floor finish ensured daylight, tree silhouettes reflected into the interior, connecting it with the street and creating the illusion of a larger space. Yet the true illusion came with the design of the façade – and quite surprisingly, was achieved by borrowing a strategy the local merchants of the neighborhood employed daily. Every morning, merchants stack their products and hang featured product displays on the street in front of their shops, expanding their sales floors to the sidewalk and looking like an overflowing cornucopia of products. We took that as a departure point for how we would make Level+Estate’s meagre space look more substantial and impressive from the street.  Our existing shopfront was a walk-up unit, accessed by a set of 5 stairs flanked by planters. The storefront area above that was a patchwork of haphazard renovations and mix of materials from the last 30 years of tenant renovations. We saw an opportunity to blend the planters, the stairs and the façade itself into a new architectural gesture that achieved our goals of expanding our client’s street presence while seemingly enlarging the interior space as well.