DesignTO 2026: Repurposing Historic Building Materials with Daniel Gruetter, Arcana Materials, & Ouroboros Deconstruction
You’re Invited: DesignTO ‘Renovatio ex ruina’ January 30
Join Arcana Materials and furniture designer Daniel Gruetter for DesignTO 2026, with events celebrating repurposed historic building materials in the new Ouroboros Salvage Studio: a showroom and workshop dedicated to repurposing reclaimed building materials at 178 Queens Quay East.
Friday, January 30, 6-11pm: RENOVATIO EX RUINA
‘Renovatio ex Ruina’ debuts a contemporary furniture bar design built from reclaimed brick, wood, and metal – designed to explore what is possible with unconventional materials, and celebrate a piece of Toronto’s built history through avant-garde modern design.
This reception event will include refreshments served from the piece itself and a lively discussion with the designers about salvaged building materials, as well as a second opportunity to explore Gruetter’s ‘Local Inventory’ collaboration with Ouroboros in the same space.
More information can be found on the DesignTO website: https://designto.org/event/renovatio-ex-ruina/
Below: Some images of the design development: Gruetter has designed a modular bar that will integrate our Arcana Materials ‘COSMIC’ veneer tiles, which are cut from 110-year-old clinker bricks that were salvaged from a demolition site in summer 2025. Learn more about the origins of this reclaimed brick product in this post.
Can’t make it on the 30th? There will be a preview of the piece at Ouroboros Deconstruction’s DesignTO event in the same space on Saturday, January 24 from 6-11pm: LOCAL INVENTORY
‘Local Inventory’ examines how recovered materials can be organized into repeatable designs that make reuse practical at scale. Join us for a tactile, design-forward exploration of reuse as culture, craft, and contemporary production.
This reception event will launch a ‘new’ collection of stools, shelving and tables designed for small-batch manufacturing using recovered Toronto-area materials, and include a preview of Gruetter’s ‘Renovatio ex ruina’ collaboration with Arcana.
Please RSVP via email so that we have a headcount for refreshments for each event — see you there!
We will send more details to attendees as we get closer to the event dates.