A Montreal Arcade Designed With a Little Help From AI

The lack of natural light in the dark storefront in Brossard’s Quartier Dix30 shopping centre could have presented a challenge for its next occupant. Instead, the windowless room was the ideal blank slate in which to create an immersive, whimsical environment for Super Super, a new claw machine arcade on Montreal’s South Shore.

“A little bit like a casino—you cut up all the lights so you can really create a mood where people want to stay inside and have fun,” says Rachel Bussin, who, alongside Hélène Thiffault, helms Montreal’s Studio Kiff, the design firm behind the project. Known for their bold commercial designs, the duo transformed the space—previously a hair salon with white walls, tile flooring, and loads of clunky plumbing—into a bright and colourful haven for play.

Instead of the typical jam-packed arcade layout, Studio Kiff took a minimalistic approach, carefully considering each element, from the corrals for the cheery purple shopping carts to the triangular shelving and counter wrapped in Ettore Sottsass veneer. Sleek white claw machines, each stocked with colour-coordinated plushies, line the walls, while a tactile carpeted logo stands toward the back. “It’s bold, but it’s simple,” Thiffault says of the overall design. “There’s not much in this space, but everything is very well thought out and creates attention.”

Studio Kiff began work on Super Super just as AI was exploding on the scene. Out of curiosity, Bussin started experimenting with Dall-E, an image-creating OpenAI program. “It was spitting out some really unique things, and the style of the images it was showing was interesting,” she explains. “That brought about the idea of using the platform to create the mural.” Inspired by the bright hue of the carpeting, Bussin used AI to create a pink, orange, and blue mountainscape that artist Jean-René Douville Tessier then painted on the wall.

Super Super is a space that combines adult design sensibilities with a sense of playful wonder, encouraging all who enter to rouse their inner child for a round or two on the claw machine. “We try, for each of our projects, to create a world,” Thiffault says. “Super Super, once you come in, you just feel you’re in this universe.”

Photographs by Aidan Matthews.

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