Studio Munge is the Toronto interior design firm led by Alessandro Munge, and if you’ve stepped inside the Bisha Hotel or Nobu Toronto, you’ve stood in its work. The studio designed Bisha’s interiors in 2017 and Nobu Toronto, which became Canada’s first Nobu hotel in June 2025. In a city full of capable firms, this is the one luxury developers call when a building needs to feel like an event.
The name matters because Toronto hospitality design largely runs through it. Munge trained at Yabu Pushelberg, built a nightlife empire’s worth of rooms with Charles Khabouth, and now competes for the same global hotel commissions as the firms he once worked for. If you’re mapping the city’s design scene, start with our guide to the best interior designers in Toronto, then come back here for the deep cut.
Where did Studio Munge come from?
The short version: Yabu Pushelberg, then Munge Leung, then Studio Munge. Alessandro Munge studied interior design at Ryerson (now Toronto Metropolitan University), interned at Yabu Pushelberg’s Toronto office as a student, and began his career there. TMU later gave him its Alumni Achievement Award in 2020, which tells you how the hometown school rates the career.
In 1997 he co-founded Munge Leung with Sai Leung, a Yabu Pushelberg colleague. Their breakout was the Guvernment, the nightclub they designed for Charles Khabouth and his INK group. That single job turned into one of the most productive client relationships in Canadian design, more than 30 projects and counting.
The partners split in 2015, and the firm carried on as Studio Munge. The rebrand marked a shift in ambition too. Nightclubs and restaurants gave way to full hotels, residential towers, and international flag carriers. The Khabouth connection never went away; it just scaled up.
Bisha Hotel Toronto: the 2017 statement piece
Bisha Hotel & Residences opened in 2017, a 44-storey tower from Lifetime Developments and INK with a 96-key hotel and 355 residences. Studio Munge designed the guestrooms, residences, restaurants, and public spaces. It remains the clearest single expression of the studio’s taste: dark, theatrical, and unapologetically glamorous.
The verified design moves hold up. The lobby floor is black-and-white marble in a custom arabesque cut, framed by black lacquered mouldings and crushed-velvet wall panelling. It reads more like a private club than a hotel lobby, which was exactly the brief from a nightlife-bred developer.
One famous exception: the seventh floor. Lenny Kravitz designed those suites, a celebrity collaboration that gave Bisha its press hook. But the building’s overall character, the moody corridors, the velvet, the lacquer, is Studio Munge’s. The studio also designed Akira Back, the restaurant at Bisha.
Who designed Nobu Toronto? Studio Munge, twice over
Studio Munge designed both halves of Nobu Toronto for Madison Group: the restaurant, which opened in summer 2024, and the hotel, which followed in June 2025 as Canada’s first Nobu hotel. The two-tower project puts the 35-room hotel on floors 41 to 45, with the restaurant anchoring the base.
The restaurant is the showpiece. It runs 10,000 square feet and 280 seats, with a suspended porcelain installation by artist Andrea Braescu and a bronze chainmail chandelier produced with lighting house Lasvit. AZURE and Designlines both covered the project in detail, and the consensus is that it’s among the most ambitious restaurant builds the city has seen.
Upstairs, the hotel trades Bisha’s black lacquer for white oak and Japanese restraint. The Sakura Lounge is modelled on a Japanese teahouse, and the Nobu Villa tops out at roughly 220 square metres. The smartest move might be the quietest: the wellness centre preserves the glass-brick facade of the Pilkington Glass building that stood on the site, folding a piece of industrial Toronto into a global luxury brand. That’s the kind of detail that separates a profile-worthy studio from a competent one.
What has Studio Munge built beyond Toronto?
The verified international list is long enough to make the point quickly: Rosewood Hotel Georgia in Vancouver, The William Vale in Brooklyn, the Muir Hotel in Halifax, Venteux at the Pendry Chicago, Lionfish at the Pendry San Diego, the Ritz-Carlton Residences South Beach, and the EDITION Residences in Miami. At home, the portfolio also includes the Park Hyatt Toronto and the restaurant Amal.
The recognition followed the work. Contract magazine named Alessandro Munge its Designer of the Year in 2018, and Interior Design magazine gave him a HiP Award as a Design Leader in Hospitality. For a Toronto-headquartered firm, that’s rare air, shared with very few peers in the city.
The bottom line for design-watchers: Studio Munge is Toronto’s defining hospitality studio of the past decade. Yabu Pushelberg built the city’s global design reputation; Munge, their former intern, is the strongest evidence that the lineage continues. Walk through Bisha’s lobby, then Nobu’s restaurant, and you can read the studio’s full range in one afternoon downtown.
FAQ
Who is Alessandro Munge?
Alessandro Munge is the founder of Studio Munge, a Toronto interior design firm. A Toronto Metropolitan University interior design alumnus, he began his career at Yabu Pushelberg, co-founded Munge Leung in 1997, and has led Studio Munge since 2015. Contract magazine named him Designer of the Year in 2018.
What did Studio Munge design in Toronto?
Studio Munge’s Toronto work includes the Bisha Hotel & Residences (2017), Nobu Toronto’s restaurant (2024) and hotel (2025), the Park Hyatt Toronto, Amal, Akira Back at Bisha, and the former Guvernment nightclub, its breakout project for Charles Khabouth.
Who designed Nobu Toronto?
Studio Munge designed Nobu Toronto for Madison Group, covering both the 10,000-square-foot, 280-seat restaurant that opened in summer 2024 and the 35-room hotel that opened in June 2025 as Canada’s first Nobu hotel, including the Sakura Lounge and the preserved Pilkington glass-brick facade.
