The Story Behind Folfol’s Ceiling

The Upside-down Garden

‍

In Damascus, gardens grow on rooftops — bougainvillea spilling over courtyard walls, terracotta pots on every ledge. It's one of the most beautiful things about Syrian domestic life, and the last thing you'd expect in a Montréal restaurant.

‍

That surprise is exactly what we were after.

Folfol's ceiling is built from clusters of terracotta pots — the same unglazed clay vessels used across Syria and the Levant for centuries — inverted overhead, their mouths open downward, red bougainvillea cascading toward the room below. A garden, quite literally, turned upside down.

‍

The inversion is the idea: a rooftop garden that has descended from above rather than grown up from the ground. Warm, organic, and alive against an otherwise clean, contemporary space.

The choice of terracotta wasn't decorative. Clay is one of the oldest building materials in Syrian history — in the mudbrick of ancient Aleppo, in Damascene kitchens, in courtyard water vessels. Bringing it overhead, at scale, honours that material memory without explaining it. You don't need to know the history to feel the warmth — but if you do, the ceiling rewards you.

The best design gestures in a restaurant carry meaning without needing explanation — the ones that feel right before you understand why.

‍

See the full project: Folfol

Book a discovery meeting with Atelier MIM