For its third consecutive year, the Winter Stations Design Competition brings together Canadian and international architects, designers, and artists to transform the cold, icy landscapes of the Toronto lakeshore into engaging social spaces that invite people to rediscover the waterfront during the winter season. This year, the competition founded by RAW Design, Ferris + Associates, and Curio will feature eight installations along the waterfront on Scarborough, Kew, and Balmy Beaches, three of which represent student submissions from the University of Waterloo, Humber College, and the University of Toronto.
Catalyst, the theme for this year's competition, encourages the design teams to open up the landscape through their interventions, transforming the way that people envision and interact with the waterfront during the winter months and embracing the environment, materials, and identity of the space upon which the installations are presented, paying particular attention to sand and other debris found on Toronto's beaches. In addition, the theme inspires designers to submit designs which can be repurposed, reinstalled, or re-envisioned with the intention to reduce waste and create lasting pieces of interactive art.
By employing the lifeguard stands along the waterfront in the three contiguous beaches as the focal point of the art installations, Winter Stations allows designers to transform mundane landscapes of Canadian winters into interactive areas for urban communities, inviting people into otherwise desolate beaches during the cold weather. According to Winter Stations Design Jury Chair, Lisa Rochon, "[v]isitors will be able to touch and feel their way along the beach, experiencing luminous shelter from the wind, warming waters for their feet, and designs that celebrate the Canadian nation of immigrants."
This year's installations will be built from February 13 to the 19 and debuting on February 20, staying open to the public until March 27.
Stations:
- I See You Ashiyu. Asuka Kono and Rachel Salmela. Toronto, Canada.
I See You Ashiyu. Asuka Kono and Rachel Salmela. Toronto, Canada.
This installation uses the idea the Japanese hot spring and warm water to provide physical relief from the cold. By creating a landscape-based gathering space on the beach, this installation emphasizes the contrast in the seasons and recalls memories of a summer beach.
- North. studio PERCH. Montreal, Canada.
North. studio PERCH. Montreal, Canada.
Using the poetic concept of the great "North”, this installation conjures a powerful and eternal image that transports visitors to an imagined forest. The work suspends 41 fir trees in midair creating an evocative and colour-saturated canopy that stands out against the white of winter.
- Collective Memory. Mario García, Barcelona, Spain, and Andrea Govi, Milan, Italy.
Collective Memory. Mario García, Barcelona, Spain, and Andrea Govi, Milan, Italy.
Inspired by the statistic that by 2031 nearly one-half of the Canadian population over the age of 15 will be foreign-born or the child of a migrant parent, Collective Memory aims to be the catalyst of present and shared anecdotes. Constructed out of recycled bottles – the archetype for the lost message – two translucent walls will shield the existing lifeguard structure, creating a threshold between shore and city.
- BuoyBuoyBuoy. Dionisios Vriniotis, Rob Shostak, Dakota Wares-Tani, Julie Forand. Toronto, Canada.
BuoyBuoyBuoy. Dionisios Vriniotis, Rob Shostak, Dakota Wares-Tani, Julie Forand. Toronto, Canada.
Capturing the impression of a series of buoys moving in the waves, BuoyBuoyBuoy uses many small parts to create a whole. Each component is the silhouette of a buoy from afar creating a fog or a cloud around the lifeguard station like drops reflecting and refracting the light.
- The Beacon. Joao Araujo Sousa and Joanna Correia Silva, Porto, Portugal.
The Beacon. Joao Araujo Sousa and Joanna Correia Silva, Porto, Portugal.
The concept translates into the archetypical lighthouse conical shape, reduced to its simplest expression and conformed to the lifeguard stand proportions and wrapped in aged wood. The Beacon will act as a temporary drop-off location for non-perishable items such as canned food or clothes.
- Flotsam and Jetsam. University of Waterloo, Ontario. Project team: Nicola Augustin, NegarBehzad Jazi, Anne Cheung, Bryce Clayton, Catherine Cohen, Mona Dai, Sarah Donaldson, Parshan Fatehi, Allegra Friesen, Golnaz Jamshidi, Carly Kandrack, Ryan Pagliaro, Elida Pletikapic, Alexandra Sermol, Kirsten Sheppard-Neuhofer, Eric Sviratchev, Joel Tremblay and Danny Wei.
Flotsam and Jetsam. University of Waterloo, Ontario.
As visitors approach from the vantage of the city the 20-foot high sculpture generates curiosity and invites a closer look. The installation reveals the realities of plastic consumption, resulting waste and its effects on the aquatic biodiversity of the planet we share.
- Aurora. Humber College School of Media Studies & IT, School of Applied Technology, Toronto, Ontario. Creative Team: Jenessa Atkinson, Aaron Bavle, Jason Carreiro, Gabriela Merka-Derez, Kimberly Michelle Czornodolskyj, Karun Ramani, Trish Roque, Roxanne Van Dam, Qiao Wang, Project Faculty Advisors: Marcin Kedzior, Professor, School of Applied Technology.
Aurora. Humber College School of Media Studies & IT, School of Applied Technology, Toronto, Ontario
From afar, the structure is incognito, reflecting the surrounding environment and fading into it. Entering the space, the explorer views misconstrued, mirrored illustrations of themselves and their surroundings.
- Midwinter Fire. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design, University of Toronto, Ontario Creative Team: John Beeton, Herman Borrego, Anna Chen, Vikrant Dasoar, Michael DeGirolamo, Leonard Flot, Monika Gorgopa, James Kokotilo, Asuka Kono, Karima Peermohammad, Rachel Salmela, Christina Wilkinson, Julie Wong, Rotem Yaniv. Faculty Advisor: Pete North, Assistant Professor.
Midwinter Fire. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design, University of Toronto, Ontario
Midwinter Fire provides visitors with the opportunity to engage with an augmented winter forest creating an immersive experience that reframes Southern Ontario’s vegetation in contrast with the exposed winter landscape of the beach. This installation uses the simple idea of reflectivity to expand the illusion of an urban forest and to make the project disappear into the surrounding landscape.
***
This year's competition will be judged by 2017 Jury Chair Lisa Rochon, Senior Fellow at Global Cities Institute and Founder of Friends of the Beach Parks; Winter Stations 2016 winners Victor Huynh and Calvin Fung (FLOW); Dragana Maznic, Design Director at Great Gulf; Marc Ryan, Principal and Co-Founder of PUBLIC WORK,; Betsy Williamson, Principal at Williamson Williamson; and Christina Zeidler, President and Developer at the Gladstone Hotel.
Winter Stations sponsors for 2017 include Great Gulf, Pomerleau, the Ontario Association of Architects (OAA), City of Toronto, Urban Capital, Demirov Fine Homes, Toronto Arts Council, Bridging Finance, Bousfields, Marlin Spring, Makita and Ontario Association of Landscape Architects (OALA), Devine Park LLP and Toronto Windsurfing Club. Partners include Ice Breakers, The Beach BIA, Design Xchange and Friends of the Beach.
***
What do you think of the installations presented by the winning teams? How do you see yourself using these structures in order to enjoy the waterfront during the winter season? What other ideas do you have to enliven our beaches during the cold weather? Leave your thoughts in the comment section below. For more information about Winter Stations 2017 please click here.