Winter Stations Design Competition 2017

Tuesday, February 21, 2017

Winter Stations Design Competition 2017

The winning designs of the third annual display of temporary public art installations are on display along The Beaches in Toronto from February 20 to March 27. This year's international competition has eight installations ranging from Woodbine Avenue to Victoria Park Avenue in Balmy, Kew and Ashbridges Bay.

The installations are "exhibited to celebrate Toronto's winter waterfront landscape" surround the lifeguard stations with the "utilitarian structures to be used as the armature for temporary installations, which will need to be able to withstand the rigours of Toronto winter weather." The successful designs are Collective Memory, Midwinter Fire, Beacon, Buoybuoybuoy, North, The Illusory, Flotsam and Jetsam and I See You Ashiyu.

Catalyst is the theme for 2017: "Converting one form or substance into another. Its the finger that tips the first domino over. Its the flap of butterfly's wing that that sets off a chain of chaotic, unpredictable reactions. The theme for Winter Stations’ third year is Catalyst. In 2017, this seems especially fitting in this time of international political, social and cultural search for a better way forward. This winter, we ask artists and designers to unearth and intervene in such a way as to open up the landscape, as well as the minds of those who come to view and interact with the installations. We ask that proposals seek to disassemble and re-shape our notions of Toronto’s waterfront, with particular attention to the sand and materials strewn across the beach. The installations this year will also be a catalyst for change: We would like to see less waste and more re-use. Designers should consider how their materials can be repurposed and recycled; we are excited to see proposals that evolve into future iterations, as on-going research and design projects."