Winter Stations, launched by RAW Design, Ferris + Associates and Curio in 2014, which is back for its 10th year, has revealed the four winning designs selected from hundreds of submissions.
The winning designs will be showcased alongside three student designs from Toronto Metropolitan University, Waterloo Department of Architecture and Guelph University as well as two designs from the Winter Stations Archive.
The competition aims to capture the imagination of designers, artists, and architects to create thought-provoking designs and will launch nine public art installations this season.
The lifeguard stands at Toronto Woodbine beach will once again transform as there are plans for six new stations along the east end beaches. Additionally, three stations, one 2024 winner and two from the Winter Stations Archives, will be displayed along Queen Street East at Woodbine Park, Kew Gardens, and Ivan Forest Gardens.
To celebrate its 10th milestone, this year’s theme is Resonance. Designers were challenged to go on a journey to reinvent, reimagine cherished installations from Winter Stations history.
“Over the past 10 years of Winter Stations, we’ve created incredible works of art that have moved people in incredibly meaningful ways during a season that can feel gloomy otherwise. We hope that the impact of bringing bright and joyful stations to Toronto’s east end continues to resonate,” said RAW Design Architect Dakota Wares-Tani.
The 2024 winning installations are set to launch on Family Day weekend and will be on display until the end of March with plans for more exhibits later in 2024 being sponsored and hosted by Northcrest Developments. Details will be announced in the late spring.
“Winter Stations is an incredible example of creating vibrant spaces through inspiring, interactive art. Aligned with our focus on sustainability and the intersection of creativity and play, we’re proud to be supporting this year’s work and providing a North York location for extended viewing of the winning designs by the public,” says Mitchell Marcus, Executive Director of Site Activation & Programing with Northcrest Developments.
This year’s competition is made possible by the sponsorship of RAW Design and Northcrest Developments along with CreateTO, Sali Tabacchi Branding & Design, Meevo Digital and Micro Pro Sienna.
The 2024 Winter Stations winners are:
We Caught A UFO! by Xavier Madden and Katja Banovic, Croatia and Australia
“We Caught a UFO!” builds upon the project “In the Belly of a Bear,” which used the lifeguard chair by lifting the public above ground into a cozy space, transporting them into a new world. This station reimagines these qualities by referencing the rumours and whispers of the many UFO sightings across Lake Ontario.
A KALEIDOSCOPIC ODYSSEY by Brander Architects Inc (Adam Brander, Nilesh P., Ingrid Garcia, Maryam Emadzadeh), Canada
A KALEIDOSCOPIC ODYSSEY invites viewers to step into an experience where they “challenge where reality ends and imagination begins.” Visitors will be able to explore the limitless depths of perception with this adaptation of Kaleidoscope of the Senses, 2020.
Making Waves by Adria Maynard and Purvangi Patel, Canada
Making Waves is a whimsical piece of furniture that represents “the ways that simple actions can ripple outwards to ‘resonate’ across time and space, moving and impacting others in surprising ways.” The installation takes the form of an exaggerated couch and forms an unusual urban living room where neighbours can gather and sit by the water.
NIMBUS by David Stein, Canada
This station was inspired by the airy strands that make up the 2016 installation Floating Ropes. Nimbus’s playful shapes and colours evolve the concept and materials by adding blue ropes hanging below a bubbly white structure. The station asks visitors to “consider the presence and absence of rain in our contemporary world by referencing both severe storms and flooding” as well as trends of lack of rain, drought, and desertification.
Bobbin’ by Max Perry, Jason Cai, Kenneth Siu, Simon Peiris, Yoon Hur, Angeline Reyes, Oluwatobiloba Babalola, Yiqing Liu, Kenyo Musa, Ali Hasan; University of Waterloo School of Architecture
Bobbin’ invites visitors to a place where moments and memories result in reflection. The seesaws draw from the playground-like Sling Swing and Lifeline projects and its form within the landscape reflects HotBox and Introspection. Each material has been sourced from previous student projects and salvaged materials from the community of Cambridge.
Nova by Jake Levy, Emily Lensin, Luca Castellan, and Nathaniel Barry; Toronto Metropolitan University – Department of Architectural Science
Nova is a star that has crashed on top of a lifeguard station and illuminates Woodbine Beach throughout the night. This station highlights TMU’s past decade of Winter Stations, inspired by the origami, materiality, and form of Snowcone, Lithoform, and S’Winter Station. Nova also introduces 3D printing, a textile canopy, and an elegant steel pipe connection to create a pavilion with “Resonance.”
WINTERACTION by University of Guelph – Department of Landscape Architecture (Afshin Ashari, Ali Ebadi, Jacob Farrish, Cameron Graham, Ngoc Huy Pham, Ramtin Shafaghati, Zackary Tammaro-Cater) and Ashari Architects (Amir Ashari, Sara Nazemi, Anahita Kazempour, Hakimeh Elahi, Yasaman Sirjani, Zahra Jafari)
WINTERACTION resonates with OneCanada and WE[AR] projects and is a dual installation in Iran and Canada that fosters solidarity and social interaction between the two nations. Visitors are invited on a journey through a labyrinth, which symbolizes a challenging quest and leads from “confusion to enlightenment, to reach inner peace.”
The two stations set to make their return from the Winter Stations Archives will be CONRAD by Novak Djogo and Daniel Joshua Vanderhorst and Delighthouse by Nick Green and Greig Pirrie.
