In this post of our winter blOAAg series, “Temporary Architecture: Pavilions, Structures and Follies,” we take a look at the celebrated Winter Public Art installations located at The Beaches in Toronto’s east end.
Type: Public Art Installation
Organizer: Winter Stations (RAW Design / Curio / Ferris + Associates Inc.)
Location: Toronto, Ontario
From the Organizers
Winter Stations is an international design competition, open to all creatives, artists and designers, with the intent to animate The Beaches in Toronto through temporary public art installations. Known for its barren and unwelcoming landscape over the winter months, The Beaches transforms into a destination point for thousands of people across the city, and a local attraction for the east end.
Over the four years the competition has been running, with the theme changing annually, the Beaches has exhibited dozens of creative and thought-provoking installations, which continue to transform over the six-week display due to the temperamental weather conditions. Each year, the stations have been crafted by the talented team at Anex Works, a local multidisciplinary studio. Along the water’s edge, the stations either anchor or engulf abandoned lifeguard stations, re-establishing them as symbols of public space for The Beaches.
The competition elicits a response of a couple hundred annually as the event continues to gain widespread publicity and praise from all manner of publication and media. It has also attracted notable Jury members, including Catherine Osborne (editor-in-chief for Azure Magazine), Shauna Levy (president and CEO of the Design Exchange), Lisa Rochon (architectural critic) and Christopher Hume (architecture and urban affairs critic for The Toronto Star). Winter Stations is poised to become the premier winter architectural event in Toronto, as it was designed to inspire and interact with the community in an unconventional place for the season.
Winter Stations 2015:
Winter Stations 2015: Sling Swing
Image Credit: RAW Design
Design Credit: WWB Studio (London/Liverpool, UK)
Winter Stations 2015: Driftwood Throne
Image Credit: Eamon MacMahon
Design Credit: DM_Studio (London, UK)
Winter Stations 2015: Wing Back
Image Credit: Eamon MacMahon
Design Credit: Tim Olsen (New Hampshire, USA)
Winter Stations 2015: HotBox
Image Credit: Nicholas Croft
Design Credit: Michaela MacLeod and Nicholas Croft (Toronto, Ontario)
Winter Stations 2015: Snow Cone
Image Credit: RAW Design
Design Credit: Diana Koncan and Lily Jeon (Toronto, Ontario)
Winter Stations 2016:
Winter Stations 2016: Floating Ropes
Image Credit: Khristel Stecher
Design Credit: MUDO (Montreal, Quebec)
Winter Stations 2016: Flow
Image Credit: Ben Rahn A-Frame Studio
Design Credit: Calvin Fung and Victor Huynh (Toronto, Ontario)
Winter Stations 2016: In the Belly of the Bear
Image Credit: Khristel Stecher
Design Credit: Caitlind Brown, Wayne Garrett and Lane Shordee (Calgary, Alberta)
Winter Stations 2016: Sauna
Image Credit: Khristel Stecher
Design Credit: FFLO (Kent, UK)
Winter Stations 2016: Aurora Borealis
Image Credit: Khristel Stecher
Design Credit: Laurentian University (Sudbury, Ontario)
Winter Stations 2016: Steam Canoe
Image Credit: Khristel Stecher
Design Credit: OCAD University (Toronto, Ontario)
Winter Stations 2016: Lithoform
Image Credit: Khristel Stecher
Design Credit: Ryerson University (Toronto, Ontario)
Winter Stations 2017:
Winter Stations 2017: I See You Ashiyu
Image Credit: Anex Works
Design Credit: Asuka Kono and Rachel Salmela (Toronto, Ontario)
Winter Stations 2017: North
Image Credit: Anex Works
Design Credit: PERCH (Montreal, Quebec)
Winter Stations 2017: Collective Memory
Image Credit: RAW Design
Design Credit: Mario Garcia (Barcelona, Spain) and Andrea Govi (Milan, Italy)
Winter Stations 2017: BuoyBuoyBuoy
Image Credit: RAW Design
Design Credit: Dionisios Vriniotis, Rob Shostak, Dakota Wares-Tani and Julie Forand (Toronto, Ontario)
Winter Stations 2017: The Beacon
Image Credit: Anex Works
Design Credit: Joao Araujo and Joanna Correia (Porto, Portugal)
Winter Stations 2017: Flotsam and Jetsam
Image Credit: Khristel Stecher
Design Credit: Joao Araujo and Joanna Correia (Porto, Portugal)
Winter Stations 2017: Aurora
Image Credit: RAW Design
Design Credit: Humber College (Toronto, Ontario)
Winter Stations 2017: Midwinter
Image Credit: RAW Design
Design Credit: University of Toronto (Toronto, Ontario)
Winter Stations 2018:
• Pussy Hut, Martin Miller and Mo Zheng (Ithaca, USA)
• Make Some Noise, Alexandra Grieß and Jorel Heid (Hamburg, Germany)
• Obstacle, Kien Pham (Surbiton, UK)
• Wind Station, Paul van den Berg and Joyce de Grauw (Rotterdam, Netherlands)
• Revolution, OCAD University (Toronto, Ontario)
• Rising Up, University of Guelph (Guelph, Ontario)
About the Organizers: Winter Stations
The Winter Stations competition was founded by three directors, Roland Rom Colthoff from RAW Design, Ted Merrick from Ferris + Associates and Justin Ridgeway from Curio.
RAW Design
One of Ontario’s most vibrant architectural studios, RAW Design exhibits innovative and international design sensibility combined with a wealth of local experience. Launched in 2007, RAW is a full-service architectural and interior design firm, and is known for its wide range in design vision and ability to synthesize competing design constraints to realize new benchmarks for urban design and public art.
Ferris + Associates
Ferris + Associates provides innovative design solutions that have helped shape many of Ontario's most notable landscape designs. The firm considers an inclusive design process, built on successful relationships with clients, artists and consultants, key to the success of any installation.
Curio
Curio is an art and design disciplines communications consultancy practice primarily deployed for the implementation of large, urban-scale public art projects. Curio’s curatorial focus is on developing permanent and transitional artworks involving emerging interactive, digital and other new media that blur the boundary between architecture, art and design.