Winter Stations 2024 Reveals Winning Stations and Announces Queen Street Satellite Locations

Launched by RAW Design, Ferris + Associates and Curio in 2014, Winter Stations is back for its 10th year and has revealed the four winning designs selected from hundreds of submissions worldwide. Winning designs will be showcased alongside three student designs from Toronto Metropolitan University, Waterloo Department of Architecture and Guelph University respectively and two designs from the Winter Stations Archive. This year’s competition is made possible by the generous sponsorship of RAW Design and Northcrest Developments along with CreateTO, Sali Tabacchi Branding & Design, Meevo Digital and Micro Pro Sienna.

The competition, which is aimed at capturing the imagination of designers, artists, and architects to create bold designs that spark conversations, will launch nine public art installations in total this season. With plans for six new stations along the east end beaches, the lifeguard stands at Toronto Woodbine beach will once again transform. In addition, 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.

Marking the 10th annual design competition, the theme for this year is Resonance. Designers were challenged to embark on a remarkable journey of reinvention and reimagination to breathe new life into the echoes of the past by recreating, reimagining and reinventing 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,” says RAW Design Architect Dakota Wares-Tani.

The 2024 winning installations are slated to launch 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, with details announcing 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.

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 utilised the lifeguard chair by lifting the public above ground into a cozy space, transporting them into a new world. “We caught a UFO!” reimagines these qualities by referencing the rumours and whispers of the many UFO sightings across Lake Ontario. However, these rumours can no longer be disputed, as there is now physical proof! Caught under a net, the UFO is wrapped in glued aluminum foil which glimmers in the light, contrasting its surroundings as a foreign object. The public (especially kids!) are encouraged to explore the UFO and can climb up into the main space where pink plexi windows transform the beach into a new tinted landscape or planet! Ultimately, “We caught a UFO!” is an installation which stimulates the public’s imagination while also providing a necessary shelter from the wind and cold.

A KALEIDOSCOPIC ODYSSEY by Brander Architects Inc (Adam Brander, Nilesh P., Ingrid Garcia, Maryam Emadzadeh), Canada

A KALEIDOSCOPIC ODYSSEY invites on lookers to step into an experience where we challenge where reality ends and imagination begins. Explore the limitless depths of perception with this mesmerizing adaptation of Kaleidoscope of the Senses, 2020. In this installation, there are 2 guiding concepts. The scale of a traditional kaleidoscope is magnified 84 times to a human scale so participants can inhabit the instrument and become a part of its wonder. Where a kaleidoscope is commonly a closed-loop system, this device is deliberately severed into 2 sculptured equal-and-opposite parts, with purposeful space between them.

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, forming an unusual urban living room where neighbours can gather, play, and sit together by the water. Inspired by kinetic sculptures and whirligigs, the design is composed of a series of parts that dance when cranks are turned. Wooden slats act as rippling bench that rock and move those who are sitting, and vertical poles tipped with glowing globes bob in the air to signal people from afar. Making Waves pays homage to the 10 years of Winter Stations and the ways that public art can foster shared delight, contemplation, and play that brings together strangers and friends in public space.

NIMBUS by David Stein, Canada

Inspired by the airy strands that make up the 2016 installation Floating Ropes, Nimbus’s playful shapes and colours do more than just resonate with its predecessor. Nimbus evolves the concept and materials by adding saturated 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 concerning 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 the visitor to a place where pivotal moments and whimsical memories prompt reflection. It shelters visitors with slats that create an ever-changing threshold between the bobbing zone and the surrounding beach. The seesaws draw from the playground-like Sling Swing and Lifeline projects, while its form within the landscape reflects HotBox and Introspection. Each material has been sourced from previous student projects in addition to salvaged materials from the community of Cambridge. As you navigate through, bobbing up and down, a fresh perspective unfolds, encouraging resonance with the surrounding and past Winter Stations.

Nova by Jake Levy, Emily Lensin, Luca Castellan, and Nathaniel Barry; Toronto Metropolitan University – Department of Architectural Science

Beneath the night sky, stars shine and create geometric patterns. Nova is a star that has crashed on top of a lifeguard station and illuminates Woodbine Beach throughout the night. Nova highlights TMU’s past decade of Winter Stations, inspired by the origami, materiality, and form of Snowcone, Lithoform, and S’Winter Station. Nova introduces 3D printing, a textile canopy, and an elegant steel pipe connection to create a pavilion with “Resonance.” The star pavilion shields users and encourages them to engage with their surroundings, and the lifeguard station makes a beacon for users to access panoramic views of the beach.

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, resonating with OneCanada and WE[AR] projects, is a dual installation in Iran and Canada. It fosters solidarity and social interaction between the two nations. Visitors are invited on an introspective journey through a labyrinth, symbolizing a complex and challenging quest, leading from confusion to enlightenment, to reach inner peace. At the center, a virtual tree emerges as a symbol of peace and alliance, evolving dynamically with visitor interactions at both locations. Celebrating the 10th anniversary of Winterstations, WINTERACTION transcends mere local interaction, integrating into Canada’s diverse cultural tapestry. This project champions human connections across borders, advocating for shared experiences, peace, and friendship.

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.

Additional Information

The 2023 Winter Stations jury was comprised of Nellie Jalalzadeh, Shaz Nasiri, Aaron Hendershott, Mateusz Nowacki, and Paul Bieksa with Councillor Brad Bradford returning as Co-chair.

A special thank you to Anex Works for constructing the installations, and to MicroPro Sienna for providing the treated wood for fabrication.

For more information visit www.winterstations.com.