The winners of the third annual Winter Stations Design Competition

The winners of the third annual Winter Stations Design Competition have been announced! Eight temporary art installations will be built on Kew, Scarborough, and Balmy Beaches in Toronto’s east end, transforming lifeguard stations into interactive works of art.

Five winners were selected from hundreds of entries submitted by local and international artists, designers, architects, engineers, and landscape architects. There will be three additional student installations by the University of Toronto, University of Waterloo, and Humber College.

"Winter Stations 2017 delivered, once again, gutsy and lyrical transformations of ordinary lifeguard stands," says Lisa Rochon, Winter Stations Design Jury Chair. "Visitors 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."

The theme this year was “Catalyst.” Participants were asked to reinvent the beachfront and open up the space for winter engagement, all while being conscious of the potential repurposing of the materials used for the build.

“The idea of reuse is particularly relevant as we have found many of the Winter Stations installations have taken on a second life after the competition,” says Winter Stations co-founder Ted Merrick of Ferris + Associates.

The installations will be built between February 13th and 19th and will debut on Family Day (February 20th). The Winter Stations will remain standing for public use until March 27, 2017. Designated build team, Anex, will fabricate the five winning stations, and the students will be responsible for bringing their own designs to life.

“We're proud of the way Winter Stations has been embraced,” says Roland Rom Colthoff, RAW Design. “These installations become part of the fabric of the city each winter and we hope to draw even more people back down to the beach this year. It's an honour to be able to showcase so many inspiring designs and designers.”

And the Winter Stations winners are:

I See You Ashiyu by Asuka Kono and Rachel Salmela. Toronto, Canada

North by studio PERCH. Montreal, Canada

Collective Memory by Mario García, Barcelona, Spain, and Andrea Govi, Milan, Italy

BuoyBuoyBuoy by Dionisios Vriniotis, Rob Shostak, Dakota Wares-Tani, Julie Forand. Toronto, Canada

The Beacon, by Joao Araujo Sousa and Joanna Correia Silva, Porto, Portugal

Flotsam and Jetsam by University of Waterloo, Ontario

Aurora by Humber College School of Media Studies & IT, School of Applied Technology, Toronto, Ontario

Midwinter Fire by Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design, University of Toronto, Ontario

The founders of the Winter Stations Design Competition, RAW Design, Ferris + Associates, and Curio, also started another public art project, called Ice Breakers. This project features temporary installations along Toronto’s waterfront between Yonge and Bathurst on Queens Quay.

2017 Winter Stations sponsors: Bousfields, Bridging Finance, City of Toronto, Demirov Fine Homes, Devine Park LLP, Great Gulf, Makita and Ontario Association of Landscape Architects (OALA), Marlin Spring, Ontario Association of Architects (OAA), Pomerleau, Toronto Arts Council, Toronto Windsurfing Club, and Urban Capital. Partners include Ice Breakers, The Beach BIA, Design Xchange and Friends of the Beach.