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Participants are tasked with designing temporary winter art installations which incorporate existing lifeguard towers spaced strategically across Toronto's Kew and Woodbine beaches. The structures (not in use in the wintertime) are considered visual anchor points for the installations. As in previous years, Winter Stations intends to build 4-6 winning proposals for a six-week exhibition along the waterfront, funding permitted. While Toronto beaches are not typically as well visited in the colder seasons, Winter Stations has captured the imagination of the city. Designers can expect their designs to be well-visited and should anticipate public interaction.
The project will enable the library to be enlarged to increase its floor area and reorganize its spaces to meet the needs of the population, and the cultural center to be refurbished and enlarged to provide a professional, multidisciplinary cultural facility. There are also plans to develop new premises to accommodate creation, production and dissemination spaces for children and young people, and to pool available spaces to create better utilization and synergy between the various partners.
Border crossing involves a change of state; the crossing of a barrier between two nations. The nature and meaning of this barrier are very specific to its location and the different characters of the nations involved. Borders can mark dramatic transitions between different cultures, political systems, economies, and levels of freedom. They range from open and undefended to closed and heavily militarized.
The Canadian Academy of Architecture for Justice (CAAJ) invites architecture students to speculate on these issues in a design competition for a new border crossing. Participants are highly encouraged to explore a wide spectrum of architectural responses from functional and practical at one end to philosophical and social at the other, including ways in which this building or complex could be integrated into the surrounding context and community, act as a catalyst for building a positive relationship between two nations, and address what a border entry means in today's context.
The project aims to create a fresh new gathering place for the community, highlighting the existing library, a building of heritage interest, and harmoniously integrating it with its surrounding built fabric. The new library is meant to function as an urban agora, a central hub that will amplify the district's reach and influence and create a positive image. The current library requires work to upgrade its services as well as its spaces. The current floor plan of approximately 1,100 m2 will be entirely refreshed and expanded by approximately 1,800 m2 to better serve the local public and enable it to fully realize its mission: to be a welcoming, stimulating and inspiring living environment.
