Category: Public Space
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Toronto’s Nuit Blanche 2018
“I can do that, all I need is an iPhone and a couple of lights,” this is what my friend says as we go through an interactive experience that flips our image as we walk through. This is one of the many lack lustered experiences we were hunting down because it was Nuit Blanche and…
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Alice in Wonderland – Swiss Pavilion – Venice Architecture Biennale 2018
The Venice Architecture Biennale 2018 opened to the public this past weekend and continues until 25 November 2018. This year’s biennale is directed by the co-founders of Irish practice Grafton Architects, Yvonne Farrell and Shelley McNamara. The pair selected the title Freespace as the overarching theme for the event.
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Hello Kitty Train
Why do places like Japan think of inventive ways of taking the mundane task of commuting to a whole another level? Hello Kitty is getting their own themed bullet train which will take to the tracks on June 30th.
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Designing for Terrorism
It’s been a week since the brutal vehicular massacre that has clouded our city. Since then, I’ve noticed more barricades located around high traffic areas, one, for example, is Union Station. LIke, it wasn’t crowded enough coming from the GO and then jockeying for position to cross the street. Now, we have to maneuver around these…
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Evolution: Can human intelligence design better than nature?
“What do you think of the exhibit?” a nice lady asks me outside of the exhibition space. “I think there’s too much text”, I tell her. “Yeah, you really have to think through it.”
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PNEU | a spatial experience
Set within the historic Church of Holy Trinity in the heart of Trinity Square and steps from the Eaton Centre, the opening party of the Toronto Design Offsite Festival launched. The main feature of the event is an installation from Design Fabrication Zone (DFZ), Ryerson University’s interdisciplinary incubator for design and fabrication. This is the…
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OCAD: Creative City Campus
OCAD University’s constant evolution is based in the belief that creativity serves a vital function in society – that imaginations have the unique power to develop real-world solutions to improve and transform lives. To lead the helm of The Creative City Campus (CCC) project with looks to revitalize and expand the institution’s core creative spaces on McCaul Street…
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New Double Deck Go Buses
These buses were made for me…well for those travelling to-and-from the Hamilton GO station. When I first saw them on the road, I was excited because it meant that I could get a new perspective on my daily commutes. Here are some quick facts about the new buses: lower floors, and a longer, more gradual…
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The Nativity Scene
Yesterday was World Peace Day, and during Father’s homily he mentioned that the Nativity scene is the perfect example of a symbol peace at Christmas. St. Francis of Assisi is credited with the creation of the first nativity scene in which he brought animals and humans together to celebrate Christ’s birth. This made me think…
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Museum of Art, Architecture and Technology (MAAT)
October of last year, I traveled to Lisbon Portugal to visit the 4th Lisbon Architecture Trienniale. As part of the opening the newly constructed MAAT (Museum of Art Architecture Technology) opened it’s doors to the public. The undulating structure, designed by AL_A is located on the River Tagus in the district of Belem, at the heart…
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Tokyo at Night
Alleyways, lanterns, neon signs and merchants are the cinematic backdrops of local Japanese photographer and artist Masashi Wakui. His quite and intimate moments provide the spectator with a view of Japan that is appreciated by those who like to wander the streets and discover cities on their own accord.
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Placemaking in Hamilton, A Driver for Economic Growth
Several months ago, the Ontario Association of Architects, in partnership with the Hamilton Chamber of Commerce presented a panel discussion, “Hamilton Placemaking as a Driver for Economic Growth.” The event featured talks by Jason Thorne (General Manager of Planning and Economic Development for the City of Hamilton,) Steve Kulakowsky (Partner, Core Urban, Inc.,) Sonja Macdonald…
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OpenCity Projects – Top 5 Articles of 2015
OpenCity Projects added several new contributors to the roster this year and we are proud to announce that three of our top five were produced by them! Congratulations team on your outstanding articles on public space.
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Dear World… Yours, Cambridge – Miguel Chevalier
Artist Miguel Chevalier recently created a series of immersive projections that added a spellbound layer to a University of Cambridge charity event. The fundraising occasion featured Chevalier’s designs front and center in the King’s College Chapel, as they wrapped the historic interior in a myriad of changing colours, patterns, and textures. It was a striking juxtaposition…
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Brandalism takes over the COP21 climate talks
Over 600 artworks critiquing the corporate takeover of the COP21 climate talks were installed in advertising spaces across Paris ahead of the United Nations summit beginning on November 30th. Amidst the French state of emergency banning all public gatherings following the terrorist attacks on 13 November in Paris, the Brandalism project has worked with Parisians to…
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Nova by SOFTlab
The Flatiron/23rd Street Partnership Business Improvement District (BID) and Van Alen Institute recently announced that SOFTlab is the winner of the Flatiron Public Plaza Holiday Design Competition. The second annual competition called for proposals from New York design firms for a temporary installation at the heart of the Flatiron District. SOFTlab’s winning proposal, Nova, will…
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Project: Under Gardiner
The City of Toronto announces a partnership with visionary philanthropists and Waterfront Toronto to reclaim unused space under major elevated highway. The City of Toronto, together with private donors Judy and Wil Matthews and Waterfront Toronto announced a $25-million partnership that will create a new public landscape beneath a large section of the Gardiner Expressway. In…
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Legacy at the Chicago Architecture Biennial
Chicago has a long history of reinvention. After the Great Fire of 1871, the city has had to think big, dream boldly and push the boundaries of what is possible in the urban landscape. From the world’s first modern skyscraper to the iconic bungalow, Chicago has always used architecture and design to continually transform itself…
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Urban decay at Prudhomme’s Landing
What happens when your childhood water park closes down? Well, me and a couple friends decided to find out one sunny day. If you live in the Niagara Region, we’ve all passed Prudhomme’s Landing, an amusement park that in it’s hey-day was decked out with Bumper Cars, Go-Karts, a “Tilt-A-Whirl”, water slides, a wave pool,…
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Floating observation deck over Grand Central Terminal
What does the future of hold for New York City? To maintain its stature as one of the world’s great global cities, New York City continues to cultivate opportunities and nurture innovation in all spheres. MAS Summit for New York City, presented by the Municipal Art Society invited over 1000 innovative city shapers and thought…
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An aerial view from Los Angeles
Aerial videographer Ian Wood has created a cinematic short exploring all Los Angeles has to offer by way of architecture, street art and natural beauty. “I continue to be awe struck by how much of this vast city I have partially or completely overlooked before undertaking this video. And like most voyages of discovery, I’ve realize there’s…
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A tough climb
The ‘Wentworth Stairs’ is one of five set’s of staircases that run down the Hamilton Escarpment. Consisting of 498 steps, it is the largest structure compared to the others, running from the bottom of Wentworth to Upper Wentworth and Mountain Park Avenue. But there was a time when traveling up and down the face of…
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Weekly Review – OpenCity Projects
Here’s our weekly review rounding up the best stories and ideas in public space from cities around the world. This week we bring you before and after pictures of Hurricane Katrina 10 years later, MAD Architects new futuristic housing proposal for LA and the world’s largest outdoor mural.
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Playful playgrounds by MONSTRUM
What makes a MONSTRUM playground different from your average, every day site? Well, everything! The Danish design studio has spent the last 12 years, reinventing the notion of parks through artistic and design related thematic areas that fascinates and inspires both adults and children.
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J. Mayer H. JUBILEE PAVILION KA300
June 20th, 2015 marked the opening of the KA300 Pavilion in Karlsruhe, designed by J. MAYER H. und Partner, Architekten. To celebrate the three-hundred year anniversary of the founding of the city of Karlsruhe, this temporary event pavilion was erected in the city’s Schlossgarten. During the festival summer various concerts, theatre performances, readings, film screenings,…
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Instagram’s Urban Explorer Movement
A younger generation of urban explorers are rediscovering NYC and posting their exploits on Instagram where they have thousands of followers. These New Yorkers are scaling to the tops of bridges and exploring below the streets of New York in abandoned subways. Filmmaker Jeff Seal focuses on eight New York-based Instagram photographers who partake in the…
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Danish design in Milan – in between mind and craft
MINDCRAFT is an exhibition that presents a new selection of the best Danish craft and design which was held during the Milan Design Week. The exhibition features fourteen new works by nineteen of Denmark’s leading designers and craftspeople. Curated by the Danish-Italian design duo GamFratesi and is shown in a spectacular historical venue in Brera…
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Timelapse: A Walker in New York City
A behind-the-scenes look at how the French artist JR created a large-scale pasting in the triangle below the Flatiron Building for the Walking New York issue of The New York Times Magazine. (Via NYT)
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Passing of Time
New York photographer Richard Silver travels the world shooting well-known buildings over the course of a single sunset and splicing the pictures together to create a single image – a technique he describes as slicing time. The project started in 2010 in New York, where Silver originally decided to photograph iconic buildings in the city…
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Soundwave by Penda
Penda recently finished a landscape sculpture in Xiangyang, China, which consists of more than 500 perforated, vibrantly coloured steel fins varying in height. The sculpture marks the entrance gate to the largest Myrtle Tree Garden in Asia. Music, Rhythm and Dance in combination with the surrounding Landscape were the main parameters shaping ‘the Soundwave’. As…
Richelle Sibolboro 