(Artscape Wychwood Barns, photo credit: Matthew Burpee)
Eighteen student groups from Ryerson University’s architecture program participated in a design competition for Artscape Wychwood Barns’ named, ‘For Your Information.’
A public vote on the designs for the potential information kiosks was held from Jan. 9 to Jan. 26, to determine the top three designs submitted by students.
Artscape Wychwood Barns (Photo credit: Wychwood Barns)
On Feb. 18 ,a panel of five industry professionals will ask the finalists questions and provide feedback before announcing a winner.
Artscape is a not-for-profit urban development organization that creates spaces for creativity while transforming communities. Wychwood Barns is a former streetcar repair facility at St. Clair Avenue West and Christie Street that has been redeveloped by Artscape. It now houses over 7,680 square feet of farmers and art markets.
Artscape communications manager Claire Pfeiffer says that while the competition is just for the best design concept, they’re looking forward to seeing the result of the students’ imaginings.
“We think the example of an outdoor informational kiosk at the Artscape Wychwood Barns makes for a great challenge for students of design and architecture. The students working on this challenge might come up with some really great theoretical solutions, and we’re glad they have applied so much energy and innovation to their projects,” says Pfeiffer.
The top three designs are Kiosk No. 5 by Jennifer Bai and Arian Hussainzada, BLIP by Anthony Gugliotta and Kyle Marren, and Grow Local by Sarah Ives and Carrie Groskpf.
Margot de Man, a Ryerson student who submitted Inforails with partner Newton Xian for the contest, says that the project was initially graded as part of a course called Digital Tools, taught by Vincent Hui .
“We were given the opportunity to re-evaluate our project with the feedback given before submitting it to Projexity for the Wychwood Barns’ competition,” says de Man.
Projexity is an online crowd-sourcing platform that enables anyone with an idea to design, fund and help build projects in their neighbourhoods.
One of the co-founders of Projexity, Marisa Bernstein lives within the area of Wychwood Barns and was told by her city councillor about the potential project.
“Around the same time we got in touch with Vincent Hui, as he was looking for real world projects that his students could propose hypothetical concepts for. Artscape and the Wychwood Barns Community Association (WBCA) were consulted as well, since both organizations play a huge role in supporting the operations, programming and advocacy that takes place at the Barns,” says Bernstein.
Even though the outdoor information kiosks are just conceptual for the time being, Pfeiffer says that in order for Artscape to initiate a real world project of installing outdoor information kiosks at Wychwood Barns’ that they would have to, “conduct extensive stakeholder and community consultation and also need to work out a solid content management plan with the Wychwood Barns Community Association.”
The panel evaluation will be held on Feb. 18 from 6:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m., to determine a winner in the For Your Information contest.
