Led by Jonathan Friedman of PARTISANS Architects, a team of Waterloo Architecture students will create a site-specific built installation on the Gardiner’s outdoor plaza. Coinciding with Waterloo Architecture’s 50th anniversary, visitors will be invited to embellish colourful benches with mosaic tile as part of a month-long communal art-making activation exploring the scarcity of meaningful public space in Toronto. A series of discussions and activations will engage the public in this ongoing dialogue throughout the month of July.
Originating as a graduate elective course, the installation focuses on three key areas of architectural investigation: materiality (linking traditional methods with new technologies); the site (an opportunity to engage with the building, the forecourt and the public realm in a meaningful and thoughtful way); and the poetics of space (the opportunity to create a poetic and provocative piece of art and design). In the process, the students have had the opportunity to examine the importance of civic space and to engage directly in the act of city building. Inviting the public to participate in the act of contributing helping to create the installation through the physical process of mosaic tiling, allows the work to become an interactive departure point to evaluate the success our public spaces, the contribution of public art in the city, and the importance of the public dialogue over how our city gets built.
We would like to invite you to the opening of the event on the 6th of July, 5-8pm, at the Gardiner Museum and to the rest of the events that will take place during the month of July:
Sunday
July
9,
11am-3pm, Family
Sunday:
Outdoor
Mosaic
Making
Monday
July
10,
12-1pm,
Lunch
Hour Outdoor
Mosaic
Making
Sunday
July
16,
11am-3pm, Family
Sunday:
Outdoor
Mosaic
Making
Friday
July
21,
5-8pm,
Waterloo
Architecture's
50th
Anniversary
Celebration
In
addition,
we
would
like
to
hear
your
opinion
and
perspective
on
matters
of
Toronto’s
public
space
through
a
digital
platform
that
we
created
for
this
purpose.
Share
your
media,
discuss
your
opinion,
interact
with
each
other
on
twitter: @TO_Public_Space.