Blog

Maple Ridge Community Mosaic: Open to the Public!

On Sunday, February 23, a year almost to the day since we held our first public workshop for the Maple Ridge Community Mosaic, we proudly returned to the freshly renovated Maple Ridge Leisure Centre for the Grand Re-opening celebrations.

The facility was open admission-free for the pool party, music, prizes, and other activities throughout the day.  Mayor Mike Morden kindly gave us a special mention during his speech and we were especially honoured to be asked to join him along with other councillors and guests for the ribbon-cutting ceremony and for a piece of the official cake.

For more information about the Maple Ridge Community Mosaic check out the City of Maple Ridge’s Public Art website.

Maple Ridge Community Mosaic: Installation

In December 2019, after months of careful planning and preparation, everything was ready for the final installation of the Maple Ridge Community Mosaic.  The installation of the three mosaic walls took seven days.

Professional tile installer, Pedram ‘Tony’ Okhovat laying the first section of the Maple Ridge Community Mosaic on the shower wall adjacent to the main swimming pool at MRLC

Laser levels and spacers are used to make sure that the entire artwork is straight and evenly spaced

Sections of the shower wall mosaic are unboxed and prepared for installation

Tony applying fresh thinset to the waiting area wall ready to set mosaic sections

Rebecca calculating final measurements and custom cuts

Tony cutting tiles on the wet saw

Rebecca inspecting the waiting area wall

David and Tony hand-setting the edge details

Rebecca and Tony finishing the reception area mosaic

David removing the clear face tape from set tiles

Tags | Art, Colour, Community, Design, Interconnections, Maple Ridge, Mosaic, Networks, Pattern, Process, Public Space, Tessellation, Tile

Maple Ridge Community Mosaic: Artwork Assembly

When all the custom tiles had been extruded, baked, glazed, re-fired and ready, we began assembling the Maple Ridge Community Mosaics.

The twelve custom colours for the Maple Ridge Community Mosaic

The mosaics are prepared in small sections that are numbered and correspond to coordinates on a large map.  Each of the ~14,500 custom made tiles are laid by hand, carefully following the design and using special templates to make sure that the tiles are evenly spaced.  After each section has been laid, it gets checked, covered with a layer of clear face tape, coded, mounted to a protective card and boxed ready for transport to Maple Ridge.

Checking the details to ensure a perfect fit

Quality Control

Test layout

Applying face tape and section code

Marking boxes for shipment

Loading 1500lbs of artwork into the cargo van

Tags | Art, Colour, Community, Design, Interconnections, Maple Ridge, Mosaic, Networks, Pattern, Process, Public Space, Tessellation, Tile

Maple Ridge Community Mosaic: Made to Measure

The Maple Ridge Community Mosaic is installed in three locations inside the newly renovated Maple Ridge Leisure Centre; the main reception area, the waiting area outside the change rooms and also at the shower wall on the main pool deck.  Careful measurements are needed throughout the entire design and installation process to make sure that all three mosaics fit as precisely as possible onto the renovated walls.

Inspecting the reception area wall during the MRLC renovations. Summer 2019

Inspecting the waiting area wall during the MRLC renovations. Summer 2019

Inspecting the pool shower area wall during the MRLC renovations. Summer 2019

MRLC Maple Ridge Community Mosaic: Made to measure

Tags | Art, Colour, Community, Design, Interconnections, Maple Ridge, Mosaic, Networks, Pattern, Process, Public Space, Tessellation, Tile

Maple Ridge Community Mosaic: Tile Manufacturing

We worked closely with Interstyle Ceramic + Glass to develop unique ceramic glazes to match the twelve Maple Ridge Community Mosaic colours as closely as possible. The twelve colours used for this project were selected from the palette of landscape colours we received over Fall 2018 from public photo submissions.

Triangle tile colour matching samples

Mixing 12 bespoke colour glazes and firing the ~14,500 tiles needed is a complicated task and Interstyle are industry experts.

Colour kitchen

Interstyle is a family owned and operated tile manufacturer located in Burnaby, BC. They have been in operation since 1977 and are among the only tile manufactures remaining in Canada.

Interstyle Ceramic + Glass. Burnaby, BC.

The Maple Ridge Community Mosaic will use equilateral tiles specially made for this project from Earthenglass, a tile produced from powdered recycled glass and locally sourced clays.

Blank tile bisque

Rebecca inspecting the tile bisque

Sheets of ‘Maple Ridge Dark Green’ triangle tiles

Tags | Art, Colour, Community, Design, Interconnections, Maple Ridge, Mosaic, Networks, Pattern, Process, Public Space, Tessellation, Tile

Maple Ridge Community Mosaic: Design Process

Following the public pattern making workshop series held across the City of Maple Ridge during February 2019 we returned to our studio to work on the next stage of the Maple Ridge Community Mosaic, the Design Phase.

We had collected and documented approximately 540 unique triangular patterns during the public workshops and now it was time to study them all and consider ways in which we could blend as many of them together to form a cohesive whole.

During the workshops we had encouraged participants to use groups of themed colours that represented the seasons and this helped us arrange different patterns together.  Over a six week period we tested hundreds of combinations of patterns and colour combinations before we settled on the final design.

Once the final design was approved by the City of Maple Ridge we were ready to begin the next phase: fabrication…almost!

All of the tiles for the Maple Ridge Community Mosaic need to be custom made for this project.  To make sure we ordered the correct numbers of coloured tiles to cover the 410 SF wall spaces inside the Maple Ridge Leisure Centre each of the 14,000+ tiles in the mosaic had to be counted first!

Tags | Art, Colour, Community, Design, Interconnections, Maple Ridge, Mosaic, Networks, Pattern, Process, Public Space, Tessellation, Tile

Maple Ridge Community Mosaic: Community Engagement

The Maple Ridge Leisure Centre is an important hub for the neighbourhoods it serves.  Our new artwork intends to reaffirm the Maple Ridge Leisure Centre as a shared place where the wider community interacts daily.

The Maple Ridge Community Mosaic is created from content gathered from artist-­run community workshops.  Our role, as lead artists, is one of interpreters of the research and to create a new patterned design that represents the unique fabric of the local Maple Ridge community.  Traditional and contemporary patterns and motifs created by local people have been woven together and combined to form the final artwork.

In February 2019 we held community pattern making workshops with local groups at:

● Saturday 9 February
○ Maple Ridge Public Library (Repair Cafe)

● Wednesday 13 February
○ Maple Ridge Leisure Centre (Parents and Child Playtime)

○ Harry Hooge Elementary School

● Thursday 14 February
○ Chartwell Willow Manor

○ Maple Ridge Public Library

● Monday 18 February
○ ACT Arts Centre (Family Day)

● Tuesday 19 February
○ Kanaka Elementary School

○ Maple Ridge Public Library

● Thursday 21 February
○ Kanaka Elementary School
○ Thomas Haney High School

During these public workshops we collected and documented approximately 540 unique patterns.  We had a wonderful turn out and we collected amazing patterns from local people of all ages.  For more information and images about the workshops and the project see our Facebook page.

Tags | Art, Colour, Community, Design, Interconnections, Maple Ridge, Mosaic, Networks, Pattern, Process, Public Space, Tessellation, Tile

Maple Ridge Community Mosaic: Ceramic Tile Colour Selection

Maple Ridge community members were asked to submit photographs of their local landscape to the Maple Ridge Community Mosaic Facebook and Instagram pages to help inspire the colour palette for the new public artwork to be located at the newly renovated Maple Ridge Leisure Centre.

Based on the ~150 public submissions we received over Fall 2018, we selected twelve representative colours to be used for the project.

The thousands of cardboard tiles we made for the following community pattern making workshop series were carefully matched to these same twelve colours.

We organized the mosaic colour palette into smaller, seasonally-themed palettes and then rotated through the palettes at each public workshop to ensure that the all the colours were balanced and would work well together.

Thank you to everyone online who submitted their beautiful images of sunrises, sunsets, alpenglow, winter mornings, giant forests, lush meadows, sublime lakes, mighty rivers, and native wildlife and wildflowers.  The images below show how your images helped to inspire the mosaic colour selection.

Tags | Aesthetic, Art, Colour, Community, Design, Maple Ridge, Mosaic, Process, Tile

Maple Ridge Community Mosaic: Colours of Maple Ridge

Tags | Colour, Community, Design, Interconnections, Maple Ridge, Mosaic, Pattern, Process

Calder Library Community Mosaic in AVENUE MAGAZINE

Thank you kindly to Edmonton’s AVENUE MAGAZINE for the article in their August edition about our Calder Library Community Mosaic. We’re very proud to have worked with the Edmonton Arts Council on this community-themed project.

Tags | Alberta, Art, Calder, Community, Design, Edmonton, Interconnections, Mosaic, Pattern, Public Space, Tessellation, Tile

CBC Vancouver’s Hidden Streams

Spacemakeplace is very interested in Vancouver’s hidden streams.  Check out this short video article by CBC’s Uytae Lee about the history of some Vancouver’s urban streams and daylighting initiatives around the world.  For more information about Vancouver’s streams see our blog post Lost Streams of Vancouver .

Tags | Lost Streams, Networks, Public Space, Water

TTC Sherbourne: All Aboard! “The Whole is Greater than the Sum of its Parts”

After two long weeks at the end of October 2018, working through day and night, we are very happy to announce that “The Whole is Greater Than The Sum Of Its Parts“, formerly referred to as the Sherbourne Station Community Mosaic, is complete and open to the public at TTC Sherbourne in Toronto, ON.

We are very proud of the finished artwork. “The Whole is Greater Than The Sum Of Its Parts” is a series of 39 ceramic tile mosaic panels located throughout TTC Sherbourne station at the main entrance, Bloor Street concourse, both East and West bound platforms, and the Glen Road Concourse.

Sherbourne Street Concourse.

Each panel is a blend of geometric patterns that we collected from over 450 people from the local neighbourhood at a series of 24 community workshops held in March and April 2018. Kindergarten children to senior citizens who contributed over 700 unique triangle patterns to this public art project and this project is dedicated to them and the vibrant communities that merge together every day at Sherbourne station.

Pattern-making workshop at the Toronto Public Library St James Town Branch, March 2018.

We owe a huge debt of gratitude to Csaba Bereczki, proprietor of The Tile Setter Company, and his assistant, Marthonee ‘Kim’ Padua, for their tireless effort and professional dedication to making sure that we completed the installation on schedule. It was a near-super human feat and we couldn’t have done it without you!

Csaba Bereczki, proprietor of The Tile Setter Company (right), and his assistant, Marthonee ‘Kim’ Padua (left)

Rebecca priming the columns on the Sherbourne Street Concourse.

After priming the subway tile walls and skimming with thinset, the first sections of the 39 panels are adhered to the Westbound platform.

After every stage of the installation each panel was covered for protection until complete.

Rebecca reviewing the plans.

All work around the main Sherbourne Street entrance had to be completed between 2am and 5am while the station was closed.

Csaba laying the last tile section in thinset.

With a six-car train passing every 4-5mins, working in an active subway station was a challenging environment.

Midnight snack in the storage room.

David removing the face tape from a mosaic on the Sherbourne Street Concourse level.

Rebecca striping the masking tape bordering a mosaic on the Westbound platform.

Csaba and Kim grouting the mosaics at the Sherbourne Street entrance.

Csaba and Kim giving the mosaics a careful wipe down before the final completion.

David and Rebecca with Csaba Bereczki, proudly presenting the completed artwork to representatives from TTC on the final day of installation.

The Sherbourne Station Community Mosaic public artwork was commissioned by the Toronto Transit Commission as part of the Easier Access and Second Exit Program.

Tags | Art, Community, Design, Infrastructure, Interconnections, Mosaic, Ontario, Pattern, Process, Public Space, Public Transport, Sherbourne, Tessellation, Tile, Toronto, Transit, TTC