Aesthetic

MERGE (Lynnmour Sound Wall) Update: BANANA SLUG

MERGE features twenty colours representing a selection of local flora, fauna and landmarks specific to the Lynnmour community and Seymour River area, including the beloved Banana Slug.  

One of our favourite images from the MERGE installation was taken by Jason Hardy from @solidrockfencing.  Jason took this incredible photograph of an actual local Banana Slug sliding out from between panels in the Banana Slug segment just after they had been stored in a grassy area since the Spring.

Reconfiguring this section of Trans-Canada Highway (Hwy 1) is a large and complex undertaking and not without a one or two unforeseen challenges… such as the huge lamp post that was installed immediately in front of the ‘Banana Slug’ section! 

Thanks to the friendly team at @solidrockfencing and @KCIKraftConsultingInc we were able to carefully reposition the Banana Slug panel and complete the 4m tall and 356m spectrum with the Banana Slug unobstructed 🙂

@solidrockfencing

@KCIKraftConsultingInc

@NVanDistrict

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MERGE (2021) Rebecca Bayer, 356m x 4m, Powder-coated Aluminum Acoustic Panels,⁠
Trans-Canada Highway @ Keith Road⁠, Lynnmour, District of North Vancouver, territories of the xʷməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), and Səl̓ílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations

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Tags | Aesthetic, Art, Colour, Design, Infrastructure, Interconnections, Nature, North Vancouver, Pattern, Process, Public Space, Vancouver

MERGE (Lynnmour Sound Wall) Update: Colourful Transformation

It’s been another productive week at MERGE. We want to offer a special thanks to Mark Hersey, Jason Hardy and the team from ​​Solid Rock Fencing for their special attention to detail and careful installation of the 623 colourful acoustic panels. This project is starting to transform the landscape and has already made a huge difference in reducing the traffic noise level in the neighbouring Lynnmour community.

It is all coming together very nicely and everyone is excited to see the wall complete in the next few weeks.  

MERGE (Lynnmour Sound Wall – 2021), will feature twenty naturalistic colours which represent a selection of local flora, fauna and landmarks specific to the Lynnmour community and area. Merge stands at 4m tall and spans 356m along the newly reconfigured section of the Trans-Canada Highway (Hwy 1) between Ironworkers Memorial Second Narrows Crossing and Lynn Creek. The acoustic dampening, sound wall sits between the highway and the residential neighbourhood along Keith Road and is clad in colourful powder-coated aluminum panels. The panels have been carefully configured to produce a giant, site-specific spectrum designed to be viewed by both passing traffic and residents in nearby communities.

@solidrockfencing

@KCIKraftConsultingInc 

@NVanDistrict

 

 

Tags | Aesthetic, Art, Colour, Design, Infrastructure, Interconnections, Mosaic, Nature, Networks, North Vancouver, Pattern, Process, Public Space, Urban, Vancouver

Coming Together To Give Back To The Community

On the anniversary of our COVID-19 life, we want to share some feel good news from 2020. With proceeds from the sale of “Come Together” (2020), we were able to donate back to the St. James Town Community Corner, near TTC Sherbourne subway station. “Come Together” is a bespoke, glazed ceramic tile mosaic (0.6m x 2.0m) commissioned by Louis Vuitton.

“Come Together” (2020) glazed ceramic tile mosaic (0.6m x 2.0m) Louis Vuitton. Yorkdale, Toronto.

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

MERGE (Lynnmour Sound Wall) Update: Waidhofen, Austria

Thanks to FORSTER and Rainer Kraft from Kraft Consulting for their recent photos of the colourful acoustic panels that have now been fabricated at Forster’s factory in Waidhofen, Austria.  Later this summer (2021) these panels will be installed along side 356m of Trans-Canada Highway (Hwy 1) between Ironworkers Memorial Second Narrows Crossing and Lynn Creek in the District of North Vancouver.

The public artwork, MERGE, will feature twenty naturalistic colours representing a selection of local flora, fauna and landmarks specific to the Lynnmour community and area.  The ~620 powder-coated aluminum panels have been carefully configured to produce a giant site-specific spectrum designed to be viewed by both passing traffic and residents in nearby communities.

 

 

 

Tags | Aesthetic, Art, Burrard Inlet, Colour, Community, Design, Infrastructure, Interconnections, Nature, North Vancouver, Pattern, Process, Public Space, Sound Wall, Urban, Vancouver

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

TTC Sherbourne: Tom Thomson Colour Palette

The Sherbourne Station Community Mosaic will use a set of 12 colours that are inspired by the palette of iconic Canadian painter, Tom Thomson.

Colour testing by Interstyle Ceramic & Glass of the twelve colours chosen for the TTC Sherbourne Community Mosaic

Thomas John Thomson, painter (born 5 August 1877 in Claremont, ON; died 8 July 1917 in Algonquin Provincial Park, ON). An early inspiration for what became The Group of Seven, Tom Thomson was one of the most influential and enduringly popular Canadian artists of the early part of the twentieth century. His paintings The West Wind (1917) and Jack Pine (1916-1917) are familiar Canadian icons.  Thomson was a master colourist.

Thomson was one of the first artists in residence at the Studio Building, located at 25 Severn Street, in the Rosedale ravine immediately east of the above-ground Ellis portal that brings subway trains into and out of the north end of the Bloor-Yonge subway station, a short walking distance from Sherbourne Station. His studio’s site and positioning takes advantage of the northern exposure that illuminates the artist’s canvas with very even, neutral light.  Completed in 1914, the nonprofit facility was financed by Lawren Harris, heir to the Massey-Harris farm machinery fortune, and Dr James MacCallum.

Thomson would spend the summers in Algonquin Park and winter at the Studio Building in a refurbished a workmen’s shed on the east side of the building that MacCallum had converted so Thomson could work in an environment closer to his beloved wilderness settings.

Tags | Aesthetic, Art, Community, Design, History, Infrastructure, Interconnections, Mosaic, Nature, Networks, Ontario, Pattern, Process, Public Space, Public Transport, Sherbourne, Tessellation, Tile, Tom Thomson, Toronto, Transit, TTC, Urban

Frei Otto – form follows nature

The article “Frei Otto – form follows nature” was published in the online version of the German DETAIL magazine to announce an exhibition held in Innsbruck from Jan-Mar 2013.

„Das ästhetische Element kann man nicht direkt planen. Eine ästhetische Form steht am Ende eines Prozesses. Allein mit dem Willen zur Schönheit wird man sie nicht erreichen. Wenn wir ehrlich gearbeitet haben, bekommen wir sie manchmal geschenkt.“ (Frei Otto)

Translated by Google:

“The aesthetic element cannot be planned directly.  An aesthetic is at the end of a process.  Alone with the desire for beauty you will not reach them.  If we have worked honestly, we get them sometimes bestowed.” ( Frei Otto )

Tags | Aesthetic, Design, History, Nature