Mayor's Urban Design Awards 2015

Last Thursday The City of Calgary held their bi-annual Mayor's Urban Design Awards, and Watershed+ is honoured to have received two awards.

Forest Lawn Lift Station in the 'Urban Fragments' category received an Honourable Mention. This category was described as "projects involving a single, small-scale piece of a building or landscape that contributes significantly to the quality of the public realm...an intervention that contributes to the enjoyment and appreciation of the urban environment".
Lost Spaces Ideas competition, in collaboration with dtalks, received the award for Conceptual/Theoretical Urban Design Projects. This category was for a plan, study, charette, etc, within Calgary that provides a strategy for urban transformation with a long-term vision.

We are excited to work with such an amazing team as part of Watershed+, and would like to recognize dtalks and the numerous departments within The City of Calgary who participated: Water Services, Parks, Transportation, Planning, Public Art.
Our partners for Forest Lawn Lift Station were Associated Engineers, Nemalux LED Lighting, Marshall Tittemore Architects, and contractors Maple Reinders Inc.

Hundreds visit a fairground in silence

Silent Fairground is a carousal and fairground attraction that was installed on an industrial site under redevelopment in Hagen, Germany. The temporary installation was commissioned as part of the 2015 Urbane Lights Ruhr.

See Silent Fairground in action here.

image courtesy of: Volker Hartmann / Urbane Künste Ruhr

Fifteen installations light up Hagen in October

In collaboration with Urbane Künste Ruhr's Creative Director, Katja Aßmann, Sans façon co-curated this year's festival of light in Hagen, Germany.
International artists, along with ourselves, have been invited to show works using, and speaking to, our relationship with light in the industrial city of Hagen, located in the Ruhr District. Some of the other artists include: Taturo Atzu (formely known as Tatsu Nishi). A Kassen. Simon Faithfull, Janice Kernel, Anna Rispoli, Shiny Toys (Jan Ehlen).

The Urban Lights Festival runs October 9-25, 2015.
Read more here and here.

image via: Volker Hartmann / Urbane Künste Ruhr

Yale University radio interview

On July 2nd, we were invited to speak about our practice with Brainard Carey, host of Interviews from Yale University Radio WYBCX, a program that features conversations with artists, writers, curators and conservators in North America and Europe about the art world. This was a chance for us to delve into some of our recent projects, and particularly the work we’ve been doing with WATERSHED+ in Calgary. We talked about how artists can draw out stories and reveal what’s hidden in urban systems and underground infrastructure, and why a framework of embedding artists is so productive in our view. After all, this is an opportunity for art to connect people with where they live and how place is understood.

"How do you bring out elements that make a place special and unique, and share the pleasure of what’s around you?"

So cool to be among a great group of people on this program!

New Sans façon team member

Introducing:

Sans façon is pleased to announce the arrival of Ciara McKeown.
Ciara has been welcomed deep into the bosom of the Sans façon practice and will be working as our Project Manager, based at our Calgary studio.
Ciara has worked as a commissioner, director, and project manager in public art across Canada and the US, with a background in art history, arts management, and cultural policy (all of the good stuff).

If you would like to introduce yourself personally to Ciara, please contact her at: ciara@sansfacon.org.