The Design Exchange (DX) announced the winners of its Design for the Cold competition, an event that accompanies its multi-disciplined exhibition Design for the Cold which opened on November 2, 2005. The goals of the exhibition are to raise awareness about how Canadians experience the winter, to identify the physical exigencies and to exhibit universal design solutions applicable to winter environments. The opening began with a Poster Review of the 16 research posters or design prototype models/illustrations chosen from an open call for submissions, which involved designers, educators and health sciences researchers from all disciplines.
The LITE-ENERGY project by Christopher Stewart and David Brown was awarded first place in the Poster Review. LITE-ENERGY is a light-emitting visor that harnesses the power of LED bulbs to help alleviate the symptoms of Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD).
Second place went to the Sudbury Street Skin project. During the presentation, Kirsten Robinson explained that Street Skins are applications of membrane technologies – air-supported or tensioned, tents or bubbles – that create microclimates for large volumes of public space in Canadian winter cities.
Velo-city – Sustainable Urban Mobility by Chris Hardwicke of informal connective and Toronto’s Winter Oasis Public Square by Alexander Tedesco of Levitt Goodman Architects tied for third place. Velo-city is an idea for helping people move through winter cities that would be made up of an enclosed highway for bicycles and other human powered vehicles. Toronto’s Winter Oasis Public Square would involve the creation of a perimeter defined by an invisible thermal blanket that covers its guests with 18 degrees Celsius year round, instead of walls or ceiling enclosures.
The Poster Review judges were Leah Cameron, associate editor at Azure magazine; Patricia McKeever, Professor in the Faculty of Nursing at the University of Toronto; and Jennifer Wells, column and feature writer at the Toronto Star.