Windscape Luminato, Toronto Festival Hub, David Pecaut Square Building, Canadian Architecture

Windscape Luminato Toronto : David Pecaut Square

Festival Hub in Ontario design by Diamond Schmitt Architects, Canada

6 Jun 2012

Windscape at Luminato Festival

The Festival Hub at David Pecaut Square

Design: Diamond Schmitt Architects

WINDSCAPE TRANSFORMS PUBLIC SQUARE FOR LUMINATO

Installation has dancing windsocks and billowing blue banner

TORONTO – An architecture firm more accustomed to creating superb performance spaces than taking centre stage unveils Windscape at the Luminato Festival (June 8-17) in Toronto.

picture Courtesy of Diamond Schmitt Architects

Diamond Schmitt Architects won the Festival’s design competition to transform David Pecaut Square into Festival Hub, where free programming from world beat and symphonic concerts to galleries and talks with influential artists will take place over the ten-day event.

An architectural team of Michael Leckman, Brad Hindson, Marcin Sztaba and Jack Diamond created Windscape. “The design takes inspiration from the wind and harnesses both naturally occurring and artificial breezes to shape and affect the entire space”, said Michael Leckman, Principal at Diamond Schmitt Architects. A wide band of ribbon over 200 metres long sweeps through the square to embrace the stage, enliven the public space and draws attention to the Hub from the neighbouring streets.

“The intent is to make people aware of the space in a way they hadn’t thought about before, just as Luminato invites people to experience the city in new ways – artistically, emotionally, intellectually”, added Jack Diamond, Principal with Diamond Schmitt Architects.

At Windscape’s centre is an array of programmable windsocks, each more than three metres long with their own fan and LED lights. Created in collaboration with artist Mitchell F. Chan, these nine interactive sculptures swivel and rotate, swell and deflate, all while changing in colour and intensity. The result is a synchronized ballet of wind and colour programmed by choreographers and set to music performed at Luminato.

“Windscape is the first in hopefully a long series of annual designs for the Luminato Hub realized by leading architects of our time,” said Jorn Weisbrodt, Artistic Director of Luminato. “It aims to re-think and transform public space and the way the citizens of Toronto perceive their city.”

picture Courtesy of Diamond Schmitt Architects

Also at Luminato, Donald Schmitt, Principal at Diamond Schmitt Architects, will be in discussion with Luminato artist-in-residence Dan Bergeron about art, architecture and the unique challenges of public installations and the role of creativity in shaping communities. This Lunchtime Illuminations talk takes places Thursday June 14th at noon at The Hub.

Diamond Schmitt Architects (www.dsai.ca ) is among the world’s top ten design firms for the cultural sector. An award-winning portfolio of opera houses, concert halls, libraries, academic, research and residential buildings includes Toronto’s Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts, La Maison Symphonique de Montréal and the New Mariinsky Theatre under construction in St. Petersburg, Russia.

Windscape Luminato Toronto image / information from Diamond Schmitt Architects

14 Mar 2012

Windscape Toronto

The Festival Hub at David Pecaut Square

Design: Diamond Schmitt Architects

LUMINATO 2012 WINDSCAPE

TORONTO (March 14, 2012) – Sparking an annual tradition, Luminato, Toronto Festival of Arts and Creativity, now in its sixth year, today announced that the Festival’s hub at David Pecaut Square will be transformed into an art installation for the duration of the festival, June 8–17, 2012.

picture Courtesy of Diamond Schmitt Architects

Last year, when downtown Toronto’s Metro Square was renamed David Pecaut Square in memory of Luminato’s visionary co-founder, the festival embraced the space as its central Hub. This year, to celebrate and showcase its multifaceted role within the festival—a place to meet, play, explore, and share in a spectrum of free programming—David Pecaut Square is being completely transformed by Toronto’s illustrious Diamond Schmitt Architects. The Hub has been re-imagined as Windscape by a team of architects including Jack Diamond, Michael Leckman, Brad Hindson and Marcin Sztaba.

“Windscape is the first in hopefully a long series of annual designs for the Luminato Hub, realized by leading architects of our time,” said Jorn Weisbrodt, Artistic Director of Luminato. “It aims to re-think and transform public space and the way the citizens of Toronto perceive their city. It is the embodiment of the festival as a fifth season, the short but impactful blossoming of seeing the city in a different light, and congregating to share emotions, music and each other.”

Using wind as its central theme—recognizing that, just like an invigorating June breeze, Luminato is a wondrous force that sweeps through the city—Windscape is a dynamic installation that unites both naturallyoccurring and artificial wind to shape, and affect, the entire space.

Wind also inspires the overall look and flow of the installation. A wide band of ribbon sweeps through the square and envelops the Luminato stage. Over 100 metres long and six metres high, the wind-activated overhead ribbon frames the entire Square.

Residing at Windscape’s centre is an array of animatronic fans and windsocks. Created in collaboration with artist Mitchell F. Chan, these programmable, interactive sculptures swivel and rotate, swell and deflate, all the while changing in colour and intensity in response to live music.

The result is an ever-evolving mechanized choreography of colour and light. Diamond Schmitt’s Windscape can be experienced at David Pecaut Square throughout Luminato’s 10 days. Then, like the wind, it will disappear. The transformation of David Pecaut Square will become an annual Luminato event, with each new festival’s installation created by another of the world’s foremost architectural firms.

picture Courtesy of Diamond Schmitt Architects

Diamond Schmitt Architects ranks among the world’s top ten cultural sector design firms. Their award-winning portfolio of multidisciplinary work—spanning opera houses, concert halls, libraries, academic, research, commercial and residential buildings—includes Toronto’s Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts, La Maison Symphonique de Montréal and St. Petersburg’s Mariinsky Theatre. Donald Schmitt was the Founding Chair of the Public Arts Commission in the City of Toronto. A book of Jack Diamond’s paintings was recently published.

Daily throughout the festival Windscape will become the home for 33 free concerts from an international spectrum of artists, exploring a vast array of genres and styles and marks several Toronto, Canadian, and North American premieres for these artists. The Hub concert series paints a global portrait of diversity with artists from Canada and the U.S., Mexico, Cuba, Jamaica, Trinidad & Tobago, Germany, Italy, Mali, Ghana, Ethiopia, and Somalia.

WINDSCAPE FACTS

THE RIBBON WALL
600 linear ft of 20 ft wide Ribbon suspended 30 ft in the air
Encircling a 52 ft wide stage
12,000 square ft of Ribbon fabric
Wrapped around 1,200 linear ft of specially designed aluminum pipe via 2,400 fasteners
Attached to a 30 ft high supporting scaffold structure constructed from over 150,000 lbs of steel
15 tractor-trailer loads of scaffold arriving on site over the 10 days of construction
Weighted down with over 300,000 lbs of concrete ballast
14,000 square ft of fabric wrap to dress the steel scaffold structure

WINDSOCKS
9 – 25ft tall choreographed Windsocks
9 – 11’ long windsocks rotating on dual axes supported by 2 single kilowatt motors
324 linear ft of structural I-beam legs supporting 200 ft of 5” heavy gauge Steel Pipe
9 – 36” fans pushing over 12,000 cubic feet of air per minute

The sixth edition of Luminato takes place from June 8–17, 2012. Tickets for all Luminato 2012 programs will be available for sale on April 14. For details, please visit luminato.com.

ABOUT LUMINATO
Luminato is Toronto’s fifth season when the festival stages the best of our city and invites the world to celebrate and transform it with us. Luminato is an annual multi-disciplinary celebration of theatre, dance, music, literature, food, visual arts, film, magic, and more. For more information, please visit luminato.com.

Luminato gratefully acknowledges the generous support and vision of its Founding Luminaries, SuperNova donors, and Patron Circle Members. The Festival would not be possible without the support of our Partner in Creativity, L’Oréal Canada. Luminato also acknowledges the support of its Founding Government Partner, the Province of Ontario, the Government of Canada, and the City of Toronto.

Windscape Luminato Toronto image / information from Diamond Schmitt Architects

Diamond and Schmitt

Location: David Pecaut Square, Toronto, Ontario, Canada