Toronto's 2026 Winter Stations installations bring 'Mirage' flair to its beachfront

Toronto’s annual Winter Stations competition is back with another round of public art installations to activate its urban beaches during the coldest season.

This year's "Mirage" theme had participants design structures responsive to the "boundary of what is seen and what is real in the age of AI and explore public art as infrastructure that gathers people in shared reality." 

The jury selected three winning designs, along with two proposals from Canadian/Taiwanese student teams, which will be constructed in the coming weeks and exhibited on Woodbine Beach from February 16th through March 30th.

Have a look at this year's winning entries below, and discover unique Toronto destinations in our recent Archinect City Guide with recommendations by Eiri Ota and Irene Gardpoit of UUfie.

CHIMERA (cover pic) by Denys Horodnyak (Ukraine) & Enzo Zak Lux (Germany)

"Denys Horodnyak and Enzo Zak Lux share an emerging Berlin-based creative practice. Horodnyak is a young architect whose professional experience ranges between the fields of architectural and installation design, as well as spatial research and urban planning. Lux works as a multidisciplinary architectural designer. His practice explores the interaction of colour and architectural space and creates spatial and communicative designs for exhibition spaces as well as commercial and private environments. Their art installation was made in partnership with the Mechanical Contractors Association of Ontario. Fabrication was led by Courtney Chard, a pipe welder with MCAO Contractor MultiTech Trades Corp and proud member of UA Local 46. She is also a metal artist, fabricating unique designs out of her shop in Georgetown, Ontario."

Embrace by Will Cuthbert (Canada)

"Will Cuthbert is an art director and 3D artist currently based in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, having been a lifelong Toronto east-ender. He’s currently the art director at Wealthsimple, having previously worked with creative agencies like Cossette and Leo Burnett. Cuthbert previously won Winter Stations in 2022 for The Hive, in collaboration with Kathleen Dogantzis. His art installation was made in partnership with Northcrest Developments and their Director, Programming and Placemaking, Alana Mercury."

SPECULARIA by TORNADO SOUP: Andrew Clark (USA)

"Andrew Clark is a Portland, Maine-based interdisciplinary designer, who creates site-specific interventions under the name TORNADO SOUP. His work, spanning from hand-scaled objects to immersive installations, explores connections between contemporary and vernacular design sensibilities. His art installation is being fabricated with MicroPro Sienna treated lumber, a sponsor for the sixth straight year."

Crest by University of Waterloo: Clay te Bokkel, Isabella Ieraci, Matthew Lam, Sasha Rao, Simon Huang, Oskar Peng, David Shen (Canada)

"The students at the University of Waterloo designed this installation to resemble, from afar, a mere pile of driftwood washed up on the beach. As one approaches, the geometry of the wave gradually reveals itself. The waffled plywood form acts as an illusion where individual pieces appear and disappear with different directions of arrival. Ultimately, merging with the landscape beyond."

Glaciate by Toronto Metropolitan University, Department of Architectural Science (Canada), in collaboration with Ming Chuan University, School of Design (Taiwan): Finn Ferrall, Nicholas Kisil, Marko Sikic, and Vincent Hui

"Students and faculty supervisors at Toronto Metropolitan University, in collaboration with Ming Chuan University, designed Glaciate as a corridor of vertical polycarbonate panels, filled with water from the lake nearby, creating a set of ice lenses. As the lake water freezes and thaws, the panels cycle through phases of transparency, translucency, and full opacity. From outside, a red lifeguard stand is never wholly visible or wholly concealed. It appears through fragments, outlines, and momentary flashes of red. From within, the surrounding beach appears a mirage."