Cool Gardens is a public exhibition of contemporary garden and art installations that offers a shift of sensation for the summer—cooling—as a general theme for public projects in Winnipeg’s downtown. Cool Gardens brings architects, landscape architects, designers, artists, and the public together, celebrating the interface between architecture, urbanism, landscape, and design. The competition features locally, nationally, and internationally acclaimed artists and practitioners in the Winnipeg context, highlighting the value of art and design in public space.
Presented by StorefrontMB and The Forks, Cool Gardens was established as a central Canadian counterpart to the Reford / Jardin de Metis concept in Quebec, celebrating the interface between nature, art, architecture, urbanism, and design. The exhibition has run in Winnipeg for the past six years, with 2019 marking the seventh annual event. The event is highly accessible to a broad audience including children, tourists, shoppers, cyclists, and business people. Cool Gardens 2019 will take place from July 3rd to September 28th.
Out of the 50 entries submitted to this year's competition, ft3's Keep Your Cool was selected as the 2019 winning entry.
Keep Your Cool – ft3 Architecture Landscape Interior Design
Cloud Gazing is an essential summertime activity. Taking time to pause, find a patch of grass and stare up at the sky is both restorative and revitalizing to our mental wellness. As clouds slowly move and melt into one another, our imaginations create infinite possibilities of shapes, ideas, thoughts and narratives. Blending the familiar symbols of a cloud and a thought bubble, ‘Keep Your Cool’ creates an association between these two concepts. In an age of technology and digital communication where the thought bubble or ‘typing awareness indicator’ holds so much weight and unease, ‘Keep Your Cool’ re-imagines this well-known icon and redefines our association with it - from one of possible anxiety to one of limitless creative potential.
Through the use of large scale curve stitching, layers of interwoven thread emulate cloud formations and provide a canopy of ethereal shade above the grass – a dedicated spot for cloud gazing.
