The City of Calgary has announced the two winners of its inaugural Winter City Design Competition, who will receive funding to build and install their designs along Stephen Avenue.

The city, in partnership with the University of Calgary’s School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape, invited designers, artists and students to imagine the possibilities for eye-catching and interactive displays along Stephen Avenue. The theme was “Out of Bounds.”

The two winning submissions are:

“Infinito” – a lit tunnel that focuses on intimacy, connection and social interactions.

Project team – Bosco Chik, Charlie Jiang, Christian Icuspit, William Zhuang, Karim Kandil

“Wowie” – an interactive, accessible experience to make winter feel warmer, designed with kids in mind. (main photo)

Project team – Seeton Naested, Julian Warring, Kelsi Hurlbut, Adam Ford, John Lawlor, Matt Labrie, Audrina Lim, Alison MacLachlan, John Rivera.

“Infinito” will be placed at Stephen Avenue and 2 Street S.W. “Wowie” will be constructed at Stephen Avenue and Centre Street S. Each winning project will receive $10,000 to construct and install their design in February 2022.

“The two winning designs will each bring something new and exciting to liven up Stephen Avenue during our coldest months,” said Kate Zago, who is leading the Winter City Design Competition. “We’re extremely delighted to bring these designs to life in February and create two new great public spaces for Calgarians to experience.”

The goal of the competition is to explore and push beyond the boundaries of what public spaces look like in midst of a Calgary winter.

The competition is part of the city’s Future of Stephen Avenue Activate + Experiment project, to re-imagine Stephen Avenue from City Hall to Mewata Armoury. This project is testing out ideas and experiments and measuring impacts, to help inform the future of downtown’s iconic main street.