Just as the hardiest plants push through the cracks in our built landscapes, the most creative cultural moments courageously push through the cracks of society. Unexpected and variable, cracks form at the moment of imperfection where one state converts to another; freeze becomes thaw, darkness becomes light and life emerges from seed. Proposed for Winter Stations 2016, CRACKED celebrates this dynamic energy in an architectural gesture of earth moving and site-specific form that follows the solar arc of a month in winter.

Constructed of wood and steel, CRACKED carves into and through a landscape of sand and snow, using a vernacular material palette that best withstands Toronto winters. CRACKED widens and narrows to emphasize the friction that sparks a public energy fundamental to a culture that is experimental, challenging and rich.

CRACKED is revealed as both an intimate personal journey and a public experience. Moving down and through a wind-protected threshold visitors arrive into a sunken gathering space, experiencing the beach landscape from new perspectives. Here, in the crack of CRACKED, material is shifted away to create a public space that welcomes the beauty and curiosity of imperfection and all of the unexpected and unique possibilities of a collective urban life.