Winner Announced at Urban Ecologies 2013 Conference
June 21, 2013 (Toronto) – OCAD University and smart Canada today announced the winner of the smart City Project: Motion competition. Through the competition, students in art and design were challenged to envision smart City: Motion, a place where the movement between home and work aspires to meet twenty-first century design demands for healthy living and intelligent travel.
The winner of the competition is Maximillian Wessman, whose project, entitled “Thought Velocity”, outlined an adaptive road infrastructure “for a city that thinks on its feet”. Second and third place awards were given to Calvin Kuo for his project “Smart Swarm” and Patrick Kroetsch for “The Hub”. Finalists for the competition displayed posters of their projects at Urban Ecologies 2013, where academics and practitioners in a various fields are meeting to further the practice of urban design.
“smart Canada is proud to partner with OCAD University to challenge the next generation of urban designers to envision a more sustainable and intelligent way to move people and goods around Canada’s cities in the future,” said Nicole Israng, Head of smart Marketing. “We were thrilled with the quality of submissions by the students, congratulate the winners and thank each one of the participants for their creative and insightful submissions.”
“Sustainability will only be achieved through excellent design. smart Canada has provided an excellent opportunity for OCAD University students to provide solutions that can solve the grand challenge of urban transportation and energy efficiency through excellent user experience design,” said Dr. Sara Diamond, President and Vice Chancellor of OCAD University.
Mr. Wessman received $5,000 as the Grand Prize winner of the competition. Mr. Kuo and Mr. Kroetsch received $1,000 and $500 respectively. Projects were reviewed by a panel of judges, including Lisa Rochon, Architecture Critic, The Globe and Mail; Matt Blackett, Co-Founder, Publisher, Creative Director, Spacing Magazine; Matthew Browning, Transportation Consultant, ARUP; Beth Kapusta, Executive Technical Advisor - Design Excellence, Metrolinx; and Nicole Israng, Head of Marketing, smart Canada.
About the competition
Can you imagine a city where movement in any direction is a seamless, timely, efficient human experience?
As the scale of cities grow exponentially, so do transportation systems and the dependency on energy to drive the economy. Is it possible to work with what we have and reinvent better ways to move people and goods more efficiently and more enjoyably? How would you envision the thresholds, the movement, the interconnectivity, and the user experience of transportation in the city? What connections would you make? What new experiences of motion could you design?
About OCAD University
OCAD University (www.ocadu.ca) is Canada’s “university of imagination.” The university, founded in 1876, is dedicated to art and design education, practice and research and to knowledge and invention across a wide range of disciplines. OCAD University is building on its traditional, studio-based strengths, adding new approaches to learning that champion cross-disciplinary practice, collaboration and the integration of emerging technologies. In the Age of Imagination, OCAD University community members will be uniquely qualified to act as catalysts for the next advances in culture, technology and quality of life for all Canadians.
About smart Canada
smart Canada is responsible for the sales, marketing and service for the smart brand in Canada. Produced in one of the most modern and environmentally friendly plants in the world in Hambach, France, the smart fortwo is a safe, comfortable and extremely versatile vehicle. Since its launch in Canada in the fall of 2004, smart Canada's nationwide network of 53 dealers across the country have sold over 23,000 smart fortwos. Further information about the smart can be found online at http://www.thesmart.ca/, facebook.com/smartCanada and twitter.com/smartCanada.
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