In this post of our winter blOAAg series, “Temporary Architecture: Pavilions, Structures and Follies,” we take a look at a beautiful public art installation by Toronto-based architecture firm, RAW Design.
From the Designers
Artist: RAW Design
Type: Public Art Installation
Locations:
2014 – Montreal, Quebec
2016 – Ottawa, Ontario
2016 –Washington, D.C.
2017 – Calgary, Alberta
2017 – Niagara Falls, Ontario
Prismatica was initially an installation for the 2014 Luminothérapie Competition in Montreal for the Quartier Des Spectacles. Artists were tasked with creating installations that celebrate and enhance the experience of winter. These installations needed to engage visitors and invoke a feeling or mood during both day and night. Prismatica’s unanticipated success, and brief appearance in the film, John Wick: Chapter 2, propelled an afterlife for it and enabled the installation to travel across North America. Following Montreal, it has been displayed on Ottawa’s Parliament Hill, along Washington, D.C.’s Potomac River in Georgetown, as part of Calgary’s Glow: Downtown Winter Lights Festival and ,most recently, in the Niagara Falls Winter Festival of Lights.
Prismatica Concept Diagram
Image Credit: RAW Design
Design Credit: RAW Design
Prismatica Assembly Diagram
Image Credit: RAW Design
Design Credit: RAW Design
Prismatica Construction
Image Credit: RAW Design
Design Credit: RAW Design
The immersive installation, comprising 50 pivoting prisms, acts as a giant kaleidoscope through which visitors can wander and observe their environment through a new lens. Glimmering under natural light by day or atmospheric lighting at night, the prisms create overlapping transparencies, patterns and reflections on their surroundings. Visitors can interact with the installations by turning the giant prisms, causing mesmerizing transformations of countless colours.
Prismatica in Montreal
Image Credit: James Brittain
Design Credit: RAW Design
Prismatica on Parliament Hill, Ottawa, ON, Canada
Image Credit: Doublespace Photography
Design Credit: RAW Design
Prismatica in Georgetown, Washington D.C.
Image Credit: Sam Kittner
Design Credit: RAW Design
Constructed by Atomic 3, a Montreal-based studio, the prisms measure two metres tall and are made of polycarbonate panels laminated with a dichroic film that transmits and reflects every colour of the visible spectrum, varying with the position of the light source and the observer. The prisms are mounted on bases containing light projectors and speakers. As they pivot, they create polychromatic effects, accompanied by an ambient soundtrack. Through the interplay of these various sources of light and sound, magic and wonder emerge.
Prismatica in Montreal
Image Credit: James Brittain
Design Credit: RAW Design
Prismatica in Georgetown, Washington D.C. **1
Image Credit: Sam Kittner
Design Credit: RAW Design
This post forms part of our winter blOAAg series, “Temporary Architecture: Pavilions, Structures and Follies,” which explores architecture made for a temporal situation. Check out the other posts in our series for more great buildings across the province!