The winners of the third annual Winter Stations Design Competition held in Toronto, Canada, were recently announced, with a Japanese hot spring making the grade as one of the winning installations.

Entrants were tasked with designing “playful” temporary installations to encourage people to brave the chilly outdoors and interact with the icy environment.

The judges selected submissions that open up the waterfront landscape and reinvent the space for visitors, with thought put into how materials may be re-purposed or reused in future iterations.

One of five winning designs chosen out of hundreds of proposals, the ‘I see You Ashiyu’ installation, which was created by Asuka Kono and Rachel Salmela from Toronto, used the idea of the Japanese hot spring and warm water to provide physical relief from the cold and tackle the winter blues.

By creating a landscape-based gathering space on the beach, it emphasised the contrast in the seasons and evoked memories of summer.

Toronto tackles winter blues with 8 thought-provoking beach installations