Cool Gardens is a design competition and curated public exhibition of contemporary garden installations presented by Storefront Manitoba. Cool Gardens 2025 invites proposals by individual artists/designers or teams for temporary garden installations in consideration of thematic prompts including sustainable material sourcing, material and ecological lifestyle,
Brief
For over 10 years, Cool Gardens has commissioned temporary installations by architects, landscape architects, designers, and artists. These pieces instigate curiosity and play while simultaneously promoting public engagement with designed landscapes. The temporary gardens demonstrate how critical and poetic interventions in public space can meaningfully affect people’s experiences of urban environments.
This competition takes place across Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, within Treaty 1 Territory and the homeland of the Red River Métis. The 2025 edition will include up to five (5) new competition winning garden installations, as well as new sites reaching across Winnipeg. Sites for Cool Gardens 2025 stretch from Graham Avenue into Osborne Village and additionally extend to Assiniboine Park. Participants will be prompted to specify which site their proposal addresses, as well as any other sides for which they would like to be considered.
Installation Requirements & Conditions
- Installations must be resilient to weather conditions from June to October 2025
- Installations shall not require significant excavation, sub-surface
foundations or permanent damage to existing infrastructure - Installations must consider the unique logistical constraints outlined in each site information package (i.e. anchor points, sources of electricity, pedestrian rights-of-way)
- Winning teams/individuals must manage installation and deinstallation within the allotted timeframes, including accounting for associated labour, decommissioning and site restoration costs
- At least one member of each winning team must be in Winnipeg during the June 2025 Installation Period
- Cool Gardens 2025 winning teams must observe and therefore abide by the requirements of Storefront Manitoba partners and site hosts
Budget
F
- $2,000 CAD Honorarium (per team)
- Up to $10,000 CAD for
materials/fabrication/installation (jointly managed with Storefront Manitoba)
Eligibility
- Cool Gardens 2025 is open to local, national and international teams and individuals
- Participants may be designers, architects, landscape architects and/or visual artists
- Individuals may be students, interns or practitioners
- Participants may submit multiple times
