Poles

Poles

Toronto

Especially in the winter months, when the city’s trees are barren, Toronto can feel markedly drab. The visual homogeneity of the city’s pervasive greyness undoubtedly contributes to symptoms associated with Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD).

Further contributing to this condition is the dense presence of hydro utility poles, telephone lines, streetlight standards, and streetcar power infrastructure, which occupy much of the public realm and line many pedestrian walkways. It is estimated that Toronto contains approximately 185,000 utility poles, 80,000 streetlight standards, and up to 140,000 poles carrying telephone and telecommunications infrastructure. While overhead utility poles represent a simple and economical engineering solution for power and communications distribution, they stand in contrast to the more costly underground and integrated servicing systems found in many other world cities, or even more locally within Toronto neighbourhoods such as the Junction, where services are buried.

“Colour is a power which directly influences the soul.”
— Wassily Kandinsky

This small speculative design project proposes, in a minimal and economical manner, to inject colour into the urban fabric. Rather than fantasizing the removal or nonexistence of existing infrastructure, the proposal works directly with the city’s ubiquitous wood utility poles—strategically painting them in bright colours to punctuate the streetscape like musical sforzandi: brief, vivid accents that enliven an otherwise muted composition.

Credits

Weiss Architecture and Urbanism
Kevin Weiss – Principal

Collaborator: Elio Weiss