West 8 + DTAH’s recently completed Spadina Wave Deck for Waterfront Toronto has been nominated for this year’s Brit Insurance Design Awards. Brit Insurance Design Awards is the Design Museum London’s annual exploration of the most innovative, interesting and forward looking new work in design of all kinds.

Selected from around the world, Brit Insurance Design Awards presents around 100 projects nominated by a group of internationally respected design experts, curators, critics, practitioners and enthusiasts. These projects fall within seven categories: architecture, fashion, furniture, graphics, interactive, product and transport. An international jury, chaired by Alan Yentob and including the designer and environmentalist Karen Blincoe and the architect Peter Cook, will select category winners as well as an overall winner.

The shortlist will be on show at the Brit Insurance Designs of the Year Exhibition from 12 February until 14 June 2009. The category winners will be announced on 24 February and the overall winner will be awarded at the Awards Dinner on 18 March at the Design Museum London.

You will be able to vote on the blog for your design of the year: www.designsoftheyear.com.

Some information about the nominated project:

‘Spadina WaveDeck is the first in a series of timber structures that explore variations of a simple articulation in the change in level between Queens Quay Boulevard and Lake Ontario along the Toronto Central Waterfront. Responding to the current pinch-points where the streetscape meets the water’s edge, a new public space gateway is created where the city kisses the lake, inspired by the sinuous contours of the shoreline of the Canadian lakefront.

The geometry of the WaveDeck is carefully conceived using playful curves that are constantly changing to create ledges for seating and new routes to access the water’s edge. It allows for different vantage points and ultimately different experiences with both the lake and the city.’

The project is part of the first phase of implementation of a strategic masterplan for the Toronto Central Waterfront prepared by West 8 + DTAH, see also: www.west8.nl.

To see all other nominees in the categoy Architecture visit: www.designsoftheyear.com.