Intelligent design

If fervent wishes are answered and Mother Nature sends snow down in piles, here is a hint: Head for the Charles H. Scott Gallery on Vancouver’s Granville Island.

From January 20 through March 7, the gallery is home to High Performance: Evolution and Innovation in Canadian Design, an exhibition that features a carefully selected assortment of sports and recreation products designed for — and inspired by — the Canadian environment.

Winter’s icy influence is clear as soon as you enter. Snowshoes, from the old-fashioned wood-and-gut version to the latest in high-tech carbon fibre, hang from the exhibit’s wooden centerpiece and a sled fresh from the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race sits in a corner. Gallery and High Performance curator Greg Bellerby has assembled a range of products and designs that have evolved from traditional techniques, often taking on beautiful new forms as they are refined by trial and error in the Canadian outdoors.

Among High Performance's smart delights is a kayak shaped much like its Inuit-built forebears, but this one is made of space-age fabric stretched across a lightweight metal frame that can be taken apart and packed like a tent.

"A good way to think about this exhibit is in terms of challenges and enticements," says Bellerby. "The environment can be harsh and a challenge, but it can be enticing as well — you want to be out there enjoying it."

Not all of the products here are made for ice and snow, but the cold does have a way of insinuating itself. A Canadian-made baseball bat used by slugger Barry Bonds to set his home-run record and a line of curvy skateboards from Nova Scotia were manufactured using eastern maple, a tree rarely found outside Canada's borders. Its wood is inherently springy thanks to harsh winters that make the wood hard and dense.

For urban adventurers more used to concrete than frozen tundra, High Performance also features a series of bicycle-related designs, from an amazingly lightweight road-racing frame to a commuter system that connects rental bikes to docking stations powered by solar panels and wireless technology. “It’s a design and a system that changes the way we perceive the urban environment and how we interact and move through a city,” says Bellerby.

Fittingly, High Performance features some high-tech engineering of its own. The curving wooden structure at its core was created using 3-D modelling software and can be reconfigured and reused. It was designed by Bellerby, Campos Leckie and Oliver Neumann in collaboration with the University of British Columbia and University of Toronto schools of architecture.

“High Performance: Evolution and Innovation in Canadian Design” runs from January 20 to March 7, noon to 5 pm (Monday to Friday) and 10 am to 5 pm (weekends) at the Charles H. Scott Gallery, Emily Carr University, 1399 Johnston Street, Granville Island, Vancouver; admission is free.

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