Montreal-based studio Daily tous les jours has completed a public space design in Cambridge, Ontario, Canada. Titled 'River Lines,' the project saw the creation of an interactive stage in an urban plaza for big impromptu musical ensembles.

Video credit: doublespace photography

Part of the studio’s wider Musical Pavement series, the interactive wave-patterned pavement is embedded with 62 sensing light rings that “get people moving through musical collaboration exercises.” The infrastructure is formed of twelve in-house tailored audio tiles that have no visible hardware and blend with the wider pavement pattern, meaning “music emanates from the ground as if by magic.”

Located on the site of a 19th-century foundry, the artwork is “a response to the historical nature of the site” and “an exemplar of how investment in the public realm is essential to reimagine and activate places and encourage collective interactions,” according to the team.

As feet or wheels are placed on a light ring, a note is sounded. Different instrument variations are assigned to various positions across the pavement’s surface, including kalimba, piano, guitar, kora, harp, and violin, resulting in visitors playing “arpeggiated clusters of notes.” Meanwhile, a large screen overlooking the plaza plots players’ movements on an animated map.

The landscape is one of several completed Canadian projects to have recently featured in our editorial. Last week, we reported on a coastal Nova Scotia home that “emerges from rocky terrain,” while earlier this month, we covered a series of rural Canadian camping shelters centered on “intimacy, minimalism, and immersion.” In January, StudioAC showcased an “unapologetically contemporary” home in Toronto, while in November 2023, we reported on a major renovation of Montreal’s historic Maisonneuve Library.