Northeast LRT Extension Public Art Project

Sumer Singh is a Calgary-based multidisciplinary artist whose work explores the intersection of ancestral craft and advanced fabrication. Rooted in a 500-year family history of blacksmiths, poets and artisans, his practice treats cultural memory as a living inheritance carried forward through contemporary tools, digital design and material exploration.

Formally trained as an artist, mechanical engineer and architect, Sumer founded his studio in 2013 as a materials-driven research lab exploring post-digital design. His early work in sculptural furniture and lighting grew into installations and public artworks that merge craft, digital design and hands-on fabrication. Sumer often experiments with materials — from transforming aluminum waste into new composite surfaces and adapting ancient techniques like scagliola using basalt and cement. His work brings together intuition, computational design and physical making.

His projects span personal collectible objects and large-scale public artworks. Across these different scales, he is most interested in how design can improve people’s lives, how things are made, how they endure and how they shape collective human experience. Structure, technology, light and material expression are deployed not only as formal devices, but as cultural signals, grounded in place, climate and social context.

Singh has exhibited internationally, including New York and Belgium, and has received awards such as Western Living’s Maker of the Year. His pieces have been acquired as far as Hong Kong, Saudi Arabia and across the Americas.

He teaches in the University of Calgary’s Master of Architecture program, mentoring emerging designers in experimental and integrated practice. His work continues to explore how ancestral craft knowledge and emerging technologies can come together to create culturally meaningful, materially expressive and technically innovative public experiences.

Instagram: @sumersinghstudio

Sumer Singh Studio is rooted in a 500-year lineage of artists, poets, blacksmiths and award-winning makers. This ancestry shapes my work as an active inheritance of craft, discipline and cultural memory. Making is in my bloodline, and my practice continues that tradition through contemporary tools, materials and design methodologies. 

With formal training in art, engineering and architecture, my studio operates at the intersection of post-digital design and advanced fabrication. Since founding the studio in 2013, it has developed into a materials-driven research lab where digital and physical experimentation inform one another. Tools like computation, simulation, rapid prototyping and hands-on fabrication all play a central role in how ideas take form. 

My work spans sculpture, placemaking, furniture, public art and large-scale installations. Regardless of size, each project begins with material exploration and a dialogue between digital precision and the unpredictability of real-world processes. I am interested in how structure, light and technology can shape collective human experience and how design can move beyond object-making and contribute meaningfully to shared space.

I see design as most meaningful when it is rooted in culture, supported by strong technical thinking and expressed through thoughtful use of materials. My practice brings together the sensibilities (or disciplines) of an artist, engineer and architect. Through this approach, Sumer Singh Studio continues to evolve as a multidisciplinary platform, pushing new forms of expression while honouring the generations of makers who came before.

Photo: Ian Purchase

Chinook Façade 
Mount Pleasant, Calgary. 
January 2025

Designed for a home that responds to Calgary’s distinctive Chinook winds, the Chinook Façade draws inspiration from local wind patterns. Digital simulations of these winds were used to create the flowing form on the building’s exterior.

Photo: Paige Fenton

Centre Street LRT Public Infrastructure
Centre Street LRT Station, Downtown Calgary.
January 2026

The Centre Street Project is inspired by Calgary’s landscape. This public installation offers a place to sit and rest for people passing through or waiting at the Centre Street LRT station. It works both as seating and as a recognizable landmark, inviting people to gather and interact with its playful and eye-catching design. 

Sumer joined the project with the Laboratory for Integrative Design as Computational and Fabrication Lead, contributing to the design direction while mentoring University of Calgary Master of Architecture students in early exploration. The infrastructure transforms existing parkade ventilation shafts into an inhabitable public element, serving as both a dynamic landmark and a moment of rest for thousands of daily commuters. Drawing from Alberta’s geological formations, the perforated surface shifts with light and movement, offering changing perspectives within the flow of transit.

Photo: Hayden Pattullo

Studio North – Garden Garage
Mount Royal, Calgary.
2021

Studio North brought Sumer on as a design collaborator and fabrication lead for their Garden Garage project. The team chose Corten steel because it weathers naturally over time and works well with the greenery around the home. The goal was to create something unique to the clients while feeling playful and connected to the landscape. The planters are placed at different heights to add movement and energy to the space.

Genesis Centre Sculpture
Genesis Centre, Calgary.
Ongoing

The Genesis Centre Sculpture was designed to bring people in Northeast Calgary together and serve as a shared community landmark. Developed in collaboration with the City of Calgary and Indigenous partners, it balances playfulness with respect and invites people of all ages to gather, reflect and spend time together. 

Photo: Isabelle Arthuis

New Primitives Lamp
Belgium/Calgary.
2019

The New Primitives Lamp is a one-of-a-kind design that explores digital and handmade processes. It uses aluminum left over from digital fabrication machines, combined with a steel frame, LEDs and metal mesh electrical cables. 

The form begins with simple shapes — a sphere and a cone — that were manipulated using photogrammetry 3D scanning software. By experimenting with these digital tools, the design transforms familiar shapes into something new and unexpected, drawing inspiration from surrealist ideas. 

We received 102 eligible applications from across Canada and internationally. Submissions were reviewed by an assessment committee made up of artists, arts professionals and technical experts with experience in public art and infrastructure projects.

The committee evaluated applications based on artistic merit, relevant experience and the ability to work collaboratively within a complex infrastructure context.

A shortlist of four artists was invited to participate in interviews. Following the interviews, the assessment committee made a recommendation for the lead artist role.

The City of Calgary is advancing the Northeast LRT Extension to expand transit access and support the continued growth of communities in northeast Calgary. This project includes the development of a new station plaza at 60 Street and 88 Avenue NE in Saddle Ridge, designed to support mobility, accessibility and everyday use for transit riders and the surrounding community.

As part of this project, public art is being integrated into the station plaza to create a space that is welcoming, accessible and reflective of the communities it serves. Embedding an artist early in the design process ensures that creativity and cultural relevance are part of the station’s foundation, rather than an addition after construction.

Through The City of Calgary’s Interdepartmental Public Art Team (IPAT), the project team partnered with Calgary Arts Development to lead the public art component of the Northeast LRT Extension. This includes selecting an artist to work directly with the design team and contribute to the development of a site-specific artwork for the plaza.

Calgary Arts Development issued an open call inviting professional artists and artist teams to apply for this opportunity. The selected artist collaborates with architects, engineers and the broader project team, while also considering community context, to develop an integrated public artwork.

Bringing an artist into the design phase supports a collaborative approach where public art is considered alongside architecture, landscape and engineering, helping to shape a cohesive and meaningful public space.