Winnipeg warming huts celebrate icy architecture

WINNIPEG – A simple structure is being celebrated in the snow.

Starting in 2009, the Manitoba Association of Architects has supported the Warming Huts: An Art + Architecture Competition on Ice, which brings designers from across the world together to compete against each other creating warming hut designs showcased in Winnipeg, Man.

Camille Nianchi and Ryder Thalheimer of Vancouver, B.C. won for The Trunk, which simulates a split-open, hollowed-out tree trunk. The other winners were Golden Bison by David Alberto Arroyo Tafolla from Morelia Michoacan, Mex. and Totem, from Architecture Office b210 of Tallinn, Estonia.

The 2018 invited guest hut was Temple of Lost Things by Winnipeg’s own Guy Maddin, a filmmaker and guest lecturer at Harvard University.

Winning entries are placed along the Red River Mutual Trail located on the Assiniboine and Red rivers in Winnipeg. The jury selects the winners based on “creativity in use of materials, providing shelter, poetics of assembly and form, integration with the landscape, and ease of construction,” explains the competition’s site.

A warming hut, commonly used for sports such as ice fishing, cross country skiing and ice skating, is a small structure used to hang wet gear, provide seating and often features a wood stove or fireplace.