Winning designs for 2015 warming huts unveiled

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This article was published 26/11/2014 (4212 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The warming huts are back.

The Forks unveiled winning designs from famous architects and students alike for this winter’s Warming Huts 2015, a main feature on the Red River Mutual Trail.

“The international scope of this competition is really quite amazing,” said Paul Jordan, Chief Executive Officer of The Forks Renewal Corporation.

The sixth annual competition stands out this year because three of the installations that aren’t huts.

“With the competition being in its sixth year, an art installation category was added to the contest to allow for more unique designs,” reporters were told at a press conference Wednesday.

One, from a Norwegian firm that aced a winning entry in 2012, will feature a gigantic ice sculpture of a fish and a fishing rod. To get the scale of the design entitled “This Big,” the local production firm that works with visiting architects expects to use a telephone pole for the rod.

“It’s interesting, every single one of them has been exuberant about coming here in January in the coldest week of the year and we deliberately chose that week because it is the coldest week of the year,” Jordan told reporters.

For the first time, local high school students will design a hut.

Kelvin High School students will put together a hut that is reminiscent of the train engine that’s showcased at Assiniboine Park. The other student entry is from the stalwart entrant, the University of Manitoba, back this year with a mirrored cube. It’s a playful voyeuristic design to reflect images around it, including yours if you ski or skate up to it.

The length of the trail varies each year, depending on ice conditions. The Guinness Book of World Records recognized it as the longest skating rink in the world in 2008 when it extended 8.5 kilometres along the Assiniboine River and one kilometre on the Red.

RAW:almond will be back this year, bringing their unique restaurant to the trail. A separate competition in mid-August brought in submissions from around the world for the 2015 design.

Also returning will be the music series, with University of Manitoba musicians who make appearances along the trail at the huts.

Construction is expected to start in early January and weather permitting, the huts will be on the trail by the third week of January.

The huts are a highlight of The Forks programming for the Arctic Glacier Winter Park, which also includes the Plaza skating rink, an Olympic sized skating rink, 1.2 kilometres of ice trails, a snowboard park and a toboggan run.