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This article was published 25/1/2019 (766 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
A winning entry in The Forks warming hut contest wants to lick you up.
Huttie, a character inspired by the retro cult kids' TV series, H.R. Pufnstuf, welcomes passersby with a bright-red tongue that waggles back and forth. Skaters pass through Huttie's mouth into a gingerbread-like house and rest on the tongue.
The design is by Jennie O'Keefe and Chris Pancoe of Winnipeg, one of three winners in the 10th international Warming Huts: An Arts + Architecture Competition on Ice.
It’s only the second time Manitobans have won the event.
Huttie, by Jennie O'Keefe and Chris Pancoe of Winnipeg, is one of three winners in the 10th international Warming Huts: An Arts + Architecture Competition on Ice. (Supplied)
The other winners are: Hoverbox, designed by Simon Kassner and Wilko Hoffmann at NAICE Architecture in Berlin; and Weathermen designed by Haemee Han and Jaeyual Lee from JAEMEE Studio in Jersey City, N.J.
The 10th anniversary edition of the open competition, presented by Artis REIT and supported by the Canada Council for the Arts and the Manitoba Association of Architects, was announced in July and received 221 submissions from 57 countries.
The winning designs, which provide much-needed shelter for skaters along the Red River Mutual Trail, will be among 17 in place by early next week, including some from previous years. A new addition this year is a one-room school house built by students of Tech Voc High School. It was commissioned by the Manitoba Teachers Society to commemorate the society's centennial.
To counter any suspicions that home-field advantage played a part in the Winnipeg entry's selection, the jury deliberated without any information on entrants' origins.
Finalist Arctic Topiaries was among the more curious concepts; topiary is the art of clipping shrubs or trees into ornamental shapes. In this case, it featured ice cut into what looks like pieces used in a board game.
Arctic Topiaries are in celebration of the Winnipeg Art Gallery Inuit Art Centre designed by Michael Maltzan Architecture in Los Angeles.
bill.redekop@freepress.mb.ca