The Warming Hut

The warming hut project allowed 701 Architecture not only to design but also to build this small public shelter. It was a great experience to collaborate with friends and colleagues in the outdoor construction, to converse directly with the public as the hut began to take shape and to interact with the user as an observer while the shelter was engaged by the public along the skating trail.

The world famous ice skating trail on the Assiniboine River will benefit from imaginative, ephemeral, and whimsical warming huts posted along the length of the trail at one kilometer intervals. A series of ‘shacks’ evocative of the ubiquitous ice fishing shacks that dot the lakes and rivers of Canada throughout the winter, be created by teams of designers and corporate sponsors.

The warming hut alludes to historic voyageur or aboriginal constructions along the river with the use of the cedar cladding. The form of the ice cube warming hut is developed from the forms of the site by combining the square planters and triangular marker forms of the sun dial to make an angled cube. The cube is formed by a cedar fame work which is clad with cedar slats at regular intervals. There are window boxes which provide views of the river trial in both directions and a window box offering views back towards the legislature building. The interior is clad with a translucent core-plast panel. There is a solar panel which provides energy for the interior lights and because of the cubes transparent nature the illumination allows the cube to be a lantern or a beacon in the night.