Seven winning warming huts bring warmth to Winnipeg's skating trail

Seven winning warming hut designs were unveiled at The Forks and will be built and placed along the Nestaweya River Trail; judges selected finalists from more than 200 international submissions.

Seven warming huts were unveiled Friday at The Forks in Winnipeg. Organizers reported the designs will be built over the next week and then brought down to the Nestaweya River Trail along the Red and Assiniboine rivers. A panel of judges selected finalists from more than 200 submissions from around the world. The public is invited to watch the huts being constructed and to speak with the designers. Designs and contributors: - Moon Rabbit by Yu Liu (Shanghai) draws on ancient hare mythology to represent wisdom and good fortune. - Continuum: When Water Pauses and We Move by Franziska Agrawal (Munich) is a 30-metre passageway of compacted snow arches to be set up on the ice where the Red and Assiniboine converge. - Dram: As the Cold Answers by Noël Picaper (Paris) and Joffrey About (Brussels) is a metal structure that includes a weather vane and a suspended tree trunk that serves as a gong. - Wildlife Scramble, designed by a U.S. team, uses interactive wooden blocks and bench seating to spotlight local plants and wildlife. - Three local designs were selected: Travel Manitoba’s heart-shaped Canada’s Heart is Calling; Warm Up With a Great Book, created by Grade 7 students from Bison Run School and including a free library; and Bridge-Stairs for John Hejduk from University of Manitoba faculty, a scaffolding-based design meant to frame nearby landmarks. - The student project worked with Sputnik Architecture and builder Anvil Tree, and students described the process from drawing to building. Summary: The seven new huts expand the program of winter shelters along the skating and multiuse trail at The Forks and offer places to pause during outdoor winter activity. Construction is scheduled to continue over the coming week, after which the completed huts will be moved to the trail for the season.