Get cozy in the latest Warming Huts winning designs

It's already that time of year for Manitoba's highly anticipated Warming Huts competition! Recently concluding its 2017 edition, the competition invited architects to submit their most innovative designs for a temporary winter-hut installation. Once the winners are selected, they travel to Winnipeg near the end of January to bring their warming huts to life, and for all to enjoy during the winter months.

Every year brings out a varied mix of proposals. This year's competition concluded with three winners, a special invited installation by esteemed artist Anish Kapoor, and another installation designed by Winnipeg-based high-school student Sean Kohli from Nelson McIntyre Collegiate.

Have a look at this year's winning designs below.

Winner: “Greetings From Bubble Beach” by Team 888 from Chicago, Illinois

Project description: “Modeled after an inverse snow globe, Greetings From Bubble Beach is a lively and warm retreat on cold winter days. The transparent geodesic dome with colorful panels creates a “bubble” of warmth set on a wood pedestal base. Once inside, the dome provides visitors respite from the chill of winter through the lens of the multi-colored, geometric dome shell. Relaxing deck chairs, a leaning palm tree, and a sand-like ground layer sprinkled with festive flamingos add vibrancy, playfulness, and encourage children and adults alike to linger and bask in the glow of “summer.” From the outside, Bubble Beach serves as a beacon of brightness and a pop of color against the monochromatic tones of winter, a welcome recess for hikers, bikers, skaters, and skiers.”

Winner: “Ice Lantern” by Lisa Tondino, Alexandra Bolen, Mathew Rodrigues & Drew Klassen from Nova Scotia, Canada

Project description: “Ice Lantern is an elemental design based on the archetype of the primitive hut. It is comprised of two main parts: a lantern hovers lightly above the snow, its white glow beckoning skaters, skiers, bikers and pedestrians to warmth; and an iglu snow-mound structure holds the lantern in place, owing to the weight of the snow and ice. The snow-mound also functions as a gathering space, a naturally insulated dugout with built wood-bench seats. A sliver-sized break between snow and sky frames the horizon for hut visitors. Open ventilation at the top of the lantern invites users to gaze up to the stars and clouds. Soft light is cast upward as well as out against the nylon fabric, animating Platonic shadows that allow the observer to contemplate universals which cannot be perceived directly.“

Winner: “Open Border” by Joyce de Grauw & Paul van den Berg from Rotterdam, Netherlands

Project description: “Open Border is a radical intervention in the landscape, a straight wall perpendicular to the long, linear skating trail on the Assiniboine River. The red wall can be seen from far in the contrasting white landscape. The wall creates a strong visual border. However, the warming hut is physically accessible over the entire width. Open Border has a narrow interior space where visitors can take shelter and warm-up. Once accessed, visitors become part of a fully red world. The transparent, red facades are made of insulating and draft-resistant strips, so warmth is held together. The sunlight creates a red, glowing effect on the surrounding snow. The interior walls are made of transparent, colored strips that create a series of contiguous spaces. In the middle of the hut the spaces are large, so skaters can easily pass. Towards the edge of the river the colors are warmer, the spaces smaller and the atmosphere more intimate.”

Special Additional installation: “On The Rails” by Sean Kohli, student at Nelson McIntyre Collegiate in Winnipeg, Manitoba

Project description: “As part of the Propel Program at Nelson McIntyre Collegiate, Sean Kohil will be bringing to life the history of The Forks site during the railway era. Over the past year, this high school student has been working on the design and will be building it over the next few months so visitors can experience it on the Red River Mutual Trail come January.”

Invited submission: “Stackhouse” by Anish Kapoor

Anish Kapoor is regarded as one of the most influential sculptors working today. Born in Bombay in 1954 and now based in London, Kapoor has designed numerous projects like Cloud Gate (2004) at Chicago's Millennium Park and Orbit for the London 2012 Olympic Park, and has had solo exhibitions at several leading institutions worldwide. He was elected Royal Academician in 1999, awarded the Premium Imperiale in 2011, and the Padma Bhushan in 2012. He was knighted in the Queen’s Birthday Honours in 2013.

All images courtesy of the Warming Huts competition.