What is a Warming Hut competition?

Winnipeg is in Manitoba, a Canadian province. It holds an annual Warming Huts Competition. The contest, open to all, is held in winter, when hundreds of people skate down the 6-km-long Red River Mutual Trail. Participants have to construct a warming hut – a place for skaters to take a breather.

The project, started by architect Peter Hargraves in 2006, has thrown up some beautiful and unusual structures. A tropical-themed ‘reverse snow globe’, a huge tower made of stacked hay bales, a giant cocoa mug, a golden bison and a frozen, child-sized labyrinth, are some of the whimsical constructions inspired by the project.

The contest has attracted some big names, for instance, Canadian-born American architect Frank Gehry, whose firm made an igloo in 2012.

Hargraves didn’t want the huts to be too comfortable or people would stay put inside for long periods. So some of the huts are not exactly warm or even a hut. Red Blanket, in 2014, was made of long strips of red wool that skaters could wrap themselves in or swing around on!

 

Picture Credit : Google