-
- Ice Palace
- ::
- Winnipeg, Canada. 2012.
- ::
- Ice caves of the Polar Regions are a rare treat for those who travel there. Created by hundreds of years of accumulation and erosion to enter an ice cave is to be surrounded by transparent walls and to be immersed in color, a color that only huge quantities of compacted ice can produce. Our warming hut attempts to get close to this intense environment by creating vertical thick walls of dyed ice. These walls are created using a unique building technique utilizing membranes, water, air and Winnipeg’s uniquely cold environment. With this technique we can create color and spatial effects unattainable using more typical ice techniques such as those used in igloos. By changing the way that we build with ice our incremental process allows us to transform the heavy weight of hundreds of gallons of water into a light filled luminous volume, where the surrounding changing environment will influence the hut’s appearance, glow, color and atmosphere. Once inside the soaring space light will dance across and through the frozen surfaces highlighting ice’s crystalline structure creating patterns and distorting views. It will feel as though you have entered a cathedral of ice.
Built primarily of water, the pavilion will return to the river next to which it sits at the end of the season, creating maximum affect with a minimal impact.
