Manitoba. Canada
Warming hut Installation on ice. 2024
Design competition art & architecture on ice 2023. Realisation January 2024
concept: NNK.atelier. client: the Forks, Winnipeg execution: Anvil Tree, Sputnik Architects
…mounted on a sliding plate…a game, a shelter, a meeting place…
About the interplay with the public. About the journey the Spinning Dim Sum is undertaking by poeple slipping inside and flinging it across the ice. About drawing a trace of interaction into the landscape.
Felt capsules designed to provide shelter for three or four persons, sitting in a convivial circle, each having a small opening in the center facing the sky and waiting to be turned and turned mounted on a sliding plate….a game, a shelter, a meeting place. They are colored in a vibrant red on the outside, and covered with recycled felt in a warm gray tone on the inside. The 5 strips that overlap to form a dim-sum-like shape are loosely linked so that the construction remains flexible – A tightrope walk between fashion and architecture. Each gap can be stretched to be used as an entrance
Tributary of the Red River, Assiniboine River runs through the prairies of Western Canada, Saskatchewan and Manitoba. Assiniboine is the name of an Indian tribe and is derived from ‚assine‘ a stone and ‚bwan‘ native name of the Sioux, hence Stony Sioux name possibly given because they used heated stones in cooking their food. Winter temperatures drop to -20/-30 degrees. Deep layers of ice up to 1m depth in the cold season dissolve the separation by the river.
Where the opposite usually happens, winter brought people together in Winnipeg. Conditions turned the river into a historic indigenous meeting place dating back thousands of years. Even today, the site is a vibrant place of cultural exchange. The ice brings people together and
the river becomes a ski and skate path, enlivered by the installations of the art and architecture competition warming huts.
The interactive installation, Spinning Dim Sum, refers to this very history of the river.