HOTHUT

Styrofoam and polyurea (hut); steel and plywood (skid), 16' x 8' x 10'

Festival Warming Huts, The Forks, Winnipeg, 2012

The individual is not an autonomous, solitary object but a thing of uncertain extent, with ambiguous boundaries. Kengo Kuma

The beautiful has but one type, the ugly has a thousand. The fact is that the beautiful, humanly speaking, is merely form considered in its simplest aspect in its most perfect symmetry, in its most entire harmony with our make-up. Thus the ensemble that it offers us is always complete, but restricted like ourselves. What we call the ugly, on the contrary, is a detail of a great whole which eludes us, and which is in harmony, not with man but with all creation. That is why it constantly presents itself to us in new but incomplete aspects. Victor Hugo in “Preface to Cromwell" (1827)

HOTHUT is a project for the Festival Warming Huts v. 2012. The project is a collaboration between Eduardo Aquino and Karen Shanski and all the students participating in the Superficial Studio, Department of Architecture, University of Manitoba. Superficial Studio is a laboratory to understand the contemporary city, exploring and developing architectures that are critical of the accelerated and often unmeasured urban development. Working collaboratively through analogical models, this vertical studio—composed of both undergraduate and graduate students—proposes alternative hyper-architectures that seek a more balanced, more humanist response for our cities. HotHut is a natural extension of the studio investigation, as we understand the project as a microcosm of the city at large.

Charged with the task of designing a space that is warm, low-cost and of a limited size, we propose a warming hut made entirely of foam. Providing more than just warmth, HOTHUT is an exploration into foam’s inherent structural, visual and acoustic qualities as a way of intensifying the hut’s social and cultural experience. Carved from a solid block of foam, HOTHUT is a collection of body spaces that engage visitors. These experiential spaces are not imposed on, but rather derived from the human body. Experiences such as sitting, leaning, standing, kissing, looking through, meeting, stretching are examples of what give HOTHUT form. HOTHUT playfully questions the relationship between empty and full, positive and negative, and inside and out. For example, spaces to rest and escape from the wind are carved from the foam in ways that feel both inside and out. As a result, visitors can wholeheartedly engage the hut while remaining connected to nearby activities along the Assiniboine River.

HotHut Team | Superficial Studio_ Eduardo Aquino and Karen Shanski with Mari Aguirre, Luis Miguel Ortiz Barragan, Mallory Briggs, Erin Crawley, April David, Jeff Del Buono, Paul Dolick, Lori Fossum, Jon Granke, Calee Gushuiak, Taylor Hammond, Beth Hicks, Nicole Hunt, Mackenzie Loewen, Matthew Trendota, Tracey Umali, Mark Van Dorp, Souk Xoumphonphackdy, and Gordon Yiu.

Partners Program U of M | Doug Clark & Brandy O’Reilly

Department of Architecture U of M | Frank Fantauzzi

AMC Foam Technologies | Tom Smerchanski, Dinu Paraschiv & Kevin Rosger

CAST - Centre for Architecture Structures and Technology U of M | Mark West

Department of Design Engineering U of M | Ron Britten

Thank you: Peter Hargraves, Paul Jordan, Dave Pancoe, Chris Schanck, Lancelot Coar, Patrick Harrop, Ronnie Araya, Jeff Garcia, Jae Sung Chon, Leah Defoort, Daniella Mandarano, Kim Bamburak, Veronica Angelatos, Scott Normand, Zach Nimchuk, Brad McGregor, Brad LaFoy, Ralph Stern, and Robbin Watson.