visiondivision reinforce ice to create frozen flora teepees

visiondivision reinforce ice to create frozen flora teepees
all images courtesy of visiondivision

swedish architecture firm visiondivision have entered their design ‘frozen flora’ in the annual open art and architecture ‘warming huts competition’. the brief asked to create shelters along a skating trail on the assiniboine river in downtown winnipeg, canada, and their proposal consists of six ice teepees made from reinforced ice.

‘we wanted to create a unique local invention generated on site by a limited set of tools by pure man power and with no harmful waste. the cold climate, the river and the great scale and variety of canada became our point of departure in finding a suitable building technique.’ says visiondivision.

exterior perspective with morning frost

water is hand pumped on site from the river, then strengthened and refined with organic materials taken from six different time zones across canada, which are then blended into colorful ice-concrete. this technique was commonly used by native people of america, they typically made mixtures using sawdust and water to strengthen ice and make it resistant to melting.

looking inside the ontario beetroot teepee

the proposed structures can be made by two people without any energy consuming machines. the natural reinforcements transform the color of the water, using berries, flowers, vegetables, as well as strong fibers to help reduce their melting time. the final outcome is a cluster of six teepees with six different colors representing canada. on sunny days, a scent is produced by the melting water and when spring arrives, the tepees will gradually melt into each other and a blend of canadian colors and scents will eventually be a part of the river.

close up of the british columbia algae reinforcement

nighttime exterior perspective

plan

section showing the construction method

the different time zones across canada

designboom has received this project from our ‘DIY submissions‘ feature, where we welcome our readers to submit their own work for publication. see more project submissions from our readers here.