If you like winter sports, you may love warming huts — but not as much as architects do, since the miniature shelters, providing respite from the cold, offer designers a covetable testing ground for experimentation and aesthetics.
Witness these egg-like ice shelters created by Czech design firm Mjölk Architekti, the winning design in the Warming Huts Competition in 2012, which perhaps unsurprisingly, is an annual event that comes courtesy of the Canadian government.
Mjölk just constructed an updated version of their winning “Polar Hens” concept for use by ice skaters and skiers in their hometown of Liberec, Czech Republic.
The pods are created in an ingenious (and perhaps inspirational) method: First, a heavy-duty balloon is blown up; next, it’s pelted with a huge amount of water, which is allowed to freeze around the balloon. At the end of the process, the balloon is deflated, leaving an ovoid shape — just big enough for a winter sportsman or two to catch a couple minutes out of the elements.
Do try this at home? We think so.
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