WHAK

Student design-build pavilion on the Red River in Winnipeg

Year: 2019

Team: Instructed by Chad Connery with Eduardo Aquino Terri Fuglem, and Liane Veness at the University of Manitoba Faculty of Architecture.

Student team of Danna Ambrosio, Breanne Baydock, Johanna Besiata, Daniel Brosas, Patricia Buen, Romilie Calotes, Caelan Chornoboy, Leah Dingman, Jeramee Fajardo, Caitlin Ferris, Tomik Gharagyozyan, Braden Goodall, Paul Hanbury, Hanna Hendrickson-Rebizant, Kayla Heppner, Jaden Janzen, Nicholas Krahn, Alixa Lacerna, Rachel Laird, Andrew Lawler, Ziling Li, Zhongbai Lin, Rylan Lucyk, Stephen Meijer, Tymon Melnyk, Michele Palmieri, Claudia Parrott, Cait Pele, Ashley, Polet, Meghan Pratt, Jae Rivera, Coral Ross, Emma Ross, Meghan Ryan, Stephanie Schau, Alex Squire, Paul Susi, Irena Tonnu, Serena Tonnu, Sean Vandekerkhove, Emily Will, and Yan Wu.

Publications: 2019 Winnipeg Architecture Foundation _"WHAK: Warming Hut for Anish Kapoor" Edited by Alixa Lacerna, Irena Tonnu, and Serena Tonnu

WHAK (Warming Hut for Anish Kapoor) is an art pavilion constructed on the frozen Red River in Winnipeg as part of the annual Warming Huts: Art + Architecture Competition. Developed as a design-build collaboration with undergraduate students at the University of Manitoba Faculty of Architecture.

WHAK explores architecture as a responsive vessel for art, using simple materials and calibrated sequences of compression, expansion, and illumination to produce a choreographed spatial experience. It’s stark material contrast organizes the experience: a white exterior camouflages the structure within the snow-covered river landscape, while a compressed matte-black interior produces a controlled viewing environment.

Influenced by Anish Kapoor’s explorations of reflection, perception, and viewer integration, the pavilion translates these qualities through a carved ice lens to introduce diffused ambient light from below.