Northern Voice

Skating Hut

Ramsay Lake | Sudbury, Canada

The city of Subury is built around Ramsey Lake. During winter this lake is turned into a skating path for the residents of the city. Every year the architecture students are asked to design skating huts for people to rest along the skating path. These sculptures need to consider human interactions and be built accordingly.

The theme for this year was winter. Thus, we designed our structure around the shape of the snowflake. A series of hexagonal wood arcs are rotated and repeated in order to create a tunnel. Between the arcs, wooden washers held by dowels create openings which let snow and light pass through. Benches are placed on each side to encourage face to face conversations. To be mindful of our environmental impact no screws or glue were used. The structure was constructed using only wooden joints.

Ojibwe words and a poem from a local poet are carved into the structure to connect the structure to the people that are using it. The poem (in french) reads :

Si nos maisons avaient une voix

Si nos maisons pouvaient chanter

Elles chanteraient nos vies et le pays, le notre, malgré tout

Mais les racines demeurent et temoignent de la génération des batisseurs de pays

Jean-Marc Dalpé, 1983

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