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Warming Huts Competition, Winnipeg MB

February 2018

StudioVAM enters 2018 Warming Huts Competition

The excitement of an 8-year-old boy had at experiencing snow for the first time and wanting to build a giant snowball inspired this design. Paper snowflakes he made in school were the inspired the flakes.

Imagining a way to create the dome, an article about the Expo 67 US pavilion’s 50thanniversary inspired the geodesic dome concept. The Snowball is based on a 3-frequency geodesic dome where the triangles are connected only at the corners.  The nature of the dome is that the triangles are not entirely symmetrical, just as natural snowflakes.  

The base is made of river ice and the dome of plywood. The plywood is painted white with a foil lining on the interior to reflect the light and heat from the fire pit. The holes in the flakes allow daylight to enter and to allow the glow of the fire to radiate from the ball at night.

The prevailing winds in Winnipeg for January and February are primarily from the South and the Northwest.  The design is similar to an igloo and has wind breaks at the entry.  In order to minimize the wind entering the structure, the entry should face Southeast if on the North side of the river and Northeast if on the South side.

The dome is composed of 192 individual triangles. There is a repeating pattern of 16 triangles, composed of 5 different triangle shapes, rotated around to create a sphere.  

Three addition triangle shapes are required for the base of the sphere, so in total there are 8 different individual triangles that make up the 4 different snowflakes designs.

The wish is for Snowball to engage the river by carving the interior space 12” into the river ice, making the interior lower on the inside.  The ice carved away would then be incorporated into the base of the snowball. We understand this may be unfeasible, so we have presented the project as if the snowball were installed on top of the river to show that the design works this way as well.

The structure is 10’-6” high and has a diameter of 5’.  The ice base is 4’-0” high to provide a wind break for people sitting inside and the dome itself is 6’’-6” tall.  There are connectors imbedded in the ice that the dome is then bolted to. 

AIBC 100 Mile House Competition

April, 2012

StudioVAM Enters 100 Mile House Competition

The intent of the 100 Mile House competition was to design a 1500SF house on a typical Vancouver residential lot, having most if not all of the house components and materials sourced from a 100 mile radius of the city of Vancouver.

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The object was to design a modern house and not resort to making a cob or straw bale house, or similar. We wanted to design a place that would not be out of place in A Vancouver neighbourhood, and would not require many specialized skills to build.

While wood is a local material, it was decided to use reclaimed wood.  Reclaimed timbers are used for the structure, reclaimed decking for the roof, and reclaimed plywood for the sheathing.  Lath and plaster is used for the interior walls, as drywall is not manufactured within 100 miles.

Rammed earth is used for one wall and for the main floor and patio. It was used for only one wall due to the required thickness of the walls and the small lot size.

Wood doors and windows are used, as wood is a local material, and while PVC and aluminum windows are made within 100 miles, the raw materials are not. (Bauxite for aluminum comes from Australia for instance.)

Rainwater and grey water are stored on site.  Rainwater is collected from the roofs and grey water from sinks and tubs.  The rainwater is used for irrigation and the grey water for flushing toilets.

The site fence is unique. It uses 2' x 2' cuts of random sheet metal to make the panels of the fence.

It was quite interesting visiting local material recycling centres and seeing how many products, from finishing to electrical and mechanical, can be found locally.

Winnipeg Free Press - Perspective

December 4, 2005

Editor, Margo Goodhand
Some of the coolest and most creative plans to revamp Winnipeg are born in a frenzied, cluttered mess of studios in the University of Manitoba's architecture building. You've probably never heard of these plans, and you've probably shrugged off some of the ugly buildings, wacky intersections, and forsaken spaces students want to transform. How about levelling Confusion Corner and rebuilding it as a funky neighbourhood with an IKEA? How about a world-class aquatic recreation centre on the floodway? What if the grungy, leaky, scary pedestrian tunnels under City Hall became a vibrant walkway connecting far-flung parts of the Exchange District? While other cities have invested millions in beautiful, sometimes radical architecture, Winnipeg has lagged behind. But there are signs it might be catching up, according to David Witty, dean of the architecture faculty. The glassy Millennium Library, the Esplanade Riel and the burgeoning debate over what kind of suburb should be built in Waverley West has turned people's attention to good design, arguably for the first time since the turn of the last century. The U of M's would-be architects are quietly nudging that shift. The Free Press has chosen some of their most inventive design projects, five among hundreds, to highlight.
AN URBAN WASTELAND
CONFUSION Corner isn't just Winnipeg's worst traffic oddity. It's heartbreakingly wasted space nestled next to the third most densely populated urban neighbourhood in Canada. Everyone curses Confusion Corner's traffic, no one walks there, and there are no homes, even though it's surrounded by some of the city's most hopping neighbourhoods. Recent master's graduate Vivek Menon, now working for Winnipeg's MCM Architects, spent a year wandering the wasteland, chatting with city traffic engineers and planning a way to meld a major intersection with an infill neighbourhood that could better connect Osborne Village with Lord Robert and Riverview. Menon didn't necessarily want to fix the confusion, though, which has become one of Winnipeg's almost grudgingly beloved quirks. Instead, the crazy corner became the theme of a new neighbourhood. Menon settled on a roundabout with a 14-storey office tower in the centre. Below is an underground mall with parking, and around the circle is a cluster of Times-Square-like commercial developments such as an IKEA and an HMV. Nearby is a big bus depot that incorporates a rapid-transit line planned through the intersection. Townhouses and mixed-use buildings. that's offices or shops on the main floor and apartments or condos above, would fan out into the neighbourhood from the traffic circle, mixed with parks and bike paths. "It's not a formal grid pattern and it still keeps some of the character," said Menon. "It's sort of a more controlled confusion." Menon acknowledges it would take a lifetime to overhaul Confusion Corner. But if the city at least built the roundabout, using land it already owns, that could be the catalyst that creates a new neighbourhood.

Canadian Architect Magazine

June 2001

Canadian Architect Magazine

2001 Art of CAD Competition.

Honourable Mention:

Applied Dynamic: Mention

Vivek Menon, Winnipeg 

Black Ice 

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Clarke: While this entry was pretty shaky on execution there was definitely a sense of fun here that all too often eludes architectural representation. The best part about this submission was the exploration of the inhabitation and use of an environment. Working with limited tools, this video speaks to the issues of the project at hand, right down to the bumpy ride endured by the virtual passengers. 

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Macleod: Black Ice is a video that explains the design of an eight-car "ice train" for use on Manitoba's winter roads. While the video itself is neither slick nor smooth, it does tell a story about the design and how it is used. Too often architectural animations are little more than walkthroughs that show only the static characteristics of a space. This one took some chances to show more.