Sara Sara

Competition entry for Warming Huts 2012

Year: 2012

Team: Anca Matyiku, Takashi Iwasaki, Rachelle Lemieux, and Jon Reid

Publications:
“Groundbreakers: A Competition for Young Architects” in AIA YAF Connection, Asheville, USA (print & web)

“Sara Sara”, in Japanese, is “a sound of snow falling or drifting gently”.  The warming hut is a playful and curious engagement with the accumulation of nothingness that is snow. A wooden spine guides elastic ribs of fiberglass, which are clothed in quivering layers of mesh and warm-coloured translucent spheres.  Like an awkward creature, the hut allows snow to collect and permeate its bubbly skin, its body readjusting to the accumulated weight. The interior space, in a constant process of re-discovering itself, is shaped by the weight of the fallen snow and the weight of its temporary dwellers.  A suspended bench allows the visitor’s own body to affect that of the hut, providing a playful parallel between our physical presence and that of the fallen snow.  The returning wanderer discovers a new yet familiar experience; childhood reminiscences of glowing colours and frosty crystals.

“Sara Sara” is a competition submission for a warming hut along the skating path of the Assiniboine River in Winnipeg.