
The Warming Huts competition called for a collaboration between artists, architects and designers to put forward ideas for shelter and to be constructed along the Assiniboine River in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. Noa Biran and Roy Talman submitted the Woodpile, an interactive and practical shelter, that responds to both the needs required by the climate and its users.
More on this project after the break.

Woodpile responds to the most elementary of acts used for producing heat: a fire. The proposal serves as a space for the act, by providing material to burn and providing a space for that act. The hut’s walls are constructed as a spatial metal frame which contains firewood, which can be added and removed from the interior and the exterior through the slots in the frame.

The spatial qualities change as the seasons change. When wood is stocked for the coming cold weather and the walls are filled to their maximum with firewood, the hut is an enclosed space with little visibility and transparency. The cracks between the firewood, and the smoke that rises from the roof, can provide outsiders a peek into the campfire being held inside.

As warm weather approaches, the stock of wood will diminish and gradually reveal the interior spatiality to the outside. The metal frame will eventually be a naked construction whose interior spatiality will extend into the surroundings.
- Courtesy of Noa Biran + Roy Talmon
- Courtesy of Noa Biran + Roy Talmon
- Courtesy of Noa Biran + Roy Talmon
- plan 01
- elevation 01
- elevation 02
- section 01
- plan + section + elevation









it is a real copy for Herzog and de Meuron for dominus estate!!
booooo
It’s not a copy. You can’t focus only on that visual effect of this project.
I didn’t realize basalt rocks were flammable. By the way, did Herzog and de Meuron invent gabians?
So every filled framework is now a copy of herzog and the meuron? So stupid..please think twice before posting a reply.
Nice concept for a funproject like this.
This is a wonderful project. I love its simplicity and use of materials. It is definitely not a copy of the Herzog and de Meuron winery…
Check out the Holcim Awards for Sustainable Construction: http://on.fb.me/holcim-awards
Would love to build something like this where i live in Australia, were it not for the fact that it would be a perfect place for snakes to live!
love it though…
While this design is rather nice to look at, practically speaking, it really does not offer enough protection to survive a Winnipeg winter.
The “this looks like that, this copied that” are usually from real bad designers or those still in school. Even worse it points out that today’s designers are visually over stimulated.
Its more about the concept. Out of all the winners I find this one the best for its beauty and poetics. Its a temporary structure where do the materials go? This project took the time to ask that question and not make another one of those pavilions we all see that are more like fetishized monuments. GOOD WORK!
is it safe to stay in a dry winter? how about the affection of snow and rain to those firewood?
No rain here in winter (unless you count freezing rain). This design is disappointing in that it is executed with complete disregard for how windy it gets here.
The winds will whistle through this structure and make it uncomfortable regardless of the poetic aspirations.
One solid panel oriented toward the North/ Northwest would have addressed this.
Here is another filled frame work:
http://pollstrahle.blogspot.com/2010_12_01_archive.html
Looks a bit like this:
http://pollstrahle.blogspot.com/search/label/Master%C2%B4s%20Thesis