[BASK]ET
Partner's Program Warming Hut
U of M Fall Term 2015
Group Members: Ting Ting Ng, Alyssa Magas, Sum Yu Lee, Kassandra Swan, Tyler Jones and Mamie Griffiths
Basket hut weaves together concepts of warmth and community. Using these principles along with low-tech energy solutions, Basket utilizes an innovative paneling system. These panels, known as Thermo-Tec, are both structural and heavily insulated. Masking these panels is a façade of intertwined ropes that give the structure a lightness and transparency that betray its thick walls. The façade becomes an interactive and playful element allowing skaters and passersby to hang winter accessories within its entwined filaments.
This allows it to become a growing repository for the lost and found mittens and gloves of Winnipeg. Enveloping warmth is created as the winter and subsequent seasons progress.
A key design strategy and generator of form is a large south-facing window on the hut. The orientation of the window to an appropriate winter angle of the sun optimizes the solar gain to create a comfortable space. Penetrating solar energy is absorbed and radiated by a thermal mass in the form of communal seating. Utilizing this construction technique provides an effective form of passive energy gain.
Supplementing the main passive system with a more active system further supports the aim of Basket as being a 'warm' warming hut.The active system, also rooted in sustainable practice, consists of interior lighting powered by a photovoltaic panel. This system adds to the sense of warmth through both light and heat. The large thermal mass inside the hut is central and communal, encouraging people to congregate and interact with each other while seeking refuge from the cold.