Christopher Loofs, OU’s Robert L. Wesley Teaching Fellow, recently won the 2025 Warming Huts: Art + Architecture Competition in Winnipeg, Canada with his practice Unearthed Practice. This is the second time that the Unearthed Practice team led by Christopher Loofs and Jordan Loofs has won this competition, and the third time any team has won multiple times in the competition’s history. Started in 2009, Warming Huts: An Art + Architecture Competition on Ice melds world-class design and art with Winnipeg’s famous winters. The competition has seen entries from across the globe and caught the attention of international architecture publications, as well as admiration from newspapers such as the New York Times.
Warming Huts is an open competition, supported by the Manitoba Association of Architects. Once entries are submitted, a blind jury selects designs that best “push the envelope of design, craft and art.” The competition is hosted by The Forks and sited on the Nestaweya River Trail. Every winter the river freezes, turning it into an amenity for residents. The Warming Huts produced by the competition give people a place to rest and give them a break from the bitter cold.
Unearthed Practice design team: Christopher Loofs, Kaci Marshall, and Jordan Loofs.
Unearthed Practice’s winning design, Wrong Turn, features a toy-like Acadian Canso, half-sunk through thin ice – a striking visual metaphor for climate change. A step inside offers shelter from the cold and is complete with two seats to rest before River Trail adventurers continue their journey on the ice. Wrong Turn was constructed in collaboration with Sputnik Architecture and Anvil Tree Inc.
Wrong Turn, designed by Unearthed Practice. Photography courtesy of Jordan Loofs.
The interior of Wrong Turn, designed by Unearthed Practice. Photography courtesy of Jordan Loofs.
Winning teams were invited to Winnipeg to help complete construction of their projects and install them on the Nestaweya River Trail. Several days of activities were planned around the celebration of the new huts with the design and construction teams.
These events included speaking engagements, to both members of the public and students at the University of Manitoba Faculty of Architecture, a lunch with local K-12 students, and press events with the other winning teams. These events were intended to provide the opportunity for visitors to The Forks to engage directly with the design teams.
Learn more in the video below.
Robert L. Wesley, a pioneering architect and beloved mentor, has died at age 88. A graduate of the University of Oklahoma, Wesley joined Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM) in 1964 and became the firm's first Black partner in 1984. Throughout his career, he contributed to significant architectural projects while maintaining a strong commitment to civic engagement and professional mentorship.
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University of Oklahoma Gibbs College of Architecture Dean Hans E. [PA1.1]Butzer returned to one of his most significant works on December 15, joining survivors and past and present board members for the groundbreaking of a $15.8 million expansion of the Oklahoma City National Memorial & Museum.
