McGill student team wins first prize at Ice Hotel

The McGill team of Maha Benhachmi (U2), Muye Ma (U2) and Mahya Sabour (U3), with the assistance of Luis Alvarez (BSc[Arch] 2015), won first prize in the Architecture Éphémère competition at the Ice Hotel outside Quebec City at the opening celebration on Friday, January 15.  A total of 32 teams from the universities of Laval, McGill, Montréal and UQAM submitted design panels to the competition, of which three were chosen to be built as theme rooms.  First prize was awarded to the McGill team for their room Courant Céleste, while second went to Laval (Refuge aux castors) and third to UQAM (Au coeur de la mêlée).  (The Ice Hotel sculptors of the room modified the McGill design in their execution, inverting the scheme, to reduce the risk of water infiltration.)