This competition sought ideas for the creation of lakefront kiosks along the Chicago lakefront. The kiosks
would function as retail or restaurant spaces for various recreational areas along Lake Michigan. The goal
of the competition was to produce a built prototype for the Biennial, with the potential for mass production
of the kiosk in the future for actual use. Along with budget, schedule, durability, contextual and aesthetic
considerations, a primary criterion for judging is that the design must consider the year-round presence
of the kiosks in the cityscape.

The design process for the “Snow Cairns” began with the off seasons primarily in mind. These are times at
which the kiosks, being inactive, would function purely as sculpture, as pure interventions in the cityscape.
The kiosk consists of a steel ‘barrel’ frame clad in salvaged wood dimensional lumber, with a central steel
mast. This mast supports four expanded metal-clad detachable discs. In the wintertime these discs collect
snow, forming a sculpture whose materials are steel, wood and weather. In the summer the discs can be
removed from the mast, tranforming the kiosk into a lighter, more carefree sculptural form.