British studio Pearce+ has created a temporary, inflatable structure for a pop-up restaurant as part of the RAW: Almond food festival in Winnipeg, Manitoba.
Named RAW: Almond 2025, the restaurant is the 10th annual installation initiated by local organisation RAW: Gallery of Architecture and Design to support the city’s winter tourism industry and highlight underused spaces around Winnipeg.
“For me, RAW: Almond embodies the core essence of community building – a fusion of temporary architecture and culinary arts that bring people together to share a meal, a table in a space that will never be again,” RAW: Almond co-founder Mandel Hitzer said.
“Temporary architecture and culinary arts share a common ethos, countless hours designing, building and finishing something that disappears as quickly as it was created.”
RAW: Gallery of Architecture and Design founder Joe Kalturnyk, a trained architect, teamed up with Pearce+ to create the temporary restaurant, which served 2,000 diners during the coldest part of Canadian winter.
The structure was composed of two parts: an 80-square-metre (860-square-foot) rectangular kitchen connected by a small vestibule to a 190-square-metre (2,045-square-foot) pentagonal dining room.
The doughnut-shaped dining room split open at the southern tip, opening the centre of the plan to visitors, who were ushered in by an outdoor fire pit. The central courtyard provided a refuge from the wind and added structural stability to the form.
Reusing elements from RAW: Almond 2024, the team stretched inflatable panels – a super-lightweight, golden skin developed in conjunction with British consultancy Inflate Studio – over a timber framework.
Faceted plywood that was sourced from rejected factory batches formed the inner and outer walls, which were sloped into diamond-shaped channels to direct snow load off the roof of the low-slung structure.
Inside, each section was independently inflated to protect from potential pressure drops. Natural light diffused from the side transparent panels and reflected off the gold coating of the ceiling to illuminate the 48-seat dining room.
Meanwhile, the fully outfitted kitchen was constructed with a flat-pack structural insulated panel system.
During the two-week construction period, the team experienced two feet of snowfall and wind chills of minus 47 degrees Celsius, but the unchangeable deadline prompted the team to work through the frigid weather, unveiling the structure on time with a blessing from a local Indigenous elder.
“Given temperature swings from plus six degrees Celsius down to minus 30 degrees Celsius in mere days, all fastenings had to be mechanical; adhesives and other fixings have been known to fail in such extreme conditions,” the team said.
At the end of the three-week run, the diamonds were deflated and stored to be used again in the future.
The small, angular restaurant was located at The Forks and juxtaposed by the Canadian Museum for Human Rights building, which is located immediately adjacent.
“The structure embraces the raw beauty of the frozen landscape while framing the museum as a backdrop,” Pearce+ director Owen Hughes Pearce told Dezeen.
“This relationship between the temporary and the permanent, the natural and the architectural, enhances the dining experience, offering guests a moment of connection with the landscape and the cultural significance of the site.”
Last year, Pearce+ used a lightweight Diagrid framework made with reinforced steel bars to create a vaulted linear dining room.
One of the earliest RAW: Almond pop-up restaurants was designed by OS31 on the frozen intersection of the Assiniboine and Red Rivers with an X-shaped structure that symbolised the rivers’ crossing.
The photography is by PJ Jordon, Pearce+ and Simeon Rusnak.
RAW: Almond 2025 took place from 23 January to 16 February in Winnipeg. For more information about events, exhibitions and talks, visit Dezeen Events Guide.
Project credits:
Project founders: Joe Kalturnyk & Mandel Hitzer
Architect/designer: Pearce+ and Joe Kalturnyk
Architect of record: AtLrg Architecture
Project management: Joe Kalturnyk
Structural engineers: Wolfrom Engineering
Inflatable specialists: Inflate Studio
Visualisations: Pearce+
Construction: RAW: Almond team, Pearce+
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