There are few symbols more Canadian than an igloo and Montrealer Eric Villiard wants to give more people the chance to build their own little houses out of snow.
Villiard is the inventor of Play Snow, a lattice of high-density plastic that makes building igloos that can hold up to 300 lbs easy.
“It works best when the snow is sticky, sometimes when it's dry it doesn't work,” said Villiard. “You take a shovel and put it on, or with your hands. It takes about 20 minutes.
“It’s very easy to assemble and you can connect the igloos with different tunnels,” he added.
Villiard is currently seeking investors and launched a recently-completed crowdsourcing campaign that raised over $22,000 in hopes of bringing Play Snow to market by next year.
The inspiration came from a childhood accident when Villiard tried to build an igloo the old-fashioned way.
“All of a sudden, in a matter of seconds, it collapsed onto me and I was stuck,” he said. “I couldn't even move a finger. Luckily my father was watching from the house and he came. He didn't even put his boots on and he saved my life that day, for sure.”
There are no statistics on injuries from snow structures but there is definitely danger, said Montreal Children’s Hospital Trauma Director Debbie Friedman.
“When you’re building forts, the key would be to not build tunnels and not build roofs to whatever they’re building,” she said. “Build walls not super high because you don’t want anything to collapse on them that could suffocate them.”
