Archinect - News

As permafrost thaws, Nunavut's capital city is racing against time to save its sinking homes

2018-05-10T20:36:00-04:00

It’s difficult to build new houses on thawing permafrost, and many existing houses have huge cracks in the foundations. It is also extremely expensive to ship materials in the Arctic, so the houses that are repaired and built must be planned very carefully. [...] Permafrost thaw is not a new problem; urban planners, architects, and builders have taken its volatility into account for decades in the Arctic. But climate change exacerbates existing permafrost issues—and it does so rapidly.

In this piece by Melody Schreiber, the Nunavut capital of Iqaluit isn't only dealing with scarce housing and soaring prices, many of the town's homes are sinking — or are at high risk — as the permafrost beneath them rapidly melts.

As officials turn to new solutions like thermosyphons, with climate change transforming the entire Arctic landscape, they're also planning for a future to only build on bedrock.

Haunting beauty: Alexander Gronsky photographs Russia's polluted North

2015-02-10T20:12:00-05:00

Russia’s northern cities are a triumph of will; grand settlements in the middle of snow and darkness where people are dwarfed by the outsized factories they’ve built and helpless next to the industrial waste those factories create. Photographer Alexander Gronsky’s images of Norilsk seem both close to reality and something out of a dream. [...] But at the same time it is a place of heart-wrenching almost Arcadian beauty. A place of pale skies and metallic rivers.

Make sure to also check out the other tales in Calvert Journal's excellent mini-series, "Six stories from the Russian North."

SALT festival celebrates arctic architecture in Sandhornøy, Norway

2014-08-29T21:16:00-04:00

Taking place on the island of Sandhornøy in the Arctic Circle region of Norway, SALT will host its opening festivities this weekend, starting August 29 to September 1. Founded in 2010 by acclaimed curator Helga-Marie Nordby and cultural entrepreneur Erlend Mogård-Larsen, SALT celebrates the rarely traversed arctic landscape and promotes Norway's contributions to art and design history.

This weekend's events include traditionally inspired architecture designed by Rintala Eggertson Architects.

Find out more on Bustler.

“Arctic Adaptations: Nunavut at 15” to represent Canadian Pavilion at 2014 Venice Biennale

2014-05-22T19:01:00-04:00

After being selected in a juried national competition back in March, the Arctic Adaptations: Nunavut at 15 exhibition will represent the Canadian Pavilion in the upcoming 2014 Venice Biennale. The timely exhibition will also mark the 15th anniversary of Nunavut, Canada's youngest territory.

Curated by Lateral Office of Toronto, "Arctic Adaptations" will examine the complex relationship that modernism has had with Nunavut's indigenous communities throughout the last century, and the innovative ways they have responded to those changes.

The exhibition will also showcase five themed proposals that explore the various aspects of Nunavut's evolving architectural, social, and cultural landscape. Each design team consists of a Canadian architecture school, a Canadian architecture office with extensive northern experience, and a Nunavut-based organization.

More details on Bustler.

bracket [goes soft]: Buoyant Light

2012-04-16T18:24:00-04:00

In anticipation of this week's event, Publish Or... bracket [GOES SOFT], we will be showcasing a piece from the book each day this week. We hope to see you this Thursday!

Buoyant Light
by Claire Lubell and Virginia Fernandez

The Canadian Arctic is a vast landscape, dotted with remote communities whose lives depend on natural cycles for subsistence. While imagining widespread distribution, Buoyant Light is sited in Igloolik, an Inuit community of 1600 at 70 degrees North with active creative and research programs. Like much of the Arctic, Igloolik is witness to acute changes in permafrost, sea levels and ice. As an island, it is particularly vulnerable to unreliable freeze-thaw cycles of the sea which directly affects safe hunting and traveling.

Image: View of Igloolik at night, illuminated on land and water by a distributed series of buoyant lights.

Buoyant Light consists of a balloon and a buoy which serve a dual function: to harvest solar energy, providing Iglooli...

Arctic Architecture: Svalbard

2012-04-09T13:30:00-04:00

Arctic Architecture: Svalbard is the first book in a series that will explore the inevitability of northward human migration, its impact on the landscape, and the possibility that sustainable architecture can accommodate human expansion while minimizing environmental damage. Additional volumes focusing on other Arctic locations are also planned. But your support for this first volume is critical.

I'm using Kickstarter to raise funds for participation in The Arctic Circle, a residency for artists, architects, and scientists that takes place in the Norwegian territory of Svalbard. During the residency, I plan to explore the landscape and existing settlements and use that research as the basis for a book, Arctic Architecture: Svalbard.

The book will include maps, diagrams, large-format photographs, and drawings that document the past and present, along with several theoretical projects that show how climate change might affect future settlement of this currently inhospitable landscape. Recent projects by Norwegian architecture firm Jarmund/Vigsnæs, as well as the "Doomsday Vault" in Longyearbyen, demonstrate how architecture in Svalbard is affected by geographic isolation and the extreme climate. I want to take these influences even further, exploring what the architecture of Svalbard could be like decades or even centuries from now.

With some scientists claiming th...