The igloo is surely one of the finest — and earliest — examples of modernism the world has ever seen. Louis Sullivan may have coined those famous words ‘form ever follows function’ back in 1896, but the Inuits of the Arctic North have been putting that principle into practice in Alaska, Canada, and Greenland for thousands of years. Formed using a single tool, one construction material, and the simple properties of compressive strength, the domed structure is a stunning exemplar of architectural simplicity.
Check out this fascinating footage from the National Film Board of Canada in 1949, and prepare to build your very own masterpiece:
The excellent functionality of an igloo is twofold: thanks to the superb insulating properties of snow, the temperature of the interior of the structure remains surprisingly stable, and with the help of additional skins, can be as high as 10–20 °C (50–68 °F).
Secondly, the igloo’s structure is unique in that the dome can be raised using individual blocks and cut to fit without additional supporting scaffolding being necessary during construction. And as an added bonus, highly compacted snow appears to be one of the most satisfyingly tactile — not to mention extraordinarily beautiful — building materials around.
The igloo truly is a building typology to savor — it was even the subject of one of the most enlightening architectural cartoons in recent times…
Via Teobeo
Of course, the igloo is not the only option for providing shelter and warmth in the most extreme environments. Toronto-based architectural photographer Richard Johnson has hiked through nine of the ten Canadian provinces, compiling a stunning archive of over 700 huts in the wintry wilderness.
Johnson is attracted to the modest desolation of the structures, and the absence of extravagance so often associated with the architecture that dominates our media in the current climate.
Photo by Richard Johnson. Via Laughing Squid
“It is architecture at its most primitive level,” he says. “It’s shelter. It’s portable. It’s made by the owners of the hut. It’s not pretentious. It is a solution. Every single person needs heat.”
Photo by Richard Johnson. Via Laughing Squid
The huts are frequently painted vivid colors, helping their owners to locate them during periods of poor visibility. This leads to some striking contrasts, with blocks of vibrancy in the midst of pure whiteness.
Photo by Richard Johnson. Via Laughing Squid
The huts vary in their nature: Some are crude, utilitarian shelters, whilst others have layers of customization, personality, even humor. Almost all of them, according to Johnson, give a hint about the people that use them.
“For me,” he says, “these are really portraits of the individual. But the individual is not present.”
Yours freezingly,
The Angry Architect
h/t to Citylab