eople living in heavily forested shelter. Here is a brief pictorial essay areas built with wood; those of how they did it, reenacted by Jan living in areas with heavy rainfall and friends, extracted with permission The remarkable builtP with mud and grasses and those from their Maud Returns Home living in rocky environments built with (MRH) blog of December 13, 2012. stone. The Inuit usually lived beyond It was Sunday, and while we may the tree line, so wood was a scarcity. have been watching football on history of Arctic Rocks were a possibility, but for much television, they built an igloo. When of the year the rocks were buried under they were done, they cut a hole in the a thick blanket of–snow! “floor” of the igloo, did some ice fishing So is it any surprise that their and secured dinner. The obvious first step is to procure architecture dwellings became known as snow your “bricks” of compacted snow houses? Snow is a natural insulator and simultaneously dig out your because of the air pockets trapped By John Bechtel “foundation” around the perimeter. Freelance culture and travel writer within it, and snow became a You cut your blocks out of the area construction material when it could that will eventually be the inside of be compacted. Soft feathery snow your snow house. In the final product, does not make good snow houses. The the central area where the Inuit slept snow crystals have to cling to each ou have probably never thought of the igloo was raised, and was covered with other in order to make a dwelling with hides. This, combined with body as a form of architecture, but why not? There structural rigidity. heat of the occupants, made the are different types of architecture, and not The word igloo itself, comes internal temperature of the igloo quite from the Inuit iglu, and it is widely comfortable.
allY of them require a formally-trained architect. As a RETURNS HOME JAN WANGGAARD-MAUD PHOTO: matter of fact, there is an art form known as vernacular associated with the indigenous Inuit The wall grows in a spiral which of Central Canada (think Cambridge Members of Jan Wanggaard’s team display their fishing catch after carving out is of crucial importance as the wall architecture which requires that an architect not be Bay in Nunavut, introduced to our bricks of compacted snow and using them to build their igloo. gradually starts to lean inwards. To involved. The term is borrowed from linguistics, where readers in the Fall 2016 issue of SP in you will recall, harbored over winter Northwest Passage by sail. Without constantly define the right degree of it refers to language use particular to a place, time, or the article “The Maud Goes Home”) in this tiny, remote location with the the benefit of advanced theoretical wall angle is the primary engineering people. For example, the primary translation of the first and Thule, Greenland. The insulating Inuit, and what he learned from them principles of physics and engineering, achievement of this construction. five books of the Bible from Hebrew into Greek was not qualities of compacted snow are so great had much to do with his completing the Inuit developed through trial and that temperatures inside the igloo could the first successful crossing of the error an extremely strong and useful translated into classical or the formal, educated Greek, be as high as 60 degrees F. (15.5 C.) but into koine, or the Greek spoken by the common while the external temperatures were man in Alexandria, Egypt in the third century A.D. as low as -50 F. (-45.5 C.) There were when the translating was done. Koine Greek was the different types of igloo, depending on lingua franca of the time and place. This translation was the need. There were quick-set-up igloos for one-night stays of a family on the done into the vernacular language of the time. move, and there were communal igloos So too, vernacular architecture is a practical RETURNS HOME JAN W-MAUD PHOTO: comprised of several igloos connected Unique dome shape strong enough to construction by amateurs without any formal training, by tunnels and with a common support a person standing on the roof. built with local, indigenous materials, and the emphasis entrance. The igloo is unique in that it is is on function, not style. The “know-how” to build was Building an igloo a dome that can be raised out of acquired by trial and error and passed along orally from (for the DIY readers) independent blocks leaning on each generation to generation. Vernacular architecture was How is an igloo made, and how other and polished to fit without an very purpose-driven: it was all about filling survival long does it take to make one? Jan additional supporting structure during needs with whatever building materials were locally in Wanggaard, Norwegian project construction. An igloo that is built manager for the raising of Amundsen’s correctly will support the weight of abundance, and not with impressing anyone with its ship Maud from its frigid, watery a person standing on the roof. How aesthetics. The construction itself required hands-on grave in Cambridge Bay and towing many generations of the Inuit did it intelligence, common sense, ingenuity, and mechanical it back to Norway, decided to find take to figure out that a dwelling with ability, and for that reason, although vernacular out in 2012. He was motivated by a straight, vertical walls was not their architecture is generally unadorned and functional, respect and admiration for the people solution? For this writer, the invention and societies of the world that learned of the igloo in the Far North is right up many refrain from referring to it as primitive. to live and survive in very harsh there with the invention of the wheel in
environments by understanding rather RETURNS HOME JAN WANGGAARD-MAUD PHOTO: its significance. than fighting nature. Amundsen, as Rising in a spiral formation, walls lean inwards as each row of bricks is added. (Continued on page 00)
O SPRING- 2018 | SCANDINAVIAN PRESS SCANDINAVIAN PRESS | SPRING 2018 O fjäll (Sweden); and tunturi (Finland). The latter is borrowed from the Inari What about Sami word tuodâr, which comes into the English language as tundra. In archaic English these areas were also sometimes referred to as Fells, or treeless elevations (meaning anything bigger than a hill). The English fell is the Sami? very similar to its Nordic antecedents. What is important however, is that the tundra areas of the world generally have light precipitation; they are in fact Arctic deserts. So while there is snow, it’s not the same as the Canadian ust as there are no penguins at the or Greenland Arctic. The weather is cold, but not quite as cold as some taiga North Pole and no polar bears at areas south of the tree line. This writer remembers three weeks in the winter Jthe South Pole, the igloo is not of 2013 when the wind chill in Minot, North Dakota never got above -50 F. part of the Sami history and culture in (-15.5 C.), and we were nowhere close to the tree line. northern Europe. Their available building So the Sami didn’t build igloos. They built goahtis in Scandinavia, or kota materials were different, and therefore so in Finland. Again, vernacular culture, building with available resources, were their dwellings. Many of the Inuit which in this case were small saplings covered with fabric, peat moss, or igloos were built on sea ice and became timber. In the coastal areas the more non-nomadic coastal Sami used the in effect, floating homes and hotels. This peat goahti as a combined human and livestock building up until the second was not an issue for the Sami. Let’s look world war. The lavvu is a smaller, more transportable (now only used in at the reasons for this. displays of traditional culture) dwelling similar to the North American tipi. Taiga, or boreal forest, is the world’s All of the following are examples of vernacular architecture among the Sami second largest biome, after the oceans in the European Arctic: themselves. These coniferous forests contain spruce, pine, and larches. The taiga covers most of inland Canada and Alaska, and very northern parts of the U.S. such as northern Minnesota, Michigan’s Upper Peninsula and the north woods of New York and New PHOTO: JAN WANGGAARD-MAUD RETURNS HOME JAN WANGGAARD-MAUD PHOTO: Aging and compressing snow won’t cause this igloo to buckle or collapse, something the Inuit understood eons ago. England. In Eurasia it covers parts of coastal Iceland and most of Sweden, (Continued from page 00) Norway, Finland, and Russia from The stresses of snow as it ages and compresses Karelia (just east of Finland) all the way against the igloo does not cause it to buckle to the Pacific Ocean. Many of these areas because in an inverted paraboloid or catenoid are lowlands, and not alpine, or elevated, the pressures are exclusively compressive. Please as one might expect.
remember that the Inuit figured out how to do As you proceed northward through SKANSEN PHOTO: this before the sciences of differential geometry the taiga, you come to a border area An example of the peat goahti, above, reconstructed and on display at the and calculus were invented. For Jan and friends, between the taiga and the next biome, Skansen open-air museum in Stockholm. It doesn’t take a lot of imagination to the final stage was a bit nerve-racking for which is tundra, or permafrost regions. visualize the crowded conditions and the dirt, filth really, of daily routine; the first-timers in igloo construction. There were Here the ground is frozen down to about total lack of privacy, the prevalence of disease, the grinding requirements of times when the Inuit had to build these in total a meter, and trees cannot grow. The sheer survival, and the darkness. barren cold soil can only support low- countless ways you could In the traditional Inuit igloo, the heat from growing plant life such as mosses, heath, die a premature death. the stone lamps they were known to use caused and lichens. This is reindeer country. This A reconstructed the interior to melt slightly. This melting and is Sami territory. The border between wood goahti (right). One refreezing builds up a layer of ice that strengthens taiga and tundra is called the treeline. has to conclude that no the igloo. During the brief summer months in one spent a lot of time Inserting an ice “window” (right). Igloos the tundra, the weather warms and the indoors if they could used as winter shelters had beds made of ice and A year after this igloo-construction surface soil thaws, but the deeper soil help it, except for refuge caribou furs. These ‘ice beds’ are unique to the experiment, Jan Wanggaard remains frozen, trapping the meltwater from the elements. region and Inuit culture. Today of course, we have attended an event in Norway, on the surface. This makes the land soggy A Finnmark, mathematical formulas of applied mechanics to celebrating two brothers who had and boggy, with lots of small ponds and Norway turf house, (on guide engineers in building similar structures, recently visited Cambridge Bay. They puddles. There is very little biodiversity the following page), but the Inuit developed the expertise over many related how they discovered an igloo in the tundra areas, with only 48 species late 1800s, Sami. It is generations by necessity. This is vernacular that kept them warm while there. of land mammals worldwide. virtually impossible to architecture. Use what you’ve got and make it It was the one Wanggaard and his In Nordic countries some of this romanticize life under work. The best part was no one needed a 30-year team had built the year before! tundra area at higher elevations is these circumstances. PHOTO: JAN WANGGAARD-MAUD RETURNS HOME JAN WANGGAARD-MAUD PHOTO: mortgage. They were lucky to live that long. referred to as a fjell (Norway); (Continued on page 00) COMMONS.WIKIMEDIA.COM PHOTO:
O SPRING- 2018 | SCANDINAVIAN PRESS SCANDINAVIAN PRESS | SPRING 2018 O (Continued from page 00) Arctic bubbles (tent domes). Imagine how dark these dwellings were inside, the air pollution from indoor wood fires to stay warm or cook, the removal of human and animal waste. Imagine the difficulty of creating their own clothes with crude tools at northern latitudes, with long periods of winter darkness where you could barely see the hand in front of your face. Imagine sickness with no PHOTO: COMMONS.WIKIMEDIA.COM PHOTO: understanding of its causes, and the Early turf house, exemplifying the difficult conditions the Sami lived under. stoicism associated with survival.
throughout the year. fashion, affectation, and increasingly, KUVAAJISTA LISTA PHOTO: The Sami today Even with its remoteness, these ostentation (showing off), are Raittijärvi village may be the last remaining true Sami village in existence. Technology has changed the world buildings were not built with local paramount. In polite architecture, of the Sami too, like everyone else. materials and were probably not design trumps function. They no longer use sled dogs except constructed by the owners or those If however, you seek an adventure for tourism purposes, and they live in who live in them. They were designed in Finland and take an excursion to Finland adopts the igloo as part standard, modern, and well insulated by architects and there were blueprints the village of Raittijärvi, you will see houses. Raittijärvi in Finnish Lapland and building materials that had how the real reindeer herdsmen live in of its Arctic tourism campaign is quite possibly the last remaining true to be brought in from outside the the tundra! You will have the possibility Sami village in existence. It is situated 40 WWW.TRAVELMODUS.COM PHOTO: area. Architects have been studying to see lots of reindeer in their natural There is irony in Finland adopting the igloo, an artifact of Inuit culture, kilometers (24 miles) from Kilpisjärvi spontaneous, indigenous, and local environment and follow a local Sami as an icon in their exploitation of the tourist potential of their Sami Lapland. in the middle of real wilderness. There building styles and imitating the reindeer herder to the fells where his But then it would be very challenging to make sod houses an effective tourist is no road leading to the village. In aesthetics and styles as part of the herd runs free. And you will most attraction. So let’s take a look at what the igloo has become as an element, not summer it can be reached by plane only. nature revivalist movement while likely be overwhelmed at the deafening of vernacular, but of polite architecture. In winter snowmobiles offer the easiest introducing modern improvements as a silence of the tundra. But you will also First, there are the tents. means of transportation. Raittijärvi practical matter. be reminded that this is a lifestyle that is inhabited by Sami reindeer herders Particularly has this been true is disappearing. When this writer asked with the rise of polite architecture. Eva Kiviranta from Visit Finland where This is a new theory (19th century most of the Sami live these days, she said forward) of architecture made a lot of them have moved to Helsinki possible by technology and globalism, in search of jobs. We can hardly blame where buildings can be designed them. It is one thing as a tourist to enjoy without regard for local building the revival of ancient cultures; it can be materials or functions; a style where quite another thing to live it. PHOTO: WWW.HARRINIVA.FI PHOTO: Eva Kiviranta of Visit Finland tells
PHOTO: WWW.FLICKR.COM PHOTO: us the igloo/glass house is usually
In Lappland, Sweden, a young WWW.VISITFINLAND.COM PHOTO: small, but it has a toilet. Some of them girl fondly caresses her pet goat even have showers. They are usually outside the family goahti, seen in the recommended for one night only, background. Judging by the shoes this because it can feel a bit crammed, girl, is wearing, you can see this photo unless you’re in a bigger igloo, but the is relatively recent. igloos are usually a part of a bigger company, so you can easily move to Right: This is an early photograph of the other side of the yard to cabins or a Sami family, which automatically hotel rooms. The igloos usually come dates this scene far from the modern with electronic water kettles so you era. It is no wonder that no one is can make tea/coffee in the evening. smiling in the photo; they may not Meals are usually offered in the hotel have had any teeth, or they just didn’t restaurant nearby. The hotels can PHOTO: WWW.LVISITFINLAND.COM PHOTO: have anything to smile about. COMMONS.WIKIMEDIA.COM PHOTO: (Continued on page 00)
O SPRING- 2018 | SCANDINAVIAN PRESS SCANDINAVIAN PRESS | SPRING 2018 O PHOTO: WWW.SANTASHOTELS.FI PHOTO:
Longyearbyen, on Spitsbergen Island, in Norway’s Svalbard archipelago. PHOTO: WWW.SANTASHOTELS.FI PHOTO: Igloo/glass house.
(Continued from page 00) usually arrange activities as well, and some even offer a northern lights watch service The igloos are usually for a couple (a lot of honeymooners go there), but some places have bigger igloos too for families. Polite architecture used to be reserved for only the wealthy, but today’s technology is changing everyone’s standard of the possible. What was inconceivable just ten years ago is the new norm. Polar regions come equipped with flush toilets and goose down blankets. Backpackers are crisscrossing the globe on motorcycles, snowmobiles and jet skis, carrying small synthetic and portable homes neatly folded in pockets of their pack, and wearing clothes manufactured from super-insulating micro-fibers. Want to go to the North Pole? No problem; it is only a four hour trip from Longyearbyen, a small town on Spitsbergen Island, in Norway’s Svalbard archipelago. Want an igloo experience? You can test drive one in Scandinavia now, and I am sure the DIY version is coming soon to your favorite sporting goods box store. We John Bechtel is a professional freelance are living in a global world, where everyone is a traveler, and anything seems writer for the food, wine, and tourism possible. Even entire restaurants have developed mobile pop-up versions of industries; ghostwriting non-fiction themselves that transplant themselves to distant parts of the globe for a few books; and web content strategist for weeks or months, often at great expense, and with prices to match. Identity and businesses. Follow him on his website: a regional sense of belonging are becoming increasingly elusive as the world shrinks, and so we cling to artifacts of our cultural distinctions and traditions www.johnbechtelwriter.com as a reminder of our roots, our values and traditions. We long for the familiar.
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