RADICAL ARCTIC PROPOSALS

Brian Lee

RADICAL ARCTIC PROPOSALS

During the 1950s and 1960s North American governments felt pressure to develop a presence in the uninhabited northern regions of Canada, fearing that unoccupied land would facilitate the expansion of Communist Russia. This expansionist move north was coupled with new notions of living in inhospitable environments sparked by the excitement of space exploration and the possibility of planetary colonization. The urban housing typologies that emerged during this period embraced the modern attitudes of industry and technology, while accounting for the extreme climatic conditions of the region.

Radical Arctic Proposals investigates these developments to understand how architecture can be an agent in organizing complex living patterns in northern regions.

RADICAL ARCTIC PROPOSALS

Frobisher Bay New Town I, 1958 Department of Public Works Chief Architects Branch Frobisher Bay New Town II, 1960 Peter Dickinson Associates Arctic Town, 1971 Frei Otto Resolute Bay, 1973 Ralph Erskine Frobisher Bay, 1974-77 Moshe Safdie 11

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A Move North
In Canada in the 1950s through the 1970s the government funded an investigation into forms of urbanism and urban housing typologies for the arctic. During this time period, the Canadian government felt increased pressure to stake a claim and provide a military defense in the uninhabited northern regions of the country. Fearing that unoccupied land would facilitate the expansion of Communist Russia the government set up a series of military outposts and encouraged the habitation of these regions. Additionally, new notions of living in inhospitable environments sparked by the excitement of space exploration and the possibility of planetary colonization, pushed the projects of this time period to explore extremities of environment and geography.

Fig. 1 DEW Radar Station

Investigating the urban development plans of the 1960s promotes an understanding of how architecture can be an agent in organizing complex living patterns in northern regions. The climatic conditions in the arctic regions of northern Canada offer an extreme challenge to built structures and human habitation. Over centuries the Inuit cultures of the arctic developed housing types that implemented natural materials and responded to intense northern winds and snowdrift. Driftwood or bone material from animal species in the region acted as support for these primitive structures.

Since these radical projects and the end of the Cold War, little effort has been afforded to comprehensive planning in Northern regions. With an increase in population and continued harvesting of resources there is a renewed need for arctic housing solutions. 03

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The urban housing typologies that emerged during 1960s and the push for expansion into the arctic embraced the modern attitudes of industry and technology, accounting for the extreme climatic conditions of the region by employing these advances. While indigenous settlements consented to climatic conditions and sought to incorporate their effects, modernist projects sought to use technology to resist these conditions.
Fig. 2 Inuit Dwelling

Dwellings were commonly partially interred to provide addition insulation, structural support, and to minimize the profile on the landscape. The techniques of living off the land and a strong relationship to the environment were passed down through generations. The need for food and shelter, and the nomadic lifestyle of the Inuit, heightened their awareness of the land and geography. Temporal shelters accommodated the nomadic lifestyle and survival techniques of the native cultures in the arctic.

In the 1950s and 1960s many Canadians saw the Arctic as an inhospitable place, vast and empty, except for a few military installations and laboratories. In the excitement to open the Arctic to further settlement the architects of these projects introduced an alternate relationship between the environment and human dwelling; a relationship that imagined an Arctic architecture in a self contained system and rejected indigenous living, creating a modern oasis within the Arctic desert. Moreover, the scale and permanence of these projects was a shift from the small indigenous settlements of the Inuit cultures. The space-age proposals of this period were entire cities, intended to house families and

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provide public amenities like education, commerce, and government. Because of the scale of these projects, settlements in northern Canada were no longer planned as temporary outposts or nomadic dwellings but as permanent communities. Increased communication, transportation, and harvesting of natural resources have led to population growth in arctic regions. As current and predicted growth occurs the arctic the urbanism emerging during the 1960s could provide a template for solutions of development and habitation for the arctic and respond to the need for further development. The radical arctic experiments of the 1960s and 1970s had aspirations to exploit the resources and establish a presence in northern Canada. Architects of that time projected a futuristic expression of what late 20th century modern life would be like in the Arctic. The proposals investigated below reflect the aspirations and predictions of conquering the forbidding arctic north.

Figures 1. DEW Line Radar Station Defense Imagery, http://www.defenseimagery.mil/index.html 2. Inuit Dwelling Reinhardt, Gregory, Eskimo Architecture: Dwelling and Structure in the Early Historic Period, University of Alaska Press, (2003) Notes 1. Naka, F. Robert and William W. Ward, Distant Early Warning Line Radars: The Quest for Automatic Signal Detection, Lincoln Laboratory Journal, Volume 12, Number 2 (MIT 2000). 2. Menp, Ilmo, Comparative analysis of Arctic economies at macro level, The Economy of the North, 2008. http://www.ssb. no/english/subjects/00/00/30/sa_economy_north/sa112_en/ kap3.pdf.

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New Town I Department of Public Works Chief Architects Branch

Arctic Town Frei Otto

Fig. 3 Comparative Plan Drawing

Frobisher Bay Moshe Safdie

New Town II Peter Dickinson Associates Resolute Bay Ralph Erskine

1958 1960

1971

1973 1974-1977
200 400 800ft

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Frobisher Bay New Town I, 1958

Frobisher Bay on Baffin Island started as a military outpost, but with the construction of an airfield and a regional headquarters for the Canadian Department of Indian Affairs, the settlement saw increased growth in the late 1950s. A housing development was proposed to accommodate this growth.

The project was intended to house 1,000 residents in clusters of high-rise towers surrounding a central dome. The towers were to be built of concrete using a slidingform and lift-slab floors. An external elevator shaft connected to a collective circulation would allow access to the towers. The central dome would be a plastic or aluminum shell of radiating vaults supported by concrete columns.

Fig. 4 New Town I, Perspective.

The dome would house the public programs of schools, churches, a community center, a fire hall, federal buildings, shops, restaurants, and a hotel. The dome was to be supported by a central concrete pier.

Fig. 5 New Town I, Plan.

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Residential Towers

Insulating Dome

An atomic heating plant, hydroponic vegetable garden, and a small batterypowered internal monorail were all a part of the original proposal. The settlement reflected a space-age attitude toward arctic development, and was intended as an initial investigation into modern arctic housing developments.

Commercial Center Civic/Public Industrial / Energy

Road Network

The New Town I proposal was envisioned as a theoretical plan investigating the potentials of modern arctic life and seen as a starting point for the design and development of the city. The architecture firm DPW was known for their consistently conservative modernism and the futuristic proposal for the arctic town came as a surprise to many. Although the design was intended as an internal proposal the project made its way to many Canadian newspapers.

New Town I used a circular organization to insulate the public program of the development. The residential towers elevated above covered routes of circulation, created a ring around the entire proposal suggesting non-hierarchical access to public programs.
Fig. 6 New Town I, Exploded Axonometric

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The ring of towers and roads also acted as a buffer against harsh weather conditions surrounding the collective center and creating a centralized community center. The covered dome containing the public programs emphasized the communal nature of the dome. The orientation of the residential ring surrounding the collective spaces suggests both the completion of a whole and the promotion of collective circulation and central public program. The covering of these spaces for protection emphasizes the developments autonomy and collective nature.

Figures 4. New Town I, Perspective. Frobisher Bay new town aerial perspective. (Library and archives canada, nMc 122830.) via Waldron, Andrew, Frobisher Bay Future: Mega-structure in a Meta Land, Architecture and Ideas, vol. viii. 5. New Town I, Plan. Frobisher Bay new town aerial perspective. (Library and archives canada, nMc 122830.) via Waldron, Andrew, Frobisher Bay Future: Mega-structure in a Meta Land, Architecture and Ideas, vol. viii. 6. New Town I, Exploded Axonometric. Drawn by B. Lee with information from Waldron, Andrew, Frobisher Bay Future: Mega-structure in a Meta Land, Architecture and Ideas, vol. viii. Notes 3. Waldron, Andrew, Frobisher Bay Future: Mega-structure in a Meta Land, Architecture and Ideas, vol. viii.

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Commercial

Frobisher Bay New Town II, 1960

Residential

Civic/ Public

The original plan for Frobisher Bay was adjusted and the approved plan was submitted to the government in July 1960. The space-age aesthetic of New Town I was abandoned for a low-rise apartment complex, chosen as a final model because of the expected low cost of the project.

Industrial/ Energy

Road Network

New Town II consisted of two hundred and forty six units for 1000 people distributed over three separate buildings between six to eight stories. Below the housing units were proposed commercial and government spaces, and a cinema, hotel and auditorium were proposed beneath a raised central plaza. A hospital, recreation center, and church were planned for outside the town. A structural system of locally pre-cast reinforced concrete with cast in place or lift-slab floors would be employed. The proposal for New Town II was a viable option, however, lack of funding and a shift in the cultural attitude toward northern migration brought the termination of the project.

Fig. 7 New Town II, Exploded Axonometric

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Neither of the Frobisher plans was built. The initial scale of these two projects was perhaps an attempt to assert Canadas control and permanence in the Arctic rather than provide required living space. Many of the adjustments made to the New Town development were economically driven, and with changes in the political attitudes regarding the arctic, the project was abandoned. Although New Town II used a less explicit geometric strategy than its predecessor, the central communal spaces still denote a protected zone and suggest a unity between

separate buildings. Because the residential buildings are stacked onto commercial and public spaces and they wrap around the perimeter of the city creating a weather barrier. Again the introverted geometry of the layout promotes a collective relationship to the central and contained public programs, and as resistance to natural forces an autonomous attitude toward environment and context emerges.
Figures 7. New Town II, Exploded Axonometric. Drawn by B. Lee with information from Waldron, Andrew, Frobisher Bay Future: Mega-structure in a Meta Land, Architecture and Ideas, vol. viii. 8. New Town II, Perspective. (Department of Northern Affairs and National Resources. 1960. proposed New Town, Frobisher Bay, North West Territories.) via Waldron, Andrew, Frobisher Bay Future: Mega-structure in a Meta Land, Architecture and Ideas, vol. viii. Notes 4. Waldron, Andrew, Frobisher Bay Future: Mega-structure in a Meta Land, Architecture and Ideas, vol. viii.

Fig. 8 New Town II, Perspective

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Insulating Dome

Residential

Arctic Town, 1971

Designed by Frei Otto and Ewald Bubner with Kenzo Tange, Arctic Town proposed a large-scale dome spanning two kilometers and enclosing the artificially produced environment. A circular foundation was to be built and then the dome structure was to be laid and inflated. Inside the dome the construction of the city could take place in a conditioned environment. The dome consisted of a double-layered transparent foil retained by a steel cable net, pressurized air in the dome providing the structural support of the dome. The shape of the dome would prevent the accumulation of snow and resist intense wind, and provide ventilation of fresh air and heating through atomic energy.

Commercial

Civic/Public

Industrial / Energy

Road Network

During the 1950s and 1960s Buckminster Fuller argued that the geometry of the domeencased city was an effective protective barrier and an ideal method for handling environmental control and efficiency. Fullers expressed his ideas of the dome in his Dome over Manhattan project, a transparent halfsphere spanning large parts of Mid-town New York City. 22

Fig. 9 Arctic Town, Exploded Axonometric

Fig. 10 Dome Over Manhattan, Fuller

Inside the dome of Arctic Town a network of roads would connect a city that could support up to 45, 000 residents. The city was also connected to a harbor and airport by covered roadways. Atomic energy could provide electricity to the city and the heated water from the cooling system keeps the harbor free of ice. During winter, a system of artificial lights would simulate daily cycles and provide light to plant life inside the dome. Throughout summer screens shield the intensity of the sun. This model was intended to proliferate throughout arctic regions of the world were controlled climate and protection against the elements was necessary.

Fig. 11 Arctic Town, Section

Completely encased in a structural bubble, Frei Ottos Arctic Town was to maintain comfortable temperatures in an interior environment containing plant-life, birds, and animals. Furthermore it was intended that Arctic Town be a prototype for a new type of arctic proliferation. Arctic Town exemplifies the radical attitude toward inhabiting the arctic, proposing a completely enclosed system by means of a massive inflatable dome.

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The design uses geometry and scale not only as a climatic defense, but as an expression of structural forces and a means to create an new autonomous environment. Arctic Town is the best example of this fortress model, and autonomous attitude to the context.
Figures 9. Arctic Town, Exploded Axonometric. Drawn by B. Lee with information from Architectural Design, Volume XLI, (1971) 10. Dome Over Manhattan, Fuller. Fuller, Buckminster and Shoji Sadao, Dome over Manhattan, (St. Louis Post-Dispatch 1965) American Scientist (1970) 11. Frei Otto with Arctic Town Model Frei Otto : complete works : lightweight construction, natural design, Birkhuser (2005) 12. Arctic Town, Section. Architectural Design, Volume XLI, (1971) Notes Fig. 12 Arctic Town, Plan 5. Fuller, Buckminster and Shoji Sadao, Dome over Manhattan, (St.Louis Post-Dispatch 1965) American Scientist (1970) 6. Architectural Design, Volume XLI, (1971)

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Residential Modules

Resolute Bay, 1973

Having designed previously for the arctic, Ralph Erskine was commissioned to design the development at Resolute Bay in 1971. At the bay there was a population of 200 that grew to near 500 during the summer. Two communities existed near the site, one consisting of relocated Inuit, and the other of military personnel of southern origin. Both settlements were organized around the existing airport.

Commercial

Civic/Public

Residential Ring

Road Network

Fig. 14 Housing Module, Plan and Model

Fig. 13 Resolute Bay, Exploded Axonometric

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The Erskine project proposed an integration of the two populations, repositioning the community away from the noise of the airport. Erskine believed that architecture could achieve a societal and social ideal. Although Erskine was most likely opposed to the original relocation of Inuit inhabitants, that opposition was probably outweighed by the desire to improve living conditions for the Inuit.

The design of Resolute Bay borrowed the form of a classic amphitheater integrating the new Inuit settlers and the military personnel of the Canadian-American base. A ring of terrace houses surrounds the plan to protect from the harsh winter winds and snowdrifts.

Fig. 15 Resolute Bay, Perspective.

Fig. 16 Resolute Bay, Built Portion

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Figures 13. Resolute Bay, Exploded Axonometric. Drawn by B. Lee with information from Egelius, Mats, Ralph Erskine, Architect, (Stockholm: Byggforlaget, 1990) 14. Housing Module,Plan and Model. Egelius, Mats, Ralph Erskine, Architect, (Stockholm: Byggforlaget, 1990) Fig. 17 Resolute Bay, Module Sketch. 15. Resolute Bay, Perspective. Collymore, Peter, Ralph Erskine, (London: St Martins Press, 1994) 16. Resolute Bay, Built Portion. Collymore, Peter, Ralph Erskine, (London: St Martins Press, 1994) 17. Resolute Bay, Module Sketch. Egelius, Mats, Ralph Erskine, Architect, (Stockholm: Byggforlaget, 1990) Notes 7. Egelius, Mats, Ralph Erskine, Architect, (Stockholm: Byggforlaget, 1990)

The existing houses of the Inuit would be temporarily relocated into the center along with other upgraded homes. The houses were designed as efficient compact forms that reduced snowdrift and captured maximum sunlight. The plan included commercial spaces such as a shopping mall, hotel, workshops, offices, warehouses, and public spaces including a school, library, gymnasium, and medical center.

The circular form of Erskines project at Resolute Bay would provide a defense against harsh climate and reduce material use while promoting community development within its boundaries.

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Residential Modules

Frobisher Bay, 1974-77

Moshe Safdie was also commissioned to design a proposal for Frobisher Bay. The commission was intended to replace the government staff housing built in the settlement. In addition to the housing units, Safdie was asked to design a general development plan for the village. As the village grew Safdies plan would provide guidelines for the growth of the settlement over the following ten years.

Enclosed Public Space

Commercial/ Civic

Footprint/ Road Network

Structurally independent two-story octagonal units were arranged systematically sloping downward from an enclosed public urban center and individually protected from harsh winds and snowdrift. Gel-coated fiberglass panels covered the units to create a hermetically sealed module that was framed with wood 2x4s. The octagonal units were arrayed in a tight pattern to achieve continuity and a feeling of community.

Fig. 18 Frobisher Bay, Exploded Axonometric

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Safdies plan differs from previous arctic schemes in that the proposal has no set bounds. Rather than a contained whole enclosed by barriers of residential structures or protective layers, the scheme brings the protective elements to the scale of the unit.

The units then project a collective attitude in a different way, acting as single objects in a field of evenly distributed many. The octagonal units were then intended to proliferate with the growth of the settlement. The proposal also integrated the slope of a hill to provide an additional protection and create relationships between adjacent levels of the development.

Figures

In Safdies model the collective center is placed atop a hill and the proliferation of residential units occurs on the downward slope. The organization of the units is reminiscent of a medieval town with an important public center surrounded by housing. However, where the encircling wall acts as a protection and boundary to the medieval city, here each unit is individually equipped to confront arctic conditions. Safdie suggests autonomy at the unit scale rather than city scale.

18. Frobisher Bay, Exploded Axonometric. Drawn by B. Lee with information from Moshe Safdie Hypermedia Archive, The, McGill University, cac.mcgill.ca/safdie/inventory/invent.php?id=58&show=drawings 19. Frobisher Bay, Perspective Section. Moshe Safdie Hypermedia Archive, The, McGill University, cac. mcgill.ca/safdie/inventory/invent.php?id=58&show=drawings Notes 8. Moshe Safdie Hypermedia Archive, The, McGill University, cac. mcgill.ca/safdie/inventory/invent.php?id=58&show=drawings

Fig. 19 Frobisher Bay, Perspective Section

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Defense, Autonomy, Collective

Inuit cultures passed down their techniques of living off the land and a strong relationship to the environment. They were a nomadic people in order to find food and survive the winter months in the expansive arctic. The need for food and shelter, and the nomadic lifestyle of the Inuit, heightened their awareness of the land and geography. Temporal shelters accommodated the nomadic lifestyle of the native cultures in the arctic.

small-scale settlements. Modernist designers seemed to want to fill the vastness and void of the arctic with the large scale of their projects, and with pressure form North American governments, establish permanence in the region.

Certainly the radical proposals of modernist architects addressed the climate and difficult natural forces of the arctic, however, the attitude toward these forces was different from the native cultures, expressed primarily in the scale and permanence of the proposals and their objective to shield and protect from the harsh environments at a large scale using modernist ideals of industry and technology. Each urban plan uses large-scale geometry acting as a defense against harsh arctic climate. The modernist developments suggest long-term settlement at the scale of the city while Inuit cultures operated seasonal, 37

The arctic projects of the 1960s and 1970s represent a shift in the attitude toward the harsh climatic conditions of the region. Inhabiting the arctic was fascinating for architects because it allowed humans to overcome what was viewed as an inhospitable environment, and the ideals of modern architecture and industry were the factors that made it possible for these new settlements to exist. Architecture and human technological achievement allowed for the habitation of these new frontiers. Industry was heavily incorporated into the designs to provide energy and to sustain the proposals. It is evident that ideas of space travel and exploration were prevalent during this same time period and had an influence on the designed proposals.

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The geometry and industrial connection allowed for autonomy within the projects similar to that of a spacecraft or station. Using both geometry and industry as drivers for the design and organization of a project exemplifies the modernist time period. In addition to the autonomy of the radical experiments of northern regions the geometric barriers and organization of the projects promotes a connected community within their interiors. Naturally the isolated inhabitants would be compelled to engage with each other because of their separation from other settlements, but the enclosure of the protective barrier would foster increased interaction. The modernist projects discussed above confront the arctic climate and harshness by producing a type of stronghold or fortress against the elements. These strongholds encompass major portions of the developments as a shield or protection, creating a sort of autonomy in the arctic regions. The contained urban collective spaces promote a density and orientation that endorses community interaction within it boundaries. 39

List of Figures 1. DEW Line Radar Station Defense Imagery, http://www.defenseimagery.mil/index.html 2. Inuit Dwelling Reinhardt, Gregory, Eskimo Architecture: Dwelling and Structure in the Early Historic Period, University of Alaska Press, (2003) 3. Comparative Plan Drawing 4. New Town I, Perspective. Frobisher Bay new town aerial perspective. (Library and archives canada, nMc 122830.) via Waldron, Andrew, Frobisher Bay Future: Mega-structure in a Meta Land, Architecture and Ideas, vol. viii. 5. New Town I, Plan. Frobisher Bay new town aerial perspective. (Library and archives canada, nMc 122830.) via Waldron, Andrew, Frobisher Bay Future: Mega-structure in a Meta Land, Architecture and Ideas, vol. viii. 6. New Town I, Exploded Axonometric. Drawn by B. Lee with information from Waldron, Andrew, Frobisher Bay Future: Mega-structure in a Meta Land, Architecture and Ideas, vol. viii. 7. New Town II, Exploded Axonometric. Drawn by B. Lee with information from Waldron, Andrew, Frobisher Bay Future: Mega-structure in a Meta Land, Architecture and Ideas, vol. viii.

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8. New Town II, Perspective. (Department of Northern Affairs and National Resources. 1960. proposed New Town, Frobisher Bay, North West Territories.) via Waldron, Andrew, Frobisher Bay Future: Mega-structure in a Meta Land, Architecture and Ideas, vol. viii. 9. Arctic Town, Exploded Axonometric. Drawn by B. Lee with information from Architectural Design, Volume XLI, (1971) 10. Frei Otto with Arctic Town Model Frei Otto : complete works : lightweight construction, natural design, Birkhuser (2005) 11. Arctic Town, Section. Architectural Design, Volume XLI, (1971) 12. Arctic Town, Section. Architectural Design, Volume XLI, (1971) 13. Resolute Bay, Exploded Axonometric. Drawn by B. Lee with information from Egelius, Mats, Ralph Erskine, Architect, (Stockholm: Byggforlaget, 1990) 14. Housing Module,Plan and Model. Egelius, Mats, Ralph Erskine, Architect, (Stockholm: Byggforlaget, 1990) 15. Resolute Bay, Perspective. Collymore, Peter, Ralph Erskine, (London: St Martins Press, 1994)

16. Resolute Bay, Built Portion. Collymore, Peter, Ralph Erskine, (London: St Martins Press, 1994) 17. Resolute Bay, Module Sketch. Egelius, Mats, Ralph Erskine, Architect, (Stockholm: Byggforlaget, 1990) 18. Frobisher Bay, Exploded Axonometric. Drawn by B. Lee with information from Moshe Safdie Hypermedia Archive, The, McGill University, cac.mcgill.ca/safdie/inventory/invent.php?id=58&show=drawings 19. Frobisher Bay, Perspective Section. Moshe Safdie Hypermedia Archive, The, McGill University, cac. mcgill.ca/safdie/inventory/invent.php?id=58&show=drawings

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Notes Architectural Design, Volume XLI, (1971) Collymore, Peter, Ralph Erskine, (London: St Martins Press, 1994) Defense Imagery, http://www.defenseimagery.mil/index.html (Department of Northern Affairs and National Resources. 1960. proposed New Town, Frobisher Bay, North West Territories.) via Waldron, Andrew, Frobisher Bay Future: Mega-structure in a Meta Land, Architecture and Ideas, vol. viii. Egelius, Mats, Ralph Erskine, Architect, (Stockholm: Byggforlaget, 1990) Fuller, Buckminster and Shoji Sadao, Dome over Manhattan, (St. Louis Post-Dispatch 1965) American Scientist (1970) Menp, Ilmo, Comparative analysis of Arctic economies at macro level, The Economy of the North, 2008. http://www.ssb. no/english/subjects/00/00/30/sa_economy_north/sa112_en/ kap3.pdf. (Library and archives canada, nMc 122830.) via Waldron, Andrew, Frobisher Bay Future: Mega-structure in a Meta Land, Architecture and Ideas, vol. viii. Moshe Safdie Hypermedia Archive, The, McGill University, cac. mcgill.ca/safdie/inventory/invent.php?id=58&show=drawings

Naka, F. Robert and William W. Ward, Distant Early Warning Line Radars: The Quest for Automatic Signal Detection, Lincoln Laboratory Journal, Volume 12, Number 2 (MIT 2000). Reinhardt, Gregory, Eskimo Architecture: Dwelling and Structure in the Early Historic Period, University of Alaska Press, (2003) Waldron, Andrew, Frobisher Bay Future: Mega-structure in a Meta Land, Architecture and Ideas, vol. viii.

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Rice School of Architecture Spring 2012 Independent Study Advisor: Neeraj Bhatia

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