Literature Review on Building Envelope, Heating and ... - Beeshive.org

• the coasts and islands with their marine climates;
• the treeless tundra with its continuous permafrost (10% of the world’s land); and
• the taiga, the largely coniferous boreal forest that covers more than half of Canada,
most of Alaska, and much of Scandinavia and Siberia.
Arctic Indigenous Architecture
Cook (1996) described the arctic climate as a frigid high latitude desert, scarce
vegetation, and strong swings of daily and seasonal air temperature. Annually, the arctic
can receive more direct sunlight than the equator, but much of the incoming solar energy
is taken by outgoing radiation, because of reflection from snow, clear air, and low
aerosols and water vapour content. Winters are long, cold, and dry. A typical winter-day
temperature ranges between -23ºC and -34ºC (-9ºF and -29ºF). Summers (July and early
August) are short and cool.
Cook noted that most climates have unpredictable extreme moments that defy concepts of
passive architectural intervention and are sources of occasional discomfort. That is, there
is no such thing as an extreme climate per se; each climate has its share of extreme
conditions that are outside the design conditions. Climates can be considered extreme on
a relative basis. For everyone except Inuit, the arctic and sub-arctic represent one of the
most extreme climates for humans. General design conditions for most regions can be
established, but still each region will experience times when the conditions will exceed
the design conditions. Cook examined the Inuit snow igloo and Sami hut of northern
Scandinavia and Russia to demonstrate the indigenous architectural responses to the
arctic environment.
The Arctic Igloo
The Inuit snow igloo is a complex high-performance system of construction and
operation in which every aspect and each element contributes to the net environment of
the living space. The igloo is a wind-shedding aerodynamic architectural form in a flat
landscape, where wind and snow drifting are prime environmental factors. The igloo’s
semi-spherical form reduces erosion of the building surfaces and controls deposit and
drifting of wind-blown snow. A windbreak snow wall is usually built to protect the
windward side from erosion. The igloo’s design also reduces conduction and convection
heat transfer from the igloo’s envelope surface.
The igloo’s thermal performance could provide a temperature differential, indoor to
outdoor, of 40ºC (72ºF). This is achieved by controlled entry that consists of a cluster of
modules (used for storage) that provide a climatic transition from outdoors to an indoor
living module. Also, oil lamps contribute to space heating; a ventilation hole and the
entry door provide ventilation. For structure reasons, the mean radiant temperature of the
ice surface needs to be kept near freezing.
The Sami Hut
The Sami hut is another example of an indigenous architectural response to the arctic
environment in northern Sweden, Norway, Finland, and Russia. The hut is a conicalshaped
building designed for the arctic climate (see Figure 8).
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