“A view of Climate Change from

the Arctic Tundra”

by Aida Miron l The SEED

The SEED joined the Architecture and Design Film Festival’s screening of “Another Kind of Knowledge” co-sponsor by the AIANY Women in Architecture with an introduction by Dorte Mandrup herself. The film highlighted Dorte Mandrup’s insightful approach in addressing environmental and societal issues through the trajectory of her practice. Dorte Mandrup opened her studio in 1999 and has become renowned for working across geographies and scales, and for creating programs embedded in “irreplaceable places,” where built forms blend with landscapes, often in complex and challenging sites, where negotiations between “place, culture and the architect are brought to create new meanings.” 

Dorte Mandrup, (and her studio of around 80 people) integrate sustainability from a different vantage point: one that requires a high degree of “sensibility.” Her practice explores the uniqueness of nature and cultures through deep contextual analysis, a humanistic lens, the use of outstanding craftmanship, material restrictions, and an understanding of place and site in an “emotional way” as well as a “practical research-based way,” a “technical” lens and something that is more “intuitive,” underlying “the identity of a place, not in an iconic way, but in a much more routed or anchored way.” A good example is the Ilulissat Icefjord Centre, in Greenland, located 250 km north of the Arctic Circle.

With a small carbon footprint, the lightweight structure is inspired by the traditional tools and nomadic structures of the indigenous peoples of Greenland, such as the kayak and tents. The light form is itself a celebration of the symbiotic relationship between the Greenlandic peoples and the landscape, of the arctic variations of winter and summer light, wilderness, and extreme climates. For thousands of years, the indigenous peoples of Greenland have had a minimal impact on the landscape, yet in this landscape the most intense effects of climate change are visible. With the arctic warming, shrinking ice caps, and retrieving icebergs, the viewing of this irreplaceable site is important for monitoring our global ecosystem.

From the logistics of material transport to the detailing and construction, the building is composed of a light steel frame, wood and glass elements and a minimal use of concrete. The construction and cladding blends with the summer tundra colors. Because of the lack of local materials in the arctic, the detailing had to be exact, and the elements had to be shipped from Denmark in the smallest amount of shipping containers, during the summer months when the seas are not frozen. The question was how to build the most sustainable building with the least amount of material, and the least impact on the fragile flora and fauna of the arctic tundra.

It is rare to see a building embodying the transformation of light and climate in its very program. Like many of Mandrup’s buildings where the roof becomes a second ground for public gathering, the roof of the building is used as a gathering space to celebrate the first glimmer of the midnight sun, before its disappearance in the frozen horizon. In the winter, when the site is extremely frozen and dark, the building acts as a shelter and beacon of light, in Mandrup’s words: “a horizontal light tower.” In Ilulissat, the concept of time is transformed by the climate and landscape, with the polar nights and midnight sun, a day can expand into one hundred. With the backdrop of dancing aurora lights, arctic sonar-scapes, luminescent radiant snow, icebergs painted by pastel tones during summer dawns, this building evokes the magic of this “irreplaceable place” and celebrates the magnitude of nature, while addressing the fragility of the unique arctic landscape and climate.

“The Icefjord Centre offers a refuge in the dramatic landscape and aims to become a natural gathering point from which you can experience the infinite, non-human scale of the Arctic wilderness, the transition between darkness and light, the midnight sun, and the Northern lights dancing across the sky,”Mandrup Explains.

Having lived 400km north of the Arctic Circle myself (69deg N to be exact), I can only admire a building that sets out to celebrate the unique arctic landscape, the history of ice, the traditions of Greenlandic peoples, and the unique natural and cultural history on the arctic expanse.

 Musings from the forest

Reflections from recent travels to Northern Iran

by Golsana Heshmati, The SEED

The importance of human’s interaction with the natural world has been extensively  studied throughout the course of history. In the context of global sustainability, phrases like "reconnecting to the biosphere" (Folke et al. 2011) are used to emphasize our individual or collective reliance on nature.  As environmental concerns have become more widely recognized, society's separation from nature has been proposed  as a primary cause of unsustainable behaviors such as climate change, habitat loss and contaminating resources. 

We must ask ourselves : what are the accessible reconnection techniques that can change not only individual behaviors, but also the systemic structures and patterns that sustain the behaviors, which are leading to the current global environmental crisis? 

"The national park of Golestan is considered as one of the breathing lungs and natural biosphere reserves of Iran."

After spending a magical week at Golestan Forest in Iran, one ends up contemplating solutions that designers can explore  beyond the scale of individuals, reinforcing the need for our society to reconnect with nature. 

The national park of Golestan is considered as one of the breathing lungs and natural biosphere reserves of Iran. Being one of the oldest national parks around the world, it has been listed as one of the top fifty ecosystems in the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1930. Stretched to 87,402 hectares, it is home to one-seventh of Iran's plant species, one-third of all birds and half of the country's mammals.