"Applied Science, Faculty of"@en . "Architecture and Landscape Architecture (SALA), School of"@en . "DSpace"@en . "UBCV"@en . "Derocher, Angus"@en . "2021-01-05T16:26:57Z"@en . "2020-12"@en . "If all members of a species of toad are in a tank, is the tank their habitat? To scale up this premise, the global nature of the climate crisis puts all ecosystems in an artificially modified environment, one giant tank. There is no wilderness left and no true wildlife. Yet there are still fish climbing ladders and polar bears in jail. With breeding programs, park preserves, etc. a growing number of species exist in habitats maintained wholly or in part by artificial interventions stamping the hallmarks of industrial society indelibly on the surface of the earth, In these circumstances, interference with these species is not only acceptable but desirable. Picking a specific case, the advance and retreat of the circumpolar boreal forest requires a gargantuan response and intervention. At this scale the only tools available are those of industrial mass production, which creates a new ecology that is both radically different and hauntingly familiar to the extent that the very species it sets out to support are no longer themselves. Neither, for that matter, are the human occupants of the territory tied as they are through structures to the world around them."@en . "https://circle.library.ubc.ca/rest/handle/2429/76942?expand=metadata"@en . "The Ark of Theseus: Industrial Artificial Ecologies in the Circumpolar RegionAngus DerocherB.Sc. Civil Engineering - University of Alberta 2017Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Architecture in the Faculty of Graduate Studies, School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture, Architecture ProgramCommittee Chair - John BassCommittee Members - Leslie Van Duzer & Ian McDonald\u00C2\u00A9 December 2020 1ABSTRACTIf all members of a species of toad are in a tank, is the tank their habitat? To scale up this premise, the global nature of the climate crisis puts all ecosystems in an artificially modified environment, one giant tank. There is no wilderness left and no true wildlife. Yet there are still fish climbing ladders and polar bears in jail. With breeding programs, park preserves, etc. a growing number of species exist in habitats maintained wholly or in part by artificial inter-ventions stamping the hallmarks of industrial society indelibly on the surface of the earth, In these circumstances, interference with these species is not only acceptable but desirable. Picking a specific case, the advance and retreat of the circumpolar boreal forest requires a gargantuan response and intervention. At this scale the only tools available are those of industrial mass production, which creates a new ecology that is both radically different and hauntingly familiar to the extent that the very species it sets out to support are no longer themselves. Neither, for that matter, are the human occupants of the territory tied as they are through structures to the world around them. TABLE OF CONTENTSINTRODUCTORY MATERIAL ABSTRACT - iTABLE OF CONTENTS - iiLIST OF FIGURES - iiiACKNOWLEDGEMENTS - ivPART 0 - THE INITIAL INVESTIGATIONS (GP1) - 1PART 1 - SMALL MOMENTS OF DISQUIET - 25PART 2 - CIRCUMPOLAR AREA AFFECTED - 35PART 3 - HUMAN ACTORS - 37PART 4 - ECOLOGICAL BREAKDOWN - 51 PART 5 - INDUSTRIAL ARTIFICIAL ECOLOGIES - 91BIBLIOGRAPHY - 119LIST OF FIGURES Fig. 1 Derocher, Angus. Some Developments in the Circumpolar Region and Their Interrelations - 17Fig. 2 Derocher, Angus. The Svalbard Archipelago - 19Fig. 3 Derocher, Angus. The Ny Alesund Townsite - 20Fig. 4 Derocher, Angus. Watering the Last Birch Tree in the City - 26Fig. 5 Derocher, Angus. Precipitation Drop Decimates Southern Parkland Steppe with Mass Tree Death - 28Fig. 6 Derocher, Angus. Seeking Sustenance at the Snow Fence Lines Shelter - 30Fig. 7 Derocher, Angus. New Rains and Warming Reawakens the Dormant Black Spruce Spreading the Forest - 32Fig. 8 Derocher, Angus. The Unnatural Natural Circumpolar Forest Retreat and Advance - 34Fig. 9 Derocher, Angus. Site Selection of the Coastal Boreal Forest and Southern Parkland Steppe - 36Fig. 10 Derocher, Angus. Circumpolar Forest International Actors - 38Fig. 11 Derocher, Angus. Arctic Council Circumpolar Forest Management Committee - 40Fig. 12 Derocher, Angus. Canada - 42Fig. 13 Derocher, Angus. Southern Parkland Steppe Retreat - 44Fig. 14 Derocher, Angus. Big John\u00E2\u0080\u0099s Apricots - Orchard and Produce Greenhouse Complex - 46Fig. 15 Derocher, Angus. Coastal Boreal Forest Advance - 48Fig. 16 Derocher, Angus. The Morning Fleet Leaving the Delta Fishing Settlement - 50Fig. 17 Derocher, Angus. Range of Environments South - 52Fig. 18 Derocher, Angus. Southern Parkland Steppe Plants - 54Fig. 19 Derocher, Angus. Supplying Water to Silvicultural Corridors - 56Fig. 20 Derocher, Angus. Forming a Continuous Habitat Network Over the Region - 58Fig. 21 Derocher, Angus. Southern Parkland Steppe Insects and Birds - 60Fig. 22 Derocher, Angus. Monitoring the Swallow Farming Network - 62 Fig. 23 Derocher, Angus. Southern Parkland Steppe Ungulates and Associates - 64Fig. 24 Derocher, Angus. Expanding Range from Habitat Corridors - 66 Fig. 25 Derocher, Angus. Southern Parkland Steppe Bears and Relations - 68 Fig. 26 Derocher, Angus. Recolonizing Along the Silvicultural Corridors from Refugia - 70Fig. 27 Derocher, Angus. Range of Environments North - 72 Fig. 28 Derocher, Angus. Coastal Boreal Forest Plants - 74 Fig. 29 Derocher, Angus. Seasonal Tree Cutters Collecting for the Paper Making Cooperative - 76Fig. 30 Derocher, Angus. Coastal Boreal Forest Insects and Birds - 78Fig. 31 Derocher, Angus. Marie Lee Adds a New Bee Bowl to Her Collection - 80Fig. 32 Derocher, Angus. Coastal Boreal Forest Ungulates and Associates - 82Fig. 33 Derocher, Angus. Feeding Time Along the Sedge Distribution Lines - 84Fig. 34 Derocher, Angus. Maintenance Survey of the Sedge Distribution Lines - 86Fig. 35 Derocher, Angus. Coastal Boreal Forest Bears and Relations - 88Fig. 36 Derocher, Angus. Distributing the Daily Polar Bear Kibble - 90Fig. 37 Derocher, Angus. Hydrological Cooperative Pumping & Storage Facility #245-92Fig. 38 Derocher, Angus. Artificially Constructed Southern Parkland Steppe - 94Fig. 39 Derocher, Angus. Plug in Hydrology and the New Infrastructure - 96Fig. 40 Derocher, Angus. Wetland Restoration with Hydrological Plug-Ins - 98Fig. 41 Derocher, Angus. Refilling the Drought Depleted Lakes - 100Fig. 42 Derocher, Angus. Monitoring Artificial Stream #1045 for Fish Spawning - 102 Fig. 43 Derocher, Angus. Coastal Boreal Forest Settlement and Production Hub - 104Fig. 44 Derocher, Angus. Coastal Boreal Ecological Infrastructure - 106 Fig. 45 Derocher, Angus. Patching the Holes in Melting Permafrost - 108 Fig. 46 Derocher, Angus. Constructing the Snow fence Pens - 110Fig. 47 Derocher, Angus. Collecting Qivuit from Muskox Herd 30 in Pasture 114 - 112Fig. 48 Derocher, Angus. Ferrying the Migrating Dolphin and Union Caribou - 114 Fig. 49 Derocher, Angus. Mosquito Domestication Pool at the Local Elementary - 116 Fig. 50 Derocher, Angus. Breakfast for Ursy (Ursus Maritimus Familiaris) - 118i iiACKNOWLEDGEMENTSI would like to thank John Bass, my committee chair, for his support and engagement with what, at times, was a rather ambitious and ambiguous undertaking. Furthermore, if it wasn\u00E2\u0080\u0099t for the insightful critiques and guidance of Leslie Van Duzer and Ian McDonald, the project would not have achieved the clarity that it did. Given the difficult circumstances this term, I appreciate immensely the time everyone has contributed. Of course, I would be remiss if I failed to thank all my friends in studio and later online for putting up with my ramblings. In particular, I owe Tricia Tecson, Stefan Reindl, and D\u00E2\u0080\u0099Arcy Hut-ton for both their support and direct contributions to the project. Finally, I\u00E2\u0080\u0099m sincerely grateful to my family whose insights into the polar regions and advice was always appreciated. iii ivAbstractThere is a coming cascade of loss due to climate change. The loss from this crisis requires a rethinking of the role of the building to both prevent losses and allow inhabitants to come to terms with those that are inevitable. Since loss is a process that happens over time, this rethinking requires evaluating the building\u00E2\u0080\u0099s behaviour over longer periods. In contrast to the current mode of continuous rapid consumption, an approach that sees a building as a series of systems functioning over a longer lifespan to be maintained or let to run their course might reduce the detrimental effect of construction. In particular, embracing the expressive opportunities of decay and change while maintaining a sense of coherence through the use of quotidian moments and memory would provide an opportunity for reconsidering societal values and modes of living.The project is currently situated in the arctic since the rapid changes experienced there are emblematic of those that will soon be seen worldwide. The program is currently anticipated as a mixed use research centre for the town of Ny \u00C3\u0085lesund in the Svalbard archipelago of the Norwegian high arctic. PART 0 - THE INITIAL INVESTIGATIONS (GP1)A brief note should be made about the structure of this thesis book. I have arranged the material to trace the path of my thoughts throughout the course of the project. Though this may initially seem confusing since the direction of the project shifted rather sharply halfway through, by doing so I hope to allow for echoes of my initial thoughts to become apparent in the later work. My initial thesis is not my final thesis, but it is related in some ways. If it seems hard to follow, I would keep this central idea in mind: this project did not set out to solve anything nor did it set out to propose something technical. It was always about considering the implications of climate change on thought processes in design and in life in general. Or, more specifically, what does it mean to live with a massive sense of constant loss as piece by piece our world is reworked by our actions. Thesis \u00E2\u0080\u009CMany years had elapsed during which nothing of Combray, save what was comprised in the theatre and the drama of my going to bed there, had any existence for me, when one day in winter, as I came home, my mother, seeing that I was cold, offered me some tea, a thing I did not ordinarily take.\u00E2\u0080\u009D \u00E2\u0080\u0093 34, In Search of Lost Times - ProustThere has always been loss, but never on this scale. While in previous generations, loss took the form of more localized cultural and ecological decay, the present ones face those losses writ large. As islands slip beneath the sea and continents burn, we become locked in a deadly fight against ourselves and our base instinct to consume. If we care to stop this calamity, we need to adopt new methods of construction and ecological principles to create new buildings and designs, but that is not what this project is necessarily about since that approach is ultimately based on the same cycle of continuous consumption; it has already been done and continues to be done ad nauseum. It was never a question of finding the right green idea or the right new technology, after all, nuclear power is already rather low carbon; it was a question of approach and priorities. The challenge is finding the expressive ideas that the shifts of the new epoch demands, which are not necessarily driven by technology. At its simplest, this project is looking at the idea of time in the Anthropocene and what a new attitude towards it could generate. Time in particular is relevant since consumption is intimately related to it, reliant as it is on fashion and material failure. It is not necessarily a question of having a proper maintenance plan to increase a building\u00E2\u0080\u0099s lifespan or reduce its ecological footprint, though both of those should become standard practice if we are really serious about preventing ecological collapse, but instead of using the extended idea of life in a building to propose a reappraisal of decay and occupation in architecture. If we embrace change in buildings, but, understanding that with the magnitude of change occurring we 1 2will simultaneously be pressed to preserve, we can use quotidian moments to re-establish a collective memory to establish some sense of coherence to these spaces. To render these thoughts down to a series of points :1. Loss is inevitable and must be embraced.2. The building is an active agent in shaping the site\u00E2\u0080\u0099s future. We have foregone the luxury of untouched nature. 3. Architectures is the armature of memory. Lived experience records itself in surfaces and the arranging of space. As these points are elaborated it should become clear how they interrelate and a series of principles will be derived to create rules for the design portion of the project. As they are implemented, it may be that buildings cease being conceived of as static creations, but instead, as a series of interelated systems extending through time. The building continues assembling and disassembling in various ways throughout its existence. The current site of the project is in the arctic, particularly Svalbard, an arctic archipelago near Greenland. This region is undergoing massive ecological shifts and there is a history of structures outlasting their initial purpose. Elaboration on Field of InquiryThe Death of Chocolate : Inevitable LossThe Current FutureIs it worth elaborating on climate change? The major facts should be known and widely understood. It is bad. Nevertheless, the precise details of the future are rather ill defined. However, broadly we can follow several key trends. Globally as the average temperature increases, ecosystems will either shift northward or upwards towards cooler temperatures that match their current ones while those at the pole will become radically different as southern species invade. Sea level rise will wipe out small islands and warming seas will eradicate corals. A rather sobering statistic that should be common knowledge is that every centimeter of vertical sea level rise is a meter of coastal inundation. To put it mildly, radical shifts will play out globally and even those currently willfully unaware must eventually reckon with the consequences. This project will take midrange predictions of climate change, already dire enough, as the most likely scenario because since decades have already been wasted with little progress on the issue it is likely the necessary measures will be implemented too late and in an inadequate fashionThis situation is, of course, worse in the arctic. Permafrost, ground frozen for more than two years, is thawing at an alarming rate, destabilizing buildings and infrastructure while also causing massive coastal erosion and landform changes. Southern species such as orcas are shifting northwards while those already there, such as narwhals, face a dire future with nowhere to retreat to. Once the sea ice goes, the species it supports will vanish with it unless some drastic actions are taken. It is here that some of the most radical forces are at play. In other parts of the world the shifts of climate change are more subtle as various tree species die off and droughts intensify, here the very ground is unstable and wasting away. There is no critical regionalism when there is no more region. The Loss of CoherenceAt this point, the major issues should be common knowledge, but it is the smaller things that start to become the most disturbing. Shifting local climates lead to the gradual unraveling of everyday weather that then loses sync with the built reality. For example, historically a rainy city, Vancouver has formed some adaptations to this situation. Sidewalks are often covered by extended awnings while landscape architects have embraced the idea that anything will grow. Development in low-lying coastal areas such as Richmond and False Creek is widespread. This situation leads to a consistent dissonance in the city between the moss-covered cedar rainforests and the palm trees planted at the various trendy beach side restaurants. Vancouver seems to emulate California. It is Canada\u00E2\u0080\u0099s warmest city, the film capital, and notoriously superficial. Heritage buildings attest to a continual fixation on a Spanish colonial style, which mutates later into a more Miami vibe established by certain flamboyant West End towers. Nevertheless all of these systems are tenuously sustained by the city\u00E2\u0080\u0099s temperate rainforest climate. Now compare to San Francisco, real California. Perpetually mild, with little shift between winter and summer, and much less rain, it is not Seattle; it is that aspirational California living. However, with climate change, to be clich\u00C3\u00A9, Seattle is becoming San Francisco and Vancouver will be cursed by having its California dream come true. Vancouver is simultaneously drying out and being inundated with severe consequences just beginning to appear. Leaving Edmonton, I thought I could finally look up in the summer, that the trees might not be dying. But, summers without rain in Vancouver are making a mockery of plantings from 30 years ago. Large trees are showing signs of distress and grass goes brown months before it used to. Furthermore, native flora such as salal bushes and red cedars are slowly dying off as the areas they grow in dry up. Statistically, Vancouver is becoming San Francisco 1. The predictions of climate change are already manifesting and these projections are an \u00E2\u0080\u009Coptimistic scenario\u00E2\u0080\u009D2 . Water restrictions have begun to be implemented in some summers in a city that always used to rain while low lying areas will likely flood as sea levels rise. Simultanesouly, one of the last of the once common birches in Edmonton is sustained by my mother watering it obsessively. About a bathtub of water a day. The underpinnings of cities, their foundational ecosystems, is beginning to unravel.There is a tendency with climate change to discuss it in economic or ecological terms; however, there is an emotional aspect to the crisis. Anxiety and depression are responses to crises as well; measuring a crisis in deaths is an oversimplification. The effects can echo for generations. Regarding climate change, the issue becomes global, but also much more difficult to diagnose. How exactly does one measure the loss of a type of tree? Who misses the rain?Essentially, ecological loss creates a loss of coherence in everyday life. As various specialty goods start to disappear or shift, noticeable disjunctions appear. Currently, Vanilla has become exorbitantly expensive. But what happens when it is chocolate? What happens when it is wine? At a certain point these will accumulate and disrupt even the most well insulated of lives. These situations demand more than a technocratic response. Increasingly absurd proposals to artificially refreeze the polar ice caps demonstrate the failures of this approach. A more fundamental rethinking of society should be considered. Principle 1: The site of the building will radically change, this must be anticipated in design1Bastin J-F, Clark E, Elliott T, Hart S, van den Hoogen J, Hordijk I, et al. (2019) \u00E2\u0080\u009DUnderstanding Climate Change from a Global Analysis of City Analogues.\u00E2\u0080\u009D (PLoS ONE 14(7):e0217592.), 8.2 Bastin et al. \u00E2\u0080\u009CUnderstanding Climate Change\u00E2\u0080\u009D, 1.3 4The Technician TrapThe Engineering Solution and ProblemThere is a certain risk that comes with technology made apparent by examining the history of interventions in the north. It is seemingly a reasonable response to try and solve the problems of the high arctic with more technology given its harsh terrain and complicated climate, but it is not necessarily the only avenue of exploration. Arctic design is littered with utopian sci-fi projects3. Proposals for domed cities such Frobisher Bay New Town I and Arctic town by Frei Otto as well as Safdie\u00E2\u0080\u0099s clusters of reconfigurable prefabricated homes abounded in the 1950\u00E2\u0080\u0099s and 60\u00E2\u0080\u0099s4. The north was where the space race and experimental housing overlapped. Fantastical science fiction elements such as lights to defy the polar night by recreating southern daylight patterns were common5. Reality could be denied by technology. More sensitive projects such as Erskin\u00E2\u0080\u0099s plan for Resolute bay were more attuned to the environment with large communal structures used to create sheltered spaces, but still failed as funding dried up6. However, this project moved beyond technological utopianism and began to look at sensory elements of life in the region.Nonetheless, these projects ultimately proved futile. In a strange way, the north and technology are not a perfect match. The harsh climate and the difficulty of importing goods and specialists makes maintenance an issue while the social sphere is heavily focused on temporary workers and resource extraction or government funded indigenous housing7. Simple cheap solutions prevail and have proven prone to wearing out quickly leaving the landscape strewn with old and abandoned relics from various eras. Fur trading forts, whaling 3 Sheppard, Lola and Mason White, \u00E2\u0080\u009CMany Norths Spatial Practice in a Polar Territory\u00E2\u0080\u009D (Actar Publishers, New York, 2017), 34.4 Sheppard and White \u00E2\u0080\u009CMany Norths\u00E2\u0080\u009D, 34.5 Sheppard and White \u00E2\u0080\u009CMany Norths\u00E2\u0080\u009D, 37.6 Sheppard and White \u00E2\u0080\u009CMany Norths\u00E2\u0080\u009D, 35.7 Sheppard and White \u00E2\u0080\u009CMany Norths\u00E2\u0080\u009D, 27.entrepots, military sites, weather stations, and mines litter the polar regions. The people leave, but the materials stay. Since shipping in the high arctic is extremely expensive due to the lack of infrastructure and the difficulty of shipping in frozen winter seas, material that ends up in the arctic remains long after its utility has ended. The region becomes a scrapheap of failed technology. In the current climate, however, these fragments present an opportunity. In light of current trends in sustainability, with an emphasis towards shifting modes of consumption, the idea of a circular economy or perhaps more realistically, an extended economy becomes possible; the environment does cause material to wear out. To specify, a circular economy is one in which materials are reused repeatedly. An extended one is one where obsolescence is accepted, but projects endure for long periods. In the arctic this assumes a particular relevance given the general poverty and lack of development. If the existing structures can be adapted and FIGURE COPYRIGHTED. -Arctic Town by Frei Otto, Ewald Bubner, with Kezno TangeRadical Arctic Proposals, Lee, 2012reused over their lifespan, perennial shortages of housing and buildings might be reduced. The over reliance on technological solutions obfuscates and obscures more obvious, but challenging answers. It is an easy answer, a panacea perpetually out of reach. What might stand instead is an approach that focuses on adjusting human behaviour, which is where the engineering approach breaks down. Avoiding the Technician Trap The difficulty is avoiding the baseness of maintenance or building performance without sacrificing their underlying ideals. It is not a question of ignoring practicalities, they are essential; however, but finding within them an idea of expressive maintenance and expressive decay. What should be avoided; however, is the technician trap defined by the resort to engineering principles and programs designed to reduce the user experience to variables and numbers. Ultimately, this process serves to do little beyond progressively dehumanizing its subjects. Instead, by examining the experiential aspect of wear, a sense of dignity is restored.The human aspect of material decay could be described as an idea of beautiful failure. In particular, by elevating the idea of maintenance beyond the purely functional, we begin to see the labour and ecological issues that Hilary Sample notes are implicit in architecture8. By forcing the designer early in the task of confronting the commission to account for its eventual decay, the designer is forced to consider ecological and labour issues. Who repairs it? Who cleans it and with what? We might move beyond Koolhaas\u00E2\u0080\u0099s surprise that \u00E2\u0080\u009Cexceptional\u00E2\u0080\u009D spaces are cleaned with \u00E2\u0080\u009Cgeneric technique\u00E2\u0080\u009D9 . There is no OMA brand bleach. Simple solutions should assume primacy since they are more accessible for a wider variety of users, allowing the building to be maintained by anyone. If anyone can maintain it, then its utility increases and it can endure longer. Furthermore, given the volume of contemporary construction and the general assumption of a 30 to 40 year lifespan of structures, we will be and are currently living in expired structures and functioning ruins10. It could be argued that architecture is never experienced in anything except a state of ruin unless it is on paper. In this framework, technology is envisioned as a subservient element; no more than what is required. It is not a question of creating high tech solutions nor of experimenting with the latest material. It is essential to recognize that we largely have the means for creating a new world and that the pursuit of ever more technical innovation at a certain point is a distraction and detrimental to the occupant. The dymaxion house is thankfully dead. Essentially self cleaning, it had vacuum ducts everywhere to draw in dust, the idea was liberation from cleaning entirely11. It\u00E2\u0080\u0099s failure, nevertheless, is possibly because as Mark Wigley notes \u00E2\u0080\u009Cin 8 Sample, Hilary. \u00E2\u0080\u009CMaintenance Architecture.\u00E2\u0080\u009D (The MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 2006.), 18.9 Sample, \u00E2\u0080\u009CMaintenance Architecture\u00E2\u0080\u009D, 99.10 Sample, \u00E2\u0080\u009CMaintenance Architecture\u00E2\u0080\u009D. 20.11 Sample, \u00E2\u0080\u009CMaintenance Architecture\u00E2\u0080\u009D, 141.FIGURE COPYRIGHTED - Resolute Bay Proposal - Ralph Erskine https://www.cca.qc.ca/en/events/39571/its-all-happening-so-fast?lb_url=%2Fen%2Flightbox%2Fmediacopy%2Fsummary%3Fmediacopy_url%3D%252Fapi%252Fmedia-copy%252F147435 6radicalizing every aspect of a house, it is no longer even recognizable as a house.\u00E2\u0080\u009D12. The project ignored the deep seated emotional ties spaces evoke for their inhabitants. Too alien of a space is not recognizable by our memories of and is rejected. Radical technical exploration will be supplanted by a more measured approach..Principle 2: Flexible low tech solutions with easy maintenance are preferred 12 Sample, \u00E2\u0080\u009CMaintenance Architecture\u00E2\u0080\u009D, 141.Please Feed the Bears Embracing Loss and Preservation When was there ever a new building? Once the first mote of dust settled on the surface, the aging process had already begun. As such, loss is inevitable, but the extent and degree are where choices remain. The illusion that we can preserve an eternally pristine surface or a perfect enclosure follows the same flawed reasoning that we can engineer our way out of a crisis. We are no longer in the Corbusian logic of a building as pristine machine13. However, simultaneously this defiance of loss is essential to the logic of construction; the building still needs to stand and have some semblance of functionality. In this sense, it is the nego-tiation between these two elements that creates moments of expression. When an object either seems to crumble or endure unexpectedly a moment of dissonance is created and the perception of time is enhanced. One is allowed to break out of the everyday and understand larger systems at play. This idea is itself not entirely new. Historical approaches to design arguably anticipated stains and wear on surfaces14. For example, the Venetian palazzos shows an accentuated pattern of dark and light areas through the use of soot stains and rainwater deposited dirt15. While historically, these choices led to theological arguments about dissolution and disap-pearance16. If we reconsider the building\u00E2\u0080\u0099s lifespan and account for reuse, we instead see these developments leading into a reincarnation of spaces and material. Thus, we move be-yond a simple discussion of the picturesque and into a more nuanced debate about a social role of decay. 13 Mostafavi, Mohsen, and David Leatherbarrow. \u00E2\u0080\u009COn Weathering: The Life of Buildings in Time.\u00E2\u0080\u009D (MIT Press, Cambridge Mass, 2001.), 15-16.14 Mohsen and Leatherbarrow, \u00E2\u0080\u009COn Weathering\u00E2\u0080\u009D, 38.15 Mohsen and Leatherbarrow, \u00E2\u0080\u009COn Weathering\u00E2\u0080\u009D, 38.16 Mohsen and Leatherbarrow, \u00E2\u0080\u009COn Weathering\u00E2\u0080\u009D, 39-41.However, it is important to consider what elements can decay and should decay. As mentioned, the surface is an ideal element to explore given that it is continually exposed to various processes. Such processes would include both physical and chemical actions. A marble step is worn down by both continuous foot traffic and acidic rainwater. Interestingly, the staircase itself remains intact as an object though the step has worn. Decay has a scale to it. From small moments such as the polishing of metal surfaces such as door handles, to the medium scale of window seals failing, to the larger scale structural decay of metal beams and columns. Various elements in the structure wear at different rates and generally in accordance with their scale. Smaller elements, especially those constantly in contact with humans, seem to wear faster than larger ones. In this sense, there are moments of dissonance as well. Perhaps a surface is left open to wear while structurally the building is intact, or a small metal element is allowed to stain an unchanging surface. There is also the question of the various mechanical systems, which, though preferably durable, involve moving parts and thus inevitably fail. The question with these systems is perhaps how to anticipate this failure. In this case, we may return to ideas from the past and seek simpler human operated systems. Maybe curtains are needed to cover windows. A whole set of operations opens up with failure. There is also a central question of varying timescales. How long does an element last and what happens when everything around it that gave it logic disappears? For example, an elevator shaft without an elevator is liberated from its original purpose and becomes a purely spatial element ripe for reinvention, but if the building around it is wood and rots away then the concrete remainder is a formal and spatial element. Embodying a memory of its function, but without reference, it becomes a solely disconnected object out of time and place. The longer the object endures the less sense can be made of it and the more the situation becomes malleable. In the end, it can be whatever its users desire. The time factor liberates it. What of the material that decayed, however? It did not really disappear, but instead lost its formal element entirely. Unlike the elevator shaft, the wood around it has entirely disintegrated, but remains on the ground and in the structure itself as detritus. Material choices are one of the largest determining factors in the rate of decay of various elements of the structure. They are also extremely connected to program since continually occupied spaces experience more wear. Some materials may endure for centuries and other wear out in a day. Quinta Monroy by ELEMENTAL in Peru is an exploration of a similar idea of expanding spaces over time while elements endure. The concrete element of the project provide an anchor onto which inhabitants can expand the structure as they need over time. In comparison, the FIGURE COPYRIGHTED - Quinta Monroy - ELEMENTAL Photo by Cristobal Palma - https://dac.dk/en/knowledgebase/architecture/quinta-monroy/7 8Nid d\u00E2\u0080\u0099Abeille project in Casablanca by Candillis and Woods shows the loss of conceptual clarity when expansion is not anticipated or done sympathetically. Both projects, however, are extremely spare and seem to lose their clarity as additions are made, which is antithetical to what this project aims to achieve. In essence, it may be more useful to consider a building in this way of thinking as a set of processes instead of a fixed idea. A series of systems in flux where each in relation to the others achieves varying degrees of coherence. Through this, an approach that more accurately reflects the design challenges of the present crisis might emerge. If we cannot rely on a steady environmental state to guarantee sites for structures, then structures will have to embrace this constant change and work to either deny or accentuate elements of it. The Building as Active AgentIf the building is now a system itself, this logic can be expanded to include its relationship with site. Sites do change over the course of a building\u00E2\u0080\u0099s existence with urbanization, densification, and etc, but the degree of change that we are observing at present requires a reappraisal. If the building is to be considered changing as well, what is the relationship between the change of the building and the change of its site? The response is that the building\u00E2\u0080\u0099s systems feed into the systems of the site itself contributing to or counteracting the ongoing changes. These changes are highly dependent on location. The urban environment changed by a building might be more related to social elements while a rural building would be more intertwined with the ecological elements at play. A quick example might help illustrate this point. The terra preta of the amazon is an extremely fertile black earth soil recording the inhabitants\u00E2\u0080\u0099 activities in the region17. The record of their inhabitation of areas is noted in 17 Kawa, Nicholas \u00E2\u0080\u009CAmazonia in the Anthropocene : People, Soils, Plants, Forests,\u00E2\u0080\u009D(University of Texas Press, Austin, 2016), 59FIGURE COPYRIGHTED Nid d\u00E2\u0080\u0099Abeille Housing Project - Candilis & Woods - 1952 & Laterhttps://twitter.com/ArchFoundation/status/997015313911832576/photo/2high soil fertility and plant growth, a living record of inhabitation despite the structures long having disappeared. In another example, long abandoned earthworks create depressions in the soil forming microclimates where moisture collects. If a building changes over time, then we see these legacies as moments of interactions opportunities for long-term creativity. The building may act as an ecological stimulus as various elements decay and seed the soil or through creating various microclimates by blocking wind or intensifying sunlight. It is well documented that city centres create growing zones for plants much further north than their rural surroundings by raising the temperatures and sheltering from wind. In light of climate change, however, this dynamic becomes an opportunity. The building could enhance the survival of various endemic species, provide enhanced growing areas for gardens, or act as a seed for an entirely new ecosystem. In all likelihood, it may be a combination of all three elements. In the arctic, the ecosystems are fragile, and vulnerable to sudden collapse if the sea ice shifts dramatically so it is likely that current trends will upend them. Thus, the survival of various species will depend on the desire of humans to preserve them. We see this discourse already as plans are discussed about feeding polar bears to try and maintain populations (Derocher, 370, 2012). Whatever ecosystem that remains, long affected by humans in the form of aerial pollutant deposition and hunting, will have to be supported by human decisions. What animals thrive and which die is by and large within our purview. Architecturally, this presents a conundrum, that any building built in these regions will be a disruptive element. For example, settlements in northern regions are notoriously attractive to polar bears who scavenge on garbage and whatever game hunters bring in. These bears inevitably become problem animals requiring relocation or elimination. However, if we reverse this logic, then the building by disruption can become a beneficial element. If the ecological system is collapsing, then the structure could enhance habitat through nesting areas, sheltered spaces, and feeding zones. In short, instead of being a passive observer, the building transforms into an active agent on the site. In a sort of twisting of Zumthor\u00E2\u0080\u0099s reasoning that \u00E2\u0080\u009Cthe physical substance of what is built has to resonate with the physical substance of the area\u00E2\u0080\u009D the building becomes integral by becoming the physical substance of the area18. Potentially providing spaces for food distribution or creating new sheltered ecologies for partial domestication, which, to be frank, is what this process will ultimately lead to, the building feeds the bears. Nevertheless, these relations are dependent on the inhabitants of the building achieving a relationship between their interior lives and the larger system around them. The building is still for humans to inhabit. Principle 3: Structural elements will embrace positively impacting local ecology through active change18 Zumthor, Peter, Thinking Architecture. (Birkh\u00C3\u00A4user, Basel, 2010), 99.9 10Toast and the Sublime : Everyday LifeThe question is how one adapts to unimaginable change, to which the answer could be toast. In the sense that, when there is little one can do, one returns to the elemental aspects of life, the minutia over which one has control. In short, the simple pleasure of toasted bread. To counter the sense of displacement that is felt by the occupant of a space that no longer makes sense or a society foreign to the one where one grew up, there is a desire to return to normalcy. If the building is considered as a series of shifting systems, then the occupants will desire stability if these move too fast. Nevertheless, it is imperative that the occupant does not descend into a kind of blind stupor; the balance and relation between interior behaviour and the site are of primary importance.An architectural example of this sort of design would be Alexandra Road estate in London. The project by Neave Brown incorporates the classic idea of an English street into what is otherwise a highly modernist structure. The use of plants and gardens, another element typical of English residential design, further humanizes the space. Radical change and densification is balanced by a respect for normal everyday life. In a way it makes sense to examine climate change, our current unimaginable problem, as the archetypal plague, the creeping disaster, which humanity so easily foresees yet routinely fails to plan for. It is a catastrophe similar to the literary plague in Camus\u00E2\u0080\u0099s \u00E2\u0080\u009CThe Plague\u00E2\u0080\u009D. As an example of the behaviour under discussion, consider the Covid 19 pandemic of 2020, which traces patterns similar to its literary counterpart. Easily predicted, viruses had been jumping between animals and humans through poor sanitation in China for decades at this point, the virus spread globally leading to confinement and global shutdowns of an astounding magnitude. As the situation was predictable, the response was as well. Failure to act swiftly was prevented by a desire to avoid panic and overreaction, similar to the literary prefect of Oran\u00E2\u0080\u0099s refusal to declare a plague despite the ominous swarming of infected rats. As the situation progresses, similar reactions take place in the literary and real populations as time collapses around them and futures become impossible. The citizens end up in an aimless existence where everyday life fades into an unending emptiness. The retreat follows. Confronted by the overwhelming situation, the minutia of everyday life assumes primary importance. The literary citizens indulge themselves with whatever food and entertainment is at hand while real ones begin baking bread, making toast, and obsessing over plants. Even taking out the trash takes on an unanticipated and absurd narrative importance. In the face of a power against which one feels incapable of acting, seeking normalcy and the everyday become the sole form of relief. When there is so little one can do, one does all one can.A sense of normalcy is highly dependent on one\u00E2\u0080\u0099s environment, and in this case the architect\u00E2\u0080\u0099s FIGURE COPYRIGHTED - Alexandra Road Estate - Neave Brown - 1978https://archinect.com/news/bustler/5995/2018-royal-gold-medal-awarded-to-social-housing-pioneer-neave-brownrole is clear. We do not need to create a new radical plague kitchen, but create a sense of comfort an familiarity that allows the occupants to navigate their new world. Constructing the logic of the everyday is our domain. The direct experience of space creates opportunities for architects to either disrupt or reinforce habits. Referring to Olgiati\u00E2\u0080\u0099s \u00E2\u0080\u009CNon-Referential Architecture\u00E2\u0080\u009D, the fundamental element of architectural control is the room, which has a sensorial impact on the inhabitant19. Extending this idea the fundamental element of the home is the room and perhaps the moments of tension between the various rooms and their programs. Here the architect\u00E2\u0080\u0099s relationship to the everyday wellbeing of the inhabitants comes into sharpest relief. Certain programmatic consistency is one of the systems that changes the least in the design of the new architecture. Certain elements may become programmatic anchors within an otherwise destabilized structure. In particular those programmatic elements that are more resistant to change than others. Those that require supporting service connections such as water and sewer connections are generally more stationary. Other elements such as kitchens have particular emotional resonance. These elements become the moments of consistency. While the various plagues swirl outside, the architect is still tasked with making a properly functioning kitchen. The question then might be in what ways the tension between these two poles might be resolved. In what way can domestic simplicity be seen in relation to large scale phenomena? Olgiati suggests that the presence of contradictory elements in architecture provide a point of intellectual engagement and design opportunity20. In response, through embracing the changing aspects of materials and surfaces, the interior joins the exterior in similar movement; the tension resolves itself by way of each element reveling in their transitory natures, maintained at the whim of the occupant. The repair of a broken element or the wearing of varnish is an echo of the fa\u00C3\u00A7ade\u00E2\u0080\u0099s decay and the general repair of the building. The 19 Olgiati, Valerio and Markus Breitschmid. \u00E2\u0080\u009CNon-Referential Architecture,\u00E2\u0080\u009D (Park Books AG, Zurich, 2019), 30-31.20 Olgiati and Breitschmid, \u00E2\u0080\u009CNon-Referential\u00E2\u0080\u009D, 106-107.occupant by being involved in the maintenance of the building is tied into the larger project of maintaining the ecosystem that surrounds them. The connection allows for the occupant to regain a sense of agency in the face of a seemingly insurmountable problem.Principle 4: Key programmatic elements will be identified to act as anchors within the building.11 12Madeleines and Tea :Architecture and MemoryThe Negotiation of CultureOne element missing from the literary plague but observed in the contemporary crisis is the retreat to the past. As the future dies off, exploring the past becomes the sole avenue of escape. Old romantic partners resurface and family films are dragged out of the attic. This fact becomes important since the twentieth first century will be a century of mourning. Despite the revivalist and nativist desire to recreate a misremembered glorious past, cultural memory slip away in the deluge of the digital while the physical moments of recollection, the cultural landscapes and sets on which communal rituals play out, dies alongside it. The longstanding idea of buildings as embodying cultural or spiritually significant concepts is withering in the face of global culture, the new non-referential world1. These designifying processes will only be compounded by ecological factors. Nevertheless, it is not as if memory or a sense of community is dead, instead it is the job of the new architecture to provide a space within which these new rituals and cultures can take shape. However, as a caveat, rituals do not create rooms, the room creates the ritual. The basilica, that classic church layout, predates Christianity as a classical civic structure and the famed domes of Ottoman mosques follow the model of the Byzantine Hagia Sophia. The rituals of space were confined to what was pre-existing and adapted. Pyramidal forms appear across cultures not because of their spiritual worthiness, but because they are one of the simplest ways to construct large structures. Ironically, the limitations of physics end up shaping the ideas of the immaterial. We cannot imagine that which we do not know. While there is inevitable push and pull of space culturally, the limitations of finance and physics end up confining 1 Olgiati and Breitschmid, \u00E2\u0080\u009CNon-Referential\u00E2\u0080\u009D, 14. the imagination within the practical and the ritual in the room. These decisions are then culturally justified after the fact. Spaces are adapted and readapted ad nauseum. Synagogues become mosques, hospitals become apartments, and bandstands become shelters. In the end, the initial designer of the space must acknowledge that they do no nor cannot anticipate all uses of the space, nor should they attempt; such an approach borders on the totalitarian. The space must be adaptable and free.However, the designer still has to justify their actions and find some sort of bearing for their work. In a sense, what I am suggesting is that in this disorienting cultural medley, we return to Richard Serra\u00E2\u0080\u0099s elemental architecture that provides \u00E2\u0080\u009Ca sense of volume and space\u00E2\u0080\u009D2. However, not necessarily in a completely fixed sense. Instead, we see that in this changing environment, certain elements of the building remain fixed, and correspond to certain immobile environmental aspects as well; the polar night and mountains endure while snow vanishes. In essence, these immovable architectural elements of these spaces focus on systems operating at a far larger timescale while the shifting elements operate within more dynamic systems. For example, while the glazing locations might be largely prescribed and steady, relating to light continual light cycles, the material of exterior stairs might instead be subject to continual wear and contribute to forming a new soil layer or track the yearly snowpack. The built form accommodates the different scales of shifting in human culture. Some elements change slowly enough to seem constant while others are being rapidly eroded from the moment of creation. The Role of MemoryThere is more to memory than remembering. This is not a memorial project and does not aspire to become a historic shrine or didactic space. Memory might instead be thought of as 2 Serra, Richard, \u00E2\u0080\u009CWriting Interviews\u00E2\u0080\u009D (The University of Chicago Press, Chicago and London, 1994,)an understanding of scale, the passage of time, and the communal. Not communal as related to local community or tribe, but a larger sense of the interrelated elemental aspects of human existence. As Zumthor notes \u00E2\u0080\u009Calmost everything that surrounds us, our landscapes, our villages, and cities, down to our houses and the rooms where we live, is full of history\u00E2\u0080\u009D3. Not the grand history of epics, but the memory of hands and feet, bodies that touched surfaces and altered them, leaving traces that awake within us a sense of grandeur and place. We learn to know where we are. These days the world is drowning in nostalgia, however, and differentiating between these various types of remembering is critical. Since these same thought processes easily morph into revanchist and nationalistic violence. Ill remembered histories become fact then descend into fantasy; a \u00E2\u0080\u009Crestorative nostalgia\u00E2\u0080\u009D takes over4. Restorative nostalgia, as presented by Boym, is a way of considering the past as longed for and as superior to a corrupted present5. The task of the people is therefore to recover and restore this past. The classic tales of nationalism all take place within this framework. It is to be avoided at all costs since it embraces a false vision of the past based on omission and forgetting. Facing an uncertain future it is easy to see the past as superior since the past is considered known and familiar territory; however, as any minority will point out, the version of the past that is remembered and idolized is always that of the majority to the detriment of others. There is, however, a second option, reflective nostalgia6. In this version, albeit more personal, the individual does not seek the restoration of the past, but instead, confronted by it, is forced to reckon with the passage of time and questions of durability7. Reflection can be humorous or serious and is more spontaneously generated than the grand narrative of restorative 3 Zumthor, Peter and Mari Lending, \u00E2\u0080\u009CA Feeling of History.\u00E2\u0080\u009D (Scheidegger & Spiess, Zurich, 2018.), 15.4 Boym, Svetlana, \u00E2\u0080\u009CThe Future of Nostalgia\u00E2\u0080\u009D (Basic Books, New York, 2001), 41. 5 Boym, Svetlana, \u00E2\u0080\u009CThe Future of Nostalgia\u00E2\u0080\u009D, 41.6 Boym, Svetlana, \u00E2\u0080\u009CThe Future of Nostalgia\u00E2\u0080\u009D, 49.7 Boym, Svetlana, \u00E2\u0080\u009CThe Future of Nostalgia\u00E2\u0080\u009D, 49. nostalgia8. This second kind of nostalgia allows for a more accessible architecture since the procession of time is universal and while individual points of access may be unique, the marks of use are common and can be understood and speculated on. A sense of place is established that does not belong to any group and is not dependent on cultural background. Projects such as \u00E2\u0080\u009CThe Ethics of Dust\u00E2\u0080\u009D by Jorge Otero-Pailos embrace this sort of nostalgia wherein the traces of dirt, oil, dust, and smoke lifted from the wall before restoration evoke a reflection simultaneously personal and communal9. Uses and people may shift through the building, but the structure endures recording each trace and excluding nobody. The means to access this history is through a knowledge of what endures and what has passed, to parse between ghosts and ruins. Derrida notes that the very act of remembering disrupts time and forces reflection as one must compare the present with the past10. This 8 Boym, Svetlana, \u00E2\u0080\u009CThe Future of Nostalgia\u00E2\u0080\u009D, 50. 9 Sample, \u00E2\u0080\u009CMaintenance Architecture\u00E2\u0080\u009D, 121.10 Derrida, Jacques, \u00E2\u0080\u009CSpectres of Marx : The State of Debt, the Work of Mourning and the New International\u00E2\u0080\u009D (Routledge, New York, 2006), 6-7.FIGURE COPYRIGHTED - The Ethics of Dust - Westminster Hall - Otero Pailoshttp://www.oteropailos.com/the-ethics-of-dust-series#/the-ethics-of-dust-westminster-hall/13 14sense of displacement and change enriches structures and provides a possible moment for individuals to engage intellectually with the structure. Engaging architecture that allows an individual to think through a building allows it to escape its individual cultural origin and become universal and thus flexible11. An architectural invocation of this would be a space for reflection on the shifting ecological reality of our current dilemma while the individual moments of maintenance allow for individual agency in the large challenge. Nevertheless, a contrast is maintained to this presence in the form of the everyday experience since without this presence space ceases to be functional and becomes a ruin, defeating any ecological benefit achieved from durability. Ultimately, what is interesting a space that has endured is a record of presence and beautiful spoilage. The recording of presence is not necessarily a direct translation of historical events or inhabitation nor reconstruction. It would be more useful to see it as an emotional moment of awakening followed by an intellectual engagement12. It also follows that this translation must be sensorial as well along the traditional Proustian model, though perhaps with matte finish substituted for madeleines, wherein a disruptive sensory moment triggers reflection. The exact mechanism of this process could vary from light conditions, air flow, scent, finish, or colour. A personal example of this phenomena is that the smell of pine tar on wood evokes childhood visits to historic Norwegian buildings. On a more prosaic level, the workmen who painted the ceiling of my current studio painted over some star shaped stickers leaving the ghostly presence of someone\u00E2\u0080\u0099s childhood indulgence that simultaneously leaves me to reflect on my own experience with similar stickers. Especially when one is stuck at home in the middle of a plague, whether literal or metaphorical, small preserved disruptions take on greater significance easily. The moments tie the everyday into a larger cohesive narrative of the transitory nature of existence while simultaneously finding value within it. 11 Olgiati and Breitschmid, \u00E2\u0080\u009CNon-Referential\u00E2\u0080\u009D, 60.12 Zumthor and Lending \u00E2\u0080\u009CA Felling of History\u00E2\u0080\u009D, 29.Principle 5: Unchanging structural elements tied to unchanging site characteristics act as sensory stimulants of memory.Site and ProgramSiteThe arctic region is a crucible for the various ideas in this project so far. Once the sea ice melts, the ecosystem collapses. Even if it retreats to solely over the high arctic, shifting from shallower water to deeper water alters the dynamics of the ecosystem. But the ice carries with it more than ecology. It carries ways of life and entire cultural histories, and not just for the Inuit and other circumpolar peoples. It is the death of an entire concept of north. Foundational myths such as the crushing of the Franklin expedition ships unravel. The Fram expedition loses its clarity if one cannot imagine ice that would entomb and carry the ship across the pole1. There rate of change in the arctic from climate change is almost unmatched on the planet. As such, the question of adaptating and rethinking architecture is much more pressing in this region. Therefore, despite this project possibly taking place almost anywhere in the world given the global scale of the crisis, the arctic provides a contemporary zone of disruption familiar to a larger audience. On a personal note, it might be worth acknowledging that one of the geneses of this project involved reflecting on something I had tried to ignore for years, family ties to the arctic. Few children could claim to have grown up aware of climate change since birth, but some of us are unlucky. Checking the sea ice levels every winter and seeing a new low was not the highlight of the Christmas season. In particular, I return to a single memory of walking on a fjord in Svalbard, a Norwegian archipelago in the high arctic east of Greenland. The fjord is called, now with bitter notes of contemporary irony, Isfjord, meaning ice fjord. The trip involved taking snowmobiles out to the centre of the fjord, driving one over a seal hole, 1 Nansen, Fridtjof, \u00E2\u0080\u009CFurthest North,\u00E2\u0080\u009D (Harper & Brothers Publishers, New York, 1897.), 38-43. preventing a small ring seal pup from diving back in. The memory has stayed with me since petting the seal pup was lovely; sealskin has the texture of a polished dog\u00E2\u0080\u0099s ear. Later, the snowmobiles hit some bad ice, one of them flipped and threw me and my mother onto the ice. This event may have also traumatically fixed the trip in my memory. I have never been back to that fjord, but I never will be able to that spot again. The ice disappeared a decade ago and so did the seal pups. It is not expected to return and nobody will walk on the sea there again. Arctic environments magnify environmental unraveling and cultural displacement. If nobody notices the birch trees or the rain, the arctic is unmissable. For those inclined to believe that climate change is being noticed, the Great Barrier Reef dies repeatedly every summer and it largely goes unreported; there is always something irrelevantly contemporary happening at the time. By placing the project in the arctic, it gives it clarity of action. It shows that the approach that I will be taking, which, could be played out in any region of the globe, in its clearest light. However, the arctic is a vast region with each area presenting a different set of challenges. For instance, the Canadian arctic, the region is beset by widespread poverty and social issues with a large indigenous population. Development has been sporadic and largely as a result of periodic desires to assert sovereignty or in light of massive health crises2. Current architectural responses are mostly in response to these crises and funding is inconsistent and generally lacking for development. What is built is built cheaply and quickly; a recipe for failure. Russia follows a similar trend, except northern regions, such as Siberia and the White Sea have seen the development of large cities alongside massive petrochemical extraction. However, architectural interest has been lagging given Russia\u00E2\u0080\u0099s political and economic instability in the last few decades. One region where architectural interest2 Sheppard and White \u00E2\u0080\u009CMany Norths\u00E2\u0080\u009D, 26-27.15 16Beginning of the Little Ice Age205020001950190018501800175017001650160015501500 2100ExplorationSettlementIndu stryMythScienceNarrative~1500 Dorsetculturedisappears~1500 Inuit settle in current territory ~1450 Decline ofGreenlandNorse1497 Cabot huntsNorthwestPassage1540Unicorn horn offered to HolyRoman Emperor~1580 Russian conquestof Siberia begins 1555 Muscovy Companychartered in London 1596 Baretzs Expeditiondiscovers Svalbard.Walrus hunted forprofit in earnest 1610 Hudson BayExplored by Hudson 1619 Whaling begins at Smeerenburg 1657 Smeerenburgabandoned 1788 York Factory founded 1850 Decline of Walrus in Svalbard 1860 Sale of Alaska to USA due to declining fur trade animal population 1920 Svalbard Treaty 1926 Amundsenat NorthPole 1906 Coal mined in Svalbard1906 GjoaSails the Northwest Passage1941 Svalbard Evacuated 1945-50 LongyearbyenReconstructed 2004 Kiruna plansto move 2004 Kiruna beginsto move2007 Ice free NorthwestPassage2008 SvalbardGlobalSeed Vaultestablished2004 Kiruna moved1988IntergovernmentalPanel on Climate Change 1958 Frobisher BayNew Town IE.A. Gardner 1960 Frobisher BayNew Town IIPeter DicksonAssociates withRounthwaite &Fairfield 1976 Resolute BayProjectErskine2050 Two thirds decrease of Polar Bears 1974 Safdie\u00E2\u0080\u0099s Prefabricatedmodule forFrobisher Bay1939 French Recherche Expedition 2007 Russian Polar Submersible Expedition 2050 Ice free North Pole 2080 Polar bears reduced to relic population in interior of Arctic Archipelago1931 \u00E2\u0080\u009DAt the Mountains of Madness\u00E2\u0080\u009D Lovecraft 1901 \u00E2\u0080\u009DThe Purple Cloud\u00E2\u0080\u009D M.P. Shiel1897 \u00E2\u0080\u009CFarthest North\u00E2\u0080\u009D Nansen1800\u00E2\u0080\u0099s Rise of trapping in Svalbard 1671 Unicorn Throneof Denmark 1721 Denmark asserts ancientclaim to Greenland with expedition to see if Norsestill there Early scientificobservations ofSvalbard 1670 Hudson\u00E2\u0080\u0099s Bay Companychartered in London 1668 Fort Rupert Establishedon Hudson Bay 1728 Bering Strait surveyed by Bering 1716 Churchillfounded byHBC 1740\u00E2\u0080\u0099s Russian fur trappingFoundation of Russian Alaska Decline of commercialwhaling in Svalbard 1827 First Scientific Voyageto Svalbard by BaltazarKeilhauFig. 1 - Some Developments in the Circumpolar Region and Their InterrelationsFIGURE COPYRIGHTED - The Circumpolar Regionhas not lagged in northern clime is in Scandinavia, Denmark, Norway, and Sweden, and Finland. In particular, Norway has dedicated substantial resources to adapting its northern regions to the characteristics of northern life. Above the arctic circle, winters include extended periods of darkness while the summer has periods of twenty-four-hour sunlight destabilizing social patterns and cultural traditions originating further south. Elements so commonly assumed universal fall apart once the 66th latitude, the arctic circle, is crossed. In this zone, time becomes much less rigid. Winter darkness is accompanied by slower pace of life and seasonal festivities with a focus on light and warmth. The summer is an inversion of this phenomena with extended periods of light allowing for activity to continue almost around the clock, leading to some unfortunate instances of mowing the lawn at midnight. It helps to examine some of its most northernly inhabited areas, such as the archipelago of Svalbard. The archipelago is situated between 74 and 81 degrees north and 10 and 35 degrees east in the Barents Sea to the east of Greenland and the northwest of the Norwegian mainland3. See figure for precise location. Dominated by old eroding mountains, glaciers, and large rocky areas4, Svalbard presents a foreboding topography with a harsh sublime beauty. Large fjords cut into the landscape and glaciers calve into the water5. The mountains are continuously being torn apart due to a freeze thaw cycle creating large fan shaped screes at the base of the slopes6. Large coastal plains are also present7. Prehistoric luxuriant vegetation in the tertiary period when the climate was much warmer has created large coal seams exploited by miners from many nationalities8. However, currently the landscape is shaped by 3 Hisdal, Vidar, \u00E2\u0080\u009CSvalbard : Nature and History,\u00E2\u0080\u009D (Gj\u00C3\u00B8vik Trykkeri A.s., Oslo, 1998), 7.4 Hisdal, \u00E2\u0080\u009CSvalbard: Nature and History\u00E2\u0080\u009D, 10-11.5 Hisdal, \u00E2\u0080\u009CSvalbard: Nature and History\u00E2\u0080\u009D, 22.6 Hisdal, \u00E2\u0080\u009CSvalbard: Nature and History\u00E2\u0080\u009D, 23.7 Hisdal, \u00E2\u0080\u009CSvalbard: Nature and History\u00E2\u0080\u009D, 24.8 Hisdal, \u00E2\u0080\u009CSvalbard: Nature and History\u00E2\u0080\u009D, 19.17 18its continued relationship with water that creates numerous eccentric landforms as it freezes, thaws, and flows down from the glaciers9. In short, it is a thoroughly northern landscape.Historically this sort of landscape has been appreciated for its relation to the sublime. Burke\u00E2\u0080\u0099s description of the sublime as that which \u00E2\u0080\u009Cexcite(s) the ideas of pain and danger\u00E2\u0080\u009D or \u00E2\u0080\u009Cis in any sort terrible, or is conversant about terrible objects\u00E2\u0080\u009D fits the Svalbard landscape well10. It is not hospitable, having no indigenous inhabitants and supporting little in the way of flora and fauna. Habitation is almost entirely reliant on imported food and materials while temperatures are notably cold and hostile for the unprotected. Contemporary Svalbard reflects an image of almost unspoiled nature by its foreboding; however, such thoughts are highly inaccurate; no landscape is pristine anymore. In a sense, Svalbard\u00E2\u0080\u0099s sublime dejection is being joined with a global sublime in the form of climate change, the horrifying scale of which is just beginning to dawn on the global public despite longstanding scientific warnings. In a way, climate change shares something of the state of the sublime, not in the sense of the beautiful, but in the sense of an overwhelming and terrible force. Something that when one attempts to comprehend the scale of the danger presented invokes in the individual an overwhelming sense of dread. One could draw a connection to the fear that the arctic inspired in the late Victorian and early modern writers. Particularly writers such as Lovecraft in \u00E2\u0080\u009CThe Mountains of Madness\u00E2\u0080\u009D, which, albeit set in Antarctica, evokes foreboding landscapes similar to both poles, and Shiel in the \u00E2\u0080\u009CThe Purple Cloud\u00E2\u0080\u009D found in these regions zones of disruption and terror similar to dystopian trends in contemporary culture. The coming horror of living through climate change parallels early visions of the horror of living through the harsh and forbidding arctic. 9 Hisdal, \u00E2\u0080\u009CSvalbard: Nature and History\u00E2\u0080\u009D, 27.10 Edmund, Burke, \u00E2\u0080\u009CThe Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke : Volume 1\u00E2\u0080\u009D (Project Gutenberg, The Internet, 2005), 110.Svalbard Archipelago1:15 600,000Sea(NORWAY)JOSEFLAND08NY ALESUNDLongyearbyenSpitsbergenNordaustlandetEdgeoyaHistoric Winter Maximum1986 -2005Winter Maximum2081 -2100Winter MaximumHistoric SummerMinimum1986- 2005SummerMinimum2081-2100No SummerMinimumThe future of Svalbard is a highly contested topic since it is highly dependent on actions taken elsewhere. Glaciers retreat, permafrost melts, sea ice disappears, and snow turns to rain. Particularly noticeable is the loss of sea ice. The ice supports the largest predator on the islands, the Polar Bear, and its loss would lead to either extirpation or a relic population supported by human activity. Human activity is also quite immediately reshaping Svalbard. The vegetation is highly sensitive to vehicle traffic while the ground is easily deformed creating scars on the landscape that endure for decades11. Driftwood also accumulates on the shoreline from logging in Siberia where, when loose logs escape and drift down the rivers to the Arctic ocean, they are carried by currents over to Svalbard where it has been used as a building material12. The landscape is constantly in flux, but increasingly uncertain.Human inhabitation has also shaped the archipelago. The islands have historically been exploited by hunters and whalers, but their settlements were largely temporary bases. The largest physical presence on the islands is a record of coal mining. Greatly diminished from its height under the cold war, mining is still carried out by Russian and Norwegian state companies13. However, this diminishing has left abandoned settlements and infrastructure across the landscape creating an extremely remote post-industrial landscape. Another interesting element is that the Svalbard treaty, while placing the islands under Norwegian sovereignty, allows for all signatory nations\u00E2\u0080\u0099 citizens to pursue civilian interests on the islands14. In a sense, Svalbard is a microcosm of a coming future. One where ecological disruption coincides with a constantly shifting population and decaying industrial structures. Questions of conservation are directly tied to human habitation and structures must last for long periods of time due to the difficulty of importing material. 11 Hisdal, \u00E2\u0080\u009CSvalbard: Nature and History\u00E2\u0080\u009D, 28. 12 Hisdal, \u00E2\u0080\u009CSvalbard: Nature and History\u00E2\u0080\u009D, 30.13 Hisdal, \u00E2\u0080\u009CSvalbard: Nature and History\u00E2\u0080\u009D, 115.14 Hisdal, \u00E2\u0080\u009CSvalbard: Nature and History\u00E2\u0080\u009D, 99.Ny Alesund1:8000 Bird SanctuaryBird Sanctuary & Scientific Instrument Area Scientific Instrument AreaFig. 3 - The Svalbard ArchipelagoFig. 3 - The Ny Alesund Townsite19 20The specific location of the project in its current interpretation is the very small town of Ny \u00C3\u0085lesund in the western coast of Svalbard. The small town historically was a company town for a Norwegian coal mining company. However, as the importance of coal has drastically declined, the town was switched to scientific research. It currently has very few inhabitants, roughly 13015. In recent years, this development has encouraged the creation of numerous research stations in Ny \u00C3\u0085lesund. The town has a substantial port facility as a legacy of the mines as well as several old mining structures and a zeppelin docking facility16. Located on the small flat coastal plain in front of the mountains, the town is surprisingly well equipped for such a remote location. However, it still lacks many amenities and retains the poor suburban layout of its mining past. Program The program of the structure is at once an important and irrelevant element of this project. Given that it currently operates in a largely realistic scenario, the genesis for the structure does have a certain relevance. In this case, the main program would be related to the setting of Ny \u00C3\u0085lesund. Given that the main economic driver in the town is scientific research, this element should be involved in the project in some sense. Another element would be housing given that the town is largely structured around communal or multi-family housing given that few people live there long-term and the town is entirely owned by the Norwegian state corporation supporting the researchers. A further element would be the communal. The town is not a town as such in that it is primarily a research facility lacking in normal community amenities. It is less a question of reinventing the town, since it is functional and growing, but of proposing a new model of growth and inhabitation. 15 Hisdal, \u00E2\u0080\u009CSvalbard: Nature and History\u00E2\u0080\u009D, 115.16 Hisdal, \u00E2\u0080\u009CSvalbard: Nature and History\u00E2\u0080\u009D, 111.FIGURE COPYRIGHTED - Ny \u00C3\u0085lesund Townsite in JuneBy Harvey Barrison - Flickr: Ny-\u00C3\u0085lesund_2013 06 07_3603, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=29007833There is a final element, whose inclusion is more divisive, tourism. Given that global hyper-tourism is a major source of ecological and cultural disruption, while also being a nuisance, the extent to which the program of this project should abet the idea is debatable. However, tourism does align well with the idea of shifting populations over time and material accumulation. The bric-a-brac of finished books and forgotten toiletries that accumulates in rented cabins and accommodation over time is eccentric and interesting. The archipelago is also shifting towards tourism as the mining industry slowly shutters (Hisdal, 106, 1998). Tourism is an important element of the island\u00E2\u0080\u0099s economy, but to what extent it should be encouraged is debatable given the ecological implications. There is also a question of centralizing program or dispersing it over the wider archipelago. By centralizing program, a more urban condition is created with more opportunity for interesting overlap; however, a distributed franchise model might create interesting opportunities for interactions with a variety of microclimates and ecosystems. Program might also become largely irrelevant if the project embraces the idea of shifting uses. If the project is interested in shifting programmatic elements, then the initial program, while important, loses its initial primacy in favour of tectonic elements that enable shifting. The program does not need to determine the spatial layout, instead potentially a column grid or some other loose structural system such as a shell with easily moved partitions might be the final form. There is also the question of whether the building is considered finished at any point. Additions and reductions in size over time could be a key element to explore the process of time in the building. If so, then anticipating programmatic requirements is a bit of a fool\u00E2\u0080\u0099s errand, instead if the program is seen as a shifting system similar to other elements of the building, then the structure is liberated to focus on other needs. In the end the overall program could be inconsequential. 21 22INTRODUCTORY NOTES\u00E2\u0080\u009CImagine a toad in a swamp whose environment is gradually being changed, piece by piece, the lily pads become wooden simulacra, the mud a curated gunk, and the water purified and set to his exact preference. At what point is this whole eco-system still the same ecosystem? At what point is this toad still the same toad? This is the version of the ship of Theseus problem, (the question of whether or not a ship that has every part replaced over time is still the same ship in the end) that has become one of the central questions of this project. How-ever, I should start at the, nature is dead. As of last Wednes-day, to be precise, the point at which anthropogenic objects were widely reported to outweigh all life on earth. That grand vision of untouched wilderness and animals undisturbed by humans is long gone. But yet fish are still climbing ladders and polar bears are still in jail so what will we do with the animals, these inhabitants of post-nature? What is our rela-tionship to them?\u00E2\u0080\u009DTRANSITION NOTESIt was pointed out that really there are two projects at play in the initial proposal. One tied to time and memory in the An-thropocene and one to ecology and infrastructure. Attempting to address all of these issues at once would have been overwhelm-ing so the focus was shifted to ecology and infrastructure; how-ever, ideas about time and memory haunt the decisions made throughout since those questions are central to conservation as well. It should be noted that a substantial amount of addition-al research after GP1 was conducted for this project including various interviews with ecologists, northern residents, and gov-ernment officials, surveys of ecological papers, additional books, and other long conversations. Unfortunately for you, reader, this information is all recorded in a small black notebook in my desk so you don\u00E2\u0080\u0099t have access. I cannot say everything is perfectly ac-curate, but it is generally heading in the right direction. \u00E2\u0080\u009CWorking from small moments at the beginning and then building up to the scale of the crisis, the project aims to be bleakly optimistic about the fate of those caught up in the phenomena described. In particular, it holds as a core tenant that the gargantuan scale of the problems, climate change and ecosystem breakdown, can only be matched with an equally large response, large scale breeding programs, tracking, land controls, etc. Eventually, all species within the areas discussed come to be supported solely by these artificial means and the massive infrastructure network required to sustain them; in summation, an industrial artificial ecology.\u00E2\u0080\u009D23 24PART 1 SMALL MOMENTS OF DISQUIET\u00E2\u0080\u009CIt begins with the birch trees. At first only the ones in sunny dry areas go, then the ones planted in that nasty swampy part of the yard die off, until, at last, the whole block is brought together to water the last birch tree in the city using gutter extensions, hose pipes, and whatever else at hand. It requires one full bathtub\u00E2\u0080\u0099s worth of water every day for the growing season.\u00E2\u0080\u009DThere was a consistent desire to try and illustrate the quotidian at a variety of scales that carried over from the initial proposal. To the extent that is successful is debatable. It is difficult to il-lustrate all of the possible scenarios in fifteen minutes of presen-tation. There are still several personal examples at play. It is no longer just restricted to the arctic. Two regions are at play. Fig. 4 - Watering the Last Birch Tree in the City25 26\u00E2\u0080\u009CWith increasing temperatures, water is becoming scarce in the parkland steppe, a region of mixed forests and meadows on the southern edge of the Boreal forest. This in turn leads to mass tree die off as scrubby forests become open prairie. New animals from further south move in. It\u00E2\u0080\u0099s a natural response to an unnatural situation\u00E2\u0080\u009DFig. 5 - Precipitation Drop Decimates Southern Parkland Steppe With Mass Tree Death27 28\u00E2\u0080\u009CMeanwhile in the north, as the falling rain forms an impene-trable icy crust on the snow, caribou cannot access the lichen and sedge underneath for food. They move towards exposed areas near human settlements. Behavioural shifts are under-way.\u00E2\u0080\u009DFig. 6 - Seeking Sustenance at the Snow Fence Line Shelter29 30\u00E2\u0080\u009CMuch larger shifts are expected in the north compared to the south, with an optimistic project of 6 degrees warmer, rain-fall will increase though snow will still be found. Trees and shrubs kept dormant and small by blistering cold begin to surge northward and cover the once small-scale tundra flo-ra. The tree line advances further and further with each year. Languages adapt as new species that they never had a word for show up. The arrival of the robins is a charming novelty, the wasps, less so. \u00E2\u0080\u009DFig. 7 - New Rains and Warming Reawakens the Dormant Black Spruce Spreading the Forest31 32PART 2 CIRCUMPOLAR AREA AFFECTED\u00E2\u0080\u009CFor those of you who are slightly lost about where we are, here\u00E2\u0080\u0099s a map. What ties the two previous instances together is that they both occur on the edge of the boreal forest, a large expanse of almost continuous evergreens that sweeps around the north. However, it is on the move. The southern edge is retreating north and the northern edge is as well.\u00E2\u0080\u009DFig. 8 - The Unnatural Natural Circumpolar Forest Retreat and AdvanceThe inclusion of two regions was a helpful element that broad-ened the discussion from being solely about the arctic, which was a bit of a fascinating distraction, and allowed for the central ideas to be seen as a broader attitude and not a singular response. The phenomenon of the moving forest was a useful lens to examine a massive change without becoming overwhelmed.33 34\u00E2\u0080\u009CIn the north, the Boreal forest is set to reach the Arctic ocean, becoming the Coastal Boreal Forest. Trees haven\u00E2\u0080\u0099t been found here in tens of thousands of years. While in the south, trees will diminish into a Parkland Steppe. These twin regions, mas-sive ecotones, are the two under consideration in the project. \u00E2\u0080\u009DFig. 9 - Site Selection of the Coastal Boreal Forest and Southern Parkland ST35 36PART 3 HUMAN ACTORS\u00E2\u0080\u009CBut of course, who is affected by all this? Being a global crisis for a circumpolar ecosystem, many disparate actors are drawn in some of whom initially seem to have little in common, but by dint of shared ecology are related. \u00E2\u0080\u009DFig. 10 - Circumpolar Forest International Actors37 38\u00E2\u0080\u009CAssembled under the aegis of the Arctic Council Circumpolar Forest Management Committee, the various states work on a directed and cooperative approach using their various depart-ments and state-owned corporations to manage the areas in question. It\u00E2\u0080\u0099s an effort unparalleled outside of wartime. \u00E2\u0080\u009DFig. 11 - Arctic Council Circumpolar Forest Management CommitteeAt one point, there was a question about the role of private com-panies at the final review. I may have largely ignored them since the problem being discussed requires funding, commitment, and planning far beyond what they have proven themselves capable of. Still, it would have made a nice addition to touch on if I had another month. However, it should be noted that private compa-nies have a poor track record of caring about anything beyond immediate profit and since this project discusses infrastructure on a massive scale, I think the idea of it being state driven is sound. 39 40\u00E2\u0080\u009CHowever, to make it clearer, one can take Canada as an exam-ple since it contains parts of both regions under discussion. \u00E2\u0080\u009DFig. 12 - CanadaAs much as I generally dread discussing Canada given its rather milquetoast response to issues, it\u00E2\u0080\u0099s inclusion helped clarify the phenomenon and locations so that others could engage. 41 42\u00E2\u0080\u009COf course, there are not just ecological shifts underway, but intensifying and shifting land uses. However, sustaining water becomes an ever more pressing issue.\u00E2\u0080\u009DFig. 13 - Southern Parkland Steppe Retreat43 44\u00E2\u0080\u009CPopulations continue to increase as does the demand for produce. Mechanised massive produce greenhouses, drip line irrigated orchards, etc. New products for the new consumers. One billion Nigerians need to import grain from somewhere.\u00E2\u0080\u009DFig. 14- Big John\u00E2\u0080\u0099s Apricots - Orchard and Produce Greenhouse ComplexThere is generally no novel technology deployed in this project. Everything in it has been done in some form, but the combina-tion of the various elements and their exaggeration becomes the means by which novelty is achieved. \u00E2\u0080\u009CSpeculative fiction\u00E2\u0080\u009D was a key framing element. Sort of like a Margaret Atwood novel.45 46\u00E2\u0080\u009CIn the north, the effects are dramatic. Formerly small set-tlements become large draws as the region takes on a new geopolitical importance in shipping, resource extraction, and defence. Settlement and immigration follow the jobs. \u00E2\u0080\u009DFig. 15- Coastal Boreal Forest AdvanceA great deal of the bleakness from the initial proposal carried for-ward, but it was also noted that there were elements of optimism in some of the descriptions. The advance of the treeline was one such example.47 48\u00E2\u0080\u009CWith the permanent collapse of salmon runs in southern Canada, the rivers draining in the arctic become new colonies for the fish in cooler waters. As southern species shift pole-ward, formerly profitable fisheries follow them. The occupants of each region are disparate and diverse, many have never seen the pre-climate change tundra or arctic. \u00E2\u0080\u009DFig. 16- The Morning Fleet Leaving the Delta Fishing SettlementGiven more time and less stress from a pandemic, I would have tried to flesh this section out more. Who are these new inhab-itants? What do they do? What does a seal meat samosa taste like? It was noted that a more \u00E2\u0080\u009Canthropological\u00E2\u0080\u009D analysis might have been helpful. To what extent that would have been a red herring and a completely different project is debatable. One could get caught up in the specifics while missing out on the univer-sal, which, when dealing with such massive migration, is perhaps more important.49 50PART 4 ECOLOGICAL BREAKDOWN\u00E2\u0080\u009CNow to do with the animals and plants. At its simplest, the change is that the south goes from trees and meadows to open prairies. In the north, it shifts from open tundra to a denser treed shrubby area. \u00E2\u0080\u009DFig. 17- Range of Environments South51 52\u00E2\u0080\u009CHowever, a shift from trees to open steppe is not necessarily desirable, risking soil loss, fires, etc. The trees are also crucial elements of the ecosystem. \u00E2\u0080\u009DFig. 18- Southern Parkland Steppe Plants53 54\u00E2\u0080\u009CIn response to the tree loss, corridors are established using a system of swales lined with perforated pipes, a sort of reverse weeping tile, supports robust lines of native trees planted by the hydrological cooperatives who maintain the water sys-tem.\u00E2\u0080\u009DFig. 19- Supplying Water to Silvicultural CorridorsThere is a tension in the project about balancing change and preservation. Specifically, while trying to avoid nostalgia for a dying ecosystem, it was important to figure out what to maintain and what to let change. What elements stay still and what is al-lowed to move. 55 56\u00E2\u0080\u009CUsing the cadastral grid that already maps out the region\u00E2\u0080\u0099s farms and settlements, the network sweeps unyieldingly across the landscape.\u00E2\u0080\u009DFig. 20- Forming a Continuous Habitat Network Over the Region57 58\u00E2\u0080\u009CMeanwhile at a smaller scale, the shifting treeline has a dra-matic effect on the birds and insects of the region. Already experiencing a dramatic decline, insect management is now a crucial activity. \u00E2\u0080\u009DFig. 21- Southern Parkland Steppe Insects and Birds59 60\u00E2\u0080\u009CBut one can have too many bugs. In response, the swallow farms are set up. Built into the new water management in-frastructure of the parkland steppe, the swallows become an important species in pest control for local farmers. Monitored and tended much like bees, a new avian agriculture is devel-oped. Other nooks and crannies are built in for other insects and birds. \u00E2\u0080\u009DFig. 22- Monitoring the Swallow Farming NetworkSo maybe the buildings don\u00E2\u0080\u0099t literally feed the bears, still, there is an attempt at bringing in the existence of the non-human in the system. I didn\u00E2\u0080\u0099t have any qualms about massive interventions either; some initial principles of interventionist architecture car-ried forward from the initial proposal.61 62\u00E2\u0080\u009CMoving up a size again, since the entire ecosystem is on the move, it behooves us to consider the ungulates. Species im-portant to various communities, from indigenous to hunters, and occupying important ecological niches, deer, moose, and elk, rely on vast habitats and corridors.\u00E2\u0080\u009DFig. 23- Southern Parkland Steppe Ungulates and Associates63 64\u00E2\u0080\u009CBy extending tree cover through a network, species can travel vast distances under cover. Thus, previously separated popula-tions become reconnected. Instead of habitat fragmentation, there is habitat stitching. \u00E2\u0080\u009DFig. 24- Expanding Range from Habitat CorridorsThe mosquitoes are both to suggest atmosphere, as anyone who has visited the prairies can attest, and to hint at the thorny ques-tion of what animals deserve our care.65 66\u00E2\u0080\u009CAt the largest scale, we are addressing species that like to wander. Bears and etc, but which now are found mostly in re-mote inaccessible regions, refugia. Isolated spaces supporting once widespread species. \u00E2\u0080\u009DFig. 25- Southern Parkland Steppe Bears and Relations67 68\u00E2\u0080\u009CAs the climate shifts, more refugia form. River valleys with moisture, or cool mountain tops. These are regions where due to microclimate conditions, species not usually present in the surrounding area still thrive. However, population pressure of-ten pushes bears and other predators to move down and into old habitat, spreading along the lines. \u00E2\u0080\u009DFig. 26- Recolonizing Along the Silvicultural Corridors from RefugiaAt some point it dawned on me that this is largely a landscape architecture project, which was a bit of a surprise, but I\u00E2\u0080\u0099d still say its not all landscape. 69 70\u00E2\u0080\u009CShifting to the North, the change is equally dramatic.\u00E2\u0080\u009DFig. 27- Range of Environments North71 72\u00E2\u0080\u009CHowever, there is an inversion in scale and phenomena. Un-like, the south, where the trees are replaced by grasses, in the north the trees are advancing and shading out small tundra plants.\u00E2\u0080\u009DFig. 28- Coastal Boreal Forest Plants73 74\u00E2\u0080\u009CUnderstanding that key tundra habitat is valuable for species and communities, a new balance is sought with the advancing forest. Key habitat is kept clear by teams of seasonal southern labour who come up to work in the tree clearing camps; a sur-real reversal of tree planting, tree clearing is required. \u00E2\u0080\u009DFig. 29- Seasonal Tree Cutters Collecting for the Paper Making CooperativeMaintenance came back in a strange way at some point in the project, but in a radically different guise. Instead of being about the decay and repair of buildings, the project became about the decay and repair of ecosystems. Tending to things that were to be maintained, letting things decay that were not working. Is the project less strident about embracing loss? Yes, but I think the ambiguity helps add to the realism. 75 76\u00E2\u0080\u009CIt is often noted by visitors to the high arctic regions that beauty is found at a very small and delicate scale. This in-cludes two species of northern bumblebees locked in an ev-erlasting competition. \u00E2\u0080\u009DFig. 30- Coastal Boreal Forest Insects and Birds77 78\u00E2\u0080\u009CWhat exactly is the value of an increasingly rare bumblebee? Is the tending of these species something to work into every-day life? Yes, the new artificial ecology permeates as many different scales as the species it encompasses. \u00E2\u0080\u009DFig. 31- Marie Lee Adds a New Bee Bowl to her CollectionThere is a repeated desire to connect to small moments in the project likely related to its genesis in small pieces of ecological decay that I personally noted. This fact, combined with the am-bivalent response to these issues noted in the proposal eventual-ly coalesced after a mention at the midterm review of the ship of Theseus. This philosophical conundrum helped tie together the idea that small loses are both noticeable and lost in a larger sys-tem in flux. This in turn helped justify the radical interventions since through gradual implementation they would never be no-ticed. Perhaps this note would help connect the project to larger discourse. 79 80\u00E2\u0080\u009CReturning to one of the first mentioned species of concern, the barren ground caribou. Though always prone to boom-and-bust population dynamics. The new threat is that the open ground they have adapted to is set to be overrun by scrub and forest except in the high Arctic Archipelago. Even there, the new climate regime may prove unfavourable. There is a limit to how far north one can go when open water blocks the way.\u00E2\u0080\u009DFig. 32- Coastal Boreal Forest Ungulates and Associates81 82\u00E2\u0080\u009CProduced by the thousands in response to the plight of thou-sands of starving caribou. Caribou bowls filled with hydropon-ically grown sedge are scattered in the region for the remain-ing herds.\u00E2\u0080\u009DFig. 33- Feeding Time Along the Sedge Distribution Lines83 84\u00E2\u0080\u009CSoon the bowls litter the tundra in ever growing lines to pro-vide the feeding infrastructure. Sedge is shipped out from the settlements using ATV\u00E2\u0080\u0099s and helicopters. \u00E2\u0080\u009DFig. 34 - Maintenance Survey of the Sedge Distribution Lines85 86\u00E2\u0080\u009COf course, one cannot ignore the charismatic megafauna. They do hog the attention being cute and photogenic but being on top of the food chain does make them uniquely vulnerable. \u00E2\u0080\u009DFig. 35 - Coastal Boreal Forest Bears and Relations87 88\u00E2\u0080\u009CFor $32 000 per day bear kibble will be flown out to the most accessible polar bears and served on a wide platter for ease of access. It starts out as for just a few days a year to tide the bears over, but soon, it stretches for months. Eventually, the bears never leave the bowls. \u00E2\u0080\u009DFig. 36 - Distributing the Daily Polar Bear KibbleA great deal of the initial research into the arctic conducted in the proposal was still helpful in the final project. 89 90PART 5 INDUSTRIAL ARTIFICIAL ECOLOGIES\u00E2\u0080\u009CThe industrial artificial ecology has taken hold. In the park-land steppe, the system of trees and pipes depends on in-frastructure to tie it together. Pumphouses, water tanks, etc, provide storage and water pressure to keep the pipes running. Eventually, like the grain towers before them, they become fixtures in the landscape.\u00E2\u0080\u009DUsing a set of principles to design a project can be helpful; how-ever, sometimes they coalesce into a single idea governing idea. This situation happened about a third of the way through the second term working with the project when it became apparent that the disparate principles were being pulled together by the idea of industrial artificial ecologies.91 92Fig. 37 - \u00E2\u0080\u009CEerily familiar, the lines of trees recall the shelterbelts and patchy forests previously found in the region, but the grid be-lies their artificial origin. As the infrastructure grows it eventu-ally begins to subsume the former landscape becoming as in-tegral to it as lakes and ponds. Nevertheless, is the moose that wanders along the silvicultural corridor the same moose that wandered the swamp? Are the raccoons that raid the apricot orchards the same raccoons that slunk around the woods?\u00E2\u0080\u009D93 94Fig. 38 \u00E2\u0080\u009CMeanwhile, the new water bounty the system brings about leads to a plug-in hydrology. Hydrants line the pipes between the towers allowing greenhouses, gardens, orchards to all be connected to the system and maintained at will. At any point the occupants of this new ecology can access water from the system.\u00E2\u0080\u009DFig. 39 - Plug-in Hydrology and the New Infrastructure Some early precedents in the beginning of the second term work-ing on the final project were Archigram and Superstudio. I think the plug-in city reference is subtle, but present. 95 96\u00E2\u0080\u009CAs any civil servant will tell you, however, the saying is that whiskey is for drinking and water is for fighting. When refill-ing dried out lakes, it is discovered that farmers have taken advantage of the dry lake beds and claimed the land. The new lakes are constructed in line with the grid to avoid protracted legal battles with the occupants. \u00E2\u0080\u009DFig. 40 - Wetland Restoration with Hydrological Plug-Ins97 98\u00E2\u0080\u009CIt\u00E2\u0080\u0099s not all drudgery though. Long dwindling water bodies are a precious commodity in the high intensity settlement pat-tern, cabins become a new feature of the system. The pipes and towers blend into the everyday to the extent it is hardly noticed. \u00E2\u0080\u009DFig. 41 - Refilling the Drought Depleted Lakes99 100\u00E2\u0080\u009CGreater interference is encouraged. Whole streams are con-structed as spawning grounds to bolster fishing stocks. The south is bound up in a new high intensity ecology. \u00E2\u0080\u009DFig. 42 - Monitoring Artificial Stream #1045 for Fish SpawningAt one point, I expressed the desire to envision the day after the intervention or what it is like to stand in one of the water pump-ing and storage units. To some degree this is successful, but per-haps it would have been carried further with a narrative or single person walk through of the system. Though perhaps the cascade of scales accomplished this. Still, it may be too impersonal, but perhaps that was an unquestioned assumption of mine; I took a personal connection to natural phenomena as a given. I could probably have been more explicit about how one lived in this world.101 102\u00E2\u0080\u009CIn the North, the settlements are new and filled with people unfamiliar with what the arctic once was. They monitor the herds, handle the shipping, and flip the caribou steaks for the bannock burgers.\u00E2\u0080\u009D103 104Fig. 43 - \u00E2\u0080\u009CSurveyed in a grid for efficiency, the new region is highly un-stable, but the driving activity is that of the human occupants. Zones are built for tree harvesting, caribou feeding, muskox herding, etc. All the new inhabitants know is the semi treed plain. Sea ice is a distant memory. The nights are still long, but the brown season lasts into October with no snow and it is much darker. \u00E2\u0080\u009D105 106Fig. 44 - \u00E2\u0080\u009CAs the ground heaves and melts, holes form that have to be patched. The ground under one\u00E2\u0080\u0099s feet becomes literally con-structed. \u00E2\u0080\u009DFig. 45 - Patching the Holes in the Melting Permafrost Material choices were influenced by a conversation with someone with direct experience in construction in the north. The shipping and abandonment of technology also reared its head when he pointed out that it was cheaper to ship up the rock crusher to the work site, crush native rock, and abandoned it than it was to take it out afterwards. Hence a desire to continually stretch a single simple material palette. Also training local labour is simpler that way. 107 108\u00E2\u0080\u009CThe grid is constructed using rock crushers brought up from the south and let loose. It begins to exert a domestication pressure. Domestication in mammals seems to trigger a sim-ilar genetic pattern across species. Piebald coats, floppy ears, curly tails. If you know a dog or cat, you recognize this.\u00E2\u0080\u009DFig. 46 - Constructing the Snow Fence Pens109 110\u00E2\u0080\u009CAt a certain point, one could see a striped muskox with mul-tihued fur. Qiviut, for those who don\u00E2\u0080\u0099t know, is the inner fur of a muskox, that when woven is finer than cashmere. It\u00E2\u0080\u0099s a new fashion trend, since unlike wool, it never shrinks, no matter how hot the wash.\u00E2\u0080\u009DFig. 47 - Collecting Qiviut From Muskox Herd 30 in Pasture 114111 112\u00E2\u0080\u009CThe occupants find themselves caught up in the shepherd\u00E2\u0080\u0099s paradox. Nominally they are the masters of the systems that supports the environment, yet they are themselves dependent on the very environment they supposedly control. \u00E2\u0080\u009DFig. 48 - Ferrying the Migrating Dolphin and Union CaribouDuring the summer, I was the teaching assistant for a course about the history of the non-human in modern architecture. At one point I was asked to design the discussion for students about the role of zoos in contemporary life. I drew from the research for this project to design the activity and some of its discussion was fruitful for considering the conclusions of this project. In the end, I didn\u00E2\u0080\u0099t answer one of the central questions about whether or not these animals become totally domesticated pets. 113 114CONCLUDING NOTES\u00E2\u0080\u009CAt the end, we reach seemingly absurd prospects, attempts to domesticate and propagate mosquitoes to maintain healthy populations. \u00E2\u0080\u009DFig. 49 - Mosquito Domestication Pool at the Local Elementary 115 116\u00E2\u0080\u009CAs the pressures continue, one is forced to ask, what is be-ing saved? How far will we go? Is the bear being fed after it leaves its den under the house the same bear that wandered for thousands of kilometers over the frozen sea? Perhaps in the end, though, the bear is still a bear, Theseus\u00E2\u0080\u0099s boat is still a boat, the toad is still a toad and nostalgia for something that will never exist again is pointless. So please feed the bears.\u00E2\u0080\u009DFig. 50 - Breakfast for Ursy (Ursus Maritimus Familiaris)Do I think the animals in this world will become pets? What ex-actly is a pet? Are the spiders I keep in my studio to eat the pesky ants that get in pets? Are the skunks my great aunt feeds pets? Perhaps the idea that I was trying to hint at was that once nature is gone and we are all that is maintaining these ecosystems the imagined ideas of pet and wild animal are irrelevant. There are no opposites left, just a gradient of care. 117 118BibliographyBoym, Svetlana, The Future of Nostalgia, Basic Books, New York, 2001Bastin J-F, Clark E, Elliott T, Hart S, van den Hoogen J, Hordijk I, et al. 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