The Snow House
wikipedia.org /Artwork: designslinger]
It's that time of year, full of winter wonderland holiday advertising. Lots of images of snow
flakes, warm fires in comfy living rooms, and more piles of snow. Occasionally there is an image of a lone figure in a vast white expanse standing next to an igloo. In that weird way that something really obscure can capture your attention - I couldn't stop thinking about that igloo. It is probably the most ecologically sensitive dwelling on the planet, and a marvel of engineering and design. Really. That little snow dome is one of those hallmarks of human ingenuity. Granted the native Inuit people didn't have much to work with when they were looking for shelter thousands of years ago, but whoever the person was that decided to simply use the most readily available material - snow as building blocks, was truly a genius.
zbartrout via flickr /Artwork: designslinger]
Today people build igloos using saws and shovels, but the design principle hasn't changed
since the snow house first appeared on the residential scene. By the way, the Inuit word, "iglu" means "house" and doesn't have to be an dwelling made of snow, but most of us associate the word with the snow house version. A light powder snow will get you nowhere if you try to use that as your building material. The harder the snow pack the better. Once you lay out your perimeter circle of snow blocks, you spiral up from ground level, moving in as you climb, and gravity and the forces of nature and physics, will hold the snow dome in place.
plindberg via flickr /Artwork: designslinger]
You can actually light a fire in an igloo, but if you haven't got wood to burn, your body heat
will fill the chamber and cause the interior to warm up a bit. The more the igloo melts and refreezes the sturdier and more structurally sound it becomes. You can always make your own miniature igloo with sugar cubes for your holiday table, as pictured in the photo on the far right. The more I thought about this, I started to wonder how different our perceptions of Santa and the holidays would be, if his workshop had been an igloo instead of a wood cabin covered in fluffy white snow.
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