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UVA Students Study Abroad "?u In Arctic Circle02-10-16 | News

UVA Students Study Abroad "?u In Arctic Circle
Region Viewed As Frontier For Development

A group of 14 architecture and landscape architecture students from the University of Virginia are learning about design in one of the harshest environments on earth "?u the Arctic. As part of their semester-long course, they went on a field trip to the region for 10 days.

The Arctic Circle, one of the most severe environments on the planet, might seem like an odd place to study the disciplines of architecture and landscape architecture.

But that's where a group of undergraduate and graduate students from the University of Virginia went recently. They spent 10 days on Norwegian Arctic islands about 800 miles north of the Arctic Circle.

The architecture and landscape architecture students, 14 in all, went there to study design as it pertains to the Arctic, a region that is viewed as the next "frontier" for development. Because the sea ice is receding, shipping routes are opening and the demand for natural resources and tourism is expanding.

Assistant architecture professor Matthew Jull and landscape architecture lecturer Leena Cho planned and supervised the trip. Cho and Jull led the Arctic Design Group, a UVA research effort involving the School of Architecture, the School of Law and the Department of Environmental Sciences.

"It is one of only a handful of efforts worldwide that are proactively developing strategies for the future of Arctic cities, towns and landscapes," a news release states.

"There are many meetings involving the future of the Arctic from a business or political perspective, but few are thinking about design or the built environment," Jull said. "We accept that the Arctic is going to be developed and is already experiencing the effects of climate change. The question is: how can architecture mediate that transformation and create a better future?

"Because of the remoteness and scarcity of materials and energy, our research is teaching us a lot about developing strategies for designing more sustainable cities and buildings, not just in the Arctic, but in other climates."

In a semester-long course, the students examined design challenges in the Arctic and developed their own plans for buildings and urban landscapes. But it was important for them to actually see the region for themselves, which they did on their 10-day visit.

"The Arctic environment is very different from what we are used to "?u the ground is frozen but constantly shifting," Cho said. "The temperature extremes can radically transform the environment and the sun is absent during winter months.

"It can be pretty difficult to grasp what it is actually like there without experiencing it firsthand. It was really important for us that our students visit there, to fully take in the physical and sensorial implications of living in the north, in order to come up with a more responsive design," Cho added.

Their trip was funded through grants. The students traveled to Svalbard, an island off the coast of Norway that is the northernmost destination of any commercial airline. The group traveled to each of Svalbard's three major towns, accompanied by an armed escort to ward off polar bears.

To encourage careful and meaningful observation, the students were asked to log observations, sketch designs and produce three short videos every day, recording their observations and thoughts. Students also used the trip to research their individual, semester-long projects.

"With any architecture project, you have to visit the site to really have an understanding of how it will work, so it was amazing to see the landscapes and how people live," third-year architecture student Matthew Johnson said. "The scale of the landscape and the emptiness of it was amazing and overwhelming."

Johnson researched the exterior surface of buildings. He studied how buildings on Svalbard responded to the challenges of the Arctic climate and how design improvements might make the buildings more sustainable or user-friendly without losing insulation.

https://www.newswise.com/articles/view/645731/?sc=rsln