Save the Ice
Year 3 Building Proposal
Climate change calls for new sustainable ways of living and building. At a time when glaciers are retreating and winters shortening, ‘Saving the Ice’ means going against the grain, harnessing ubiquitous and natural winter precipitation in Stockholm as a viable building material for the future. In the age of the Anthropocene, when human activity has had an undeniable influence on the state of Earth, the answer for a new, sustainable building material could lie in taking advantage of different states of the material that constitutes 71% of our planet.
The ambition of the project spans three ways. Firstly, the project resists the effects of climate change, using building form and strategies to optimise local environmental conditions, so ice and snow can continue to form. Secondly, it inverts traditional attitudes in architecture towards ice and snow. While most buildings utilise strategies to minimise their formation, the scheme embraces the beauty and insulative properties of ice and snow. Ice and snow transform the scheme over winter, forming on surfaces that anticipate their occupation. Thirdly, by collecting ice and snow within the city of Stockholm, the proposition aims to use these seasonal materials as a beacon to bring people across all walks of life together, bridging divides within a city facing integration issues.
The above are condensed into Save the Ice: a community hub for Hornstull, Stockholm, centered around ice harnessing and processing techniques that celebrate the amazing qualities of winter precipitation.
