Glitter Gulch, at the entrance to Denali National Park, Alaska
Kennecott Copper Mine in the Wrangell-Saint Elias National Park, Alaska
support of a new Capitol Building in Juneau, I’m relieved that none of these designs which so arrogantly dismiss our northern land and life will be built. There is a glimmer of hope in the failed competition: it is a sign of a more sustainable and better-designed future. Northerners are ready to incorporate their relationship with land and place into their architecture. They clearly have the intuitive sense of the land, but not yet the language to express it. As northern designers, we must find that language, and educate our clients and the public. Each success and failure will influ- ence how people experience space and design in the future. By being active and visible in our communities, through writing and public events, we will help our fellow northerners learn to verbalise their experience. We will not only make the terms ‘sustainability’ and ‘building-site integration’ common to the public’s vocabulary, but will add meaning to them as well. g
2. In the entrance area of Denali National Park, colloquially known to locals as Glitter Gulch, another example demonstrates abject failure. Here is the brutal and heavy handed approach to site design that northerners in- stinctively reject. The site is very similar to the Kennecott site, however the design response to the rocky, steeply sloped site was to level it. A floor plan and elevation better suited to flood plains in Chicago or Dallas, or Miami was constructed with no flavour of place or response to site — a blemish in an otherwise beautiful landscape. The Capitol Building site in Juneau is equally striking. The scale of the site is such that no building can dominate it. The Capitol design, to achieve the scale desired, could have col- laborated with the landscape to expand the scale to that of a landmark project, a truly Alaskan Capitol Building. Instead, the designs failed to capture the Alaskan imagination. The design entry chosen by the competi- tion jury was met with public and political backlash strong enough to effectively kill the entire project. While I personally remain in
Thane Magelky has lived and practiced in Fairbanks, Alaska for 8 years. He is interested in the continued progression of a sustainable northern architecture for Alaska and Canada that takes its cues and inspiration from the rich culture, climate, and geogra- phy of these regions.
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architecture and land
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