Iqaluit is growing rapidly. Southern Canadians and Inuit from the surrounding Baffin communities are moving into the city in search of employment. Since the formation of Nunavut in April 1999, a tremendous number of services and new buildings have been constructed in the capital but there is still a shortfall in leisure and recreational activi- ties. Some of the existing clubs and facilities which were built many years ago now have full mem- bership and a status that makes them difficult for new members to join.The greenhouse project could provide a leisure activity affordable to all residents. It is the purpose of the Iqaluit Greenhouse Society to make an alternate recreational opportunity to sports that would cross cultural, social, gender and age boundaries.To this end the society has commissioned a feasibility study on the economic viability of a greenhouse in an arctic environment using twenty-first century alternate energies and technologies. The Iqaluit Greenhouse Society is a diverse group of Iqaluit residents that includes students, elders, professionals, Inuit who have spent some of their lives living a traditional life style, long-term residents of Iqaluit and people who have recently arrived from southern Canadian cities. All have one thing in common, the desire to work with the soil.
Raven, by Andrew Raney from Salmon Arm, BC, in a sculpture garden designed by the teach- ers and students of the Fine Arts program of Nunatta College in Iqaluit.
The raven in the backyard
a ll people native to circumpolar regions feel they are living in the best part of the world — not harsh, cruel or difficult, it is home. And as the earth’s population increases, people are pushed to the edges of livable space. Southerners that dared to venture into the circum- polar regions a few centuries ago on an advance and retreat basis are now there to stay, although they often long for the climes they left behind and often have little desire to go outdoors for long periods of time in the coldest season, preferring to bring ‘nature’ inside. Ever since houseplants were introduced to the Arctic they have been popular: Inuit people have a strong sense of humour, a highly developed sense of curiosity and enjoy the mysteries of indoor growing and how they can cozen Jack Frost. It is this sense of curiosity combined with the south- erner’s need to have green plants in their environment that is one of the incentives to have a greenhouse in Iqaluit. Although summer days are long and bright and many indigenous people spend their time out on the land which contributes to mental or spiri- tual well-being, it is during the dark winter days that the greenhouse will provide a welcome alternative to, and assist in the relief of, the House- bound Syndrome. It will be a welcoming beacon, calling people to it. In the dark season, with the facility nestled between two rolling hills above the community, with light spilling from the glass walls and roof, it will look like an amber diamond. Greenhouses in the far north pose technical challenges that need north- ern solutions —Garry Loomis’s greenhouse in Norman Wells and the Inuvik greenhouse are evidence that such projects can be done. Green Jewel in a Frozen Crown: the Iqaluit Greenhouse project Harriet Burdett Moulton
Although the land remains frozen for much of the year, the long summer daylight hours bring an incredible explosion of growth in just a few short months with cool weather crops such as cabbage or lettuce, using seedlings and other season extending techniques, with a composting program and raised beds for warm weather crops such as tomatoes and annual flowers. The one problem with this overabundance of sun is overheating greenhouses — such an oxymoron when used in conjunc- tion with the word Arctic that it is often overlooked. While simple technologies can provide satisfying results on a small scale, the challenge is to find ways to produce cost-effective crops that can reduce the high cost of food, increase self-sufficiency, and bring healthy variety to the northern diet. The Iqaluit Community Greenhouse Society wants to explore the potential of community gardening, experi- ment with produce and evaluate how effective and efficient their energy conserving technologies are before they attempt larger enterprises. Simple things such as soil can be a problem in Iqaluit. There is very little overburden and it does not contain humus, except in limited quantities in selected riverbeds. Soil has to be transported to Iqaluit by sealift or made by mixing local sand with composted kitchen waste. Both methods will be employed in the greenhouse. Initially soil will be imported and the society will work with the municipality on a green project whereby the municipality will collect organic waste and use the greenhouse to compost it.The finished product, humus, will be used in the greenhouse to augment the imported soil.
On Site review 11
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Spring 2004
Architecture of the Circumpolar Region
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