Quote:
Originally Posted by Mister F
Trees may not grow but there's still plenty of vegetation in those photos. Surely there are landscape architects who can do something with plants native to the area. And the age of the community just sounds like an excuse - it doesn't take centuries to pave a street. Paving might be expensive but that hasn't stopped other countries from doing it. Yakutsk, Russia is also built on permafrost and has far larger variations in temperature and significantly colder winters. And it looks like this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Yakutsk_1_%28synchroswimr%29.jpg
Surely something can be done with the way Iqaluit looks. Is it an issue of federal funding? Local government priorities? Apathy? |
I don't think the age of the community is an excuse at all. Yakutsk has hundreds of years of history behind it and a considerably larger population. It's over 200,000 compared to 7,500. Apples and oranges.
Because Iqaluit has grown so fast much of the construction has been utilitarian in nature. What can be built the fastest, for the cheapest. I think that as Iqaluit continues to expand, we will start to see more of the Inuit culture come through in the architecture. It's already started to happen. The church is shaped like an igloo. The Qamutiq office building downtown was completed in 2010 and takes its inspiration from its namesake - a type of sleigh traditionally built with caribou bones lashed together with seal hide:
Based on this type of sleigh:
I think we'll see more of this as time goes on. For those interested, the city development plan is available
here
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