Extreme Climate
Design responses to extreme climate conditions and environmental change across polar and alpine regions.
Extreme climate presents designers with urgent challenges around inhabitation, infrastructure, and adaptation. This topic examines how design can address rapid environmental shifts, from glacial transformation to Arctic settlement, through both analytical and speculative approaches.
The community explores modular habitats engineered for Arctic survival, deployable structures that respond to shifting terrain, and documentation of climate impacts on landscapes. Work ranges from climate analysis and visualization to architectural systems designed for some of Earth's most hostile environments.
Popular projects
View all 3 projectsLatest journals
View all 6 journalsBiosphere: Modular Dome Settlement Designed for Arctic Survival on Ellesmere Island
A prefabricated community of glass-clad domes on hydraulic stilts, engineered to house 1,000 residents in Canada's extreme north.
Life Line: A Self-Sustaining Arctic City Built on Euler Circles
Concentric circular zones organize work, leisure, and ecology into a living urban organism on the northernmost settlement on Earth.
Hoberman Dome: A Deployable Arctic Settlement That Grows From 1,000 to 1,000,000
On Ellesmere Island, a kinetic geodesic habitat built from ETFE hexagons expands in stages to shelter life at minus 56 degrees Celsius.
Arctic Seconds: Hexagonal Modular Habitat for Ellesmere Island's Shifting Climate
A shortlisted entry for EHC Arctic reimagines polar settlement through ice-inspired hexagonal modules and recycled polycarbonate envelopes.