Stéphane Gaessler

The integration of climatic factors into architectural design is part of international trends within modern architecture, experiencing a significant new stage of development after the war. Notable works include those of David Oakley (1927-2003), Otto Koenigsberger (1908-1999), Victor Olgyay (1910-1970), Georges Anthony Atkinson, and Richard Neutra, Edwin Maxwell Fry (1899-1987) and Jane Drew (1911-1996). The industrialization of construction quickly raised the question of necessary geoclimatic differentiation. A branch of architectural climatology particularly focuses on architecture and urban planning in Arctic contexts. As part of our thesis, we studied research conducted by Soviet institutes such as the Zonal Institute of Experimental Research and Design of Leningrad (LenZNIIEP), the Moscow Institute of Architecture, and the Institute of Theory and History of Architecture and Urban Planning of the USSR (NIITI). Technical missions sent by Gosstroy (State Committee for Construction in the Soviet Union) to Canada focused particularly on construction issues in the Far North and on city projects, realized or not, such as Inuvik and Frobisher Bay in Canada. In 1955, biophysicist Alan C. Burton (1904-1979) and British physiologist Otto Gustav Edholm (1909-1985) from the University of Western Ontario published "Man in a Cold Environment: Physiological and Pathological Effects of Exposure to Low Temperatures," which was translated into Russian in 1957. We will also mention the work of Jeffrey Ellis Aronin (1927), a professor at the University of McGill in Winnipeg, Canada, author of "Climate and Architecture," which has become a major reference for architects and engineers specializing in this field. The book was published in Russian in 1959.

Our research will aim to reconstruct a history of the circulation of models, techniques, knowledge, and theories in this field within the context of the internationalization of post-war architecture. This involves situating research and projects in architectural climatology for polar regions, produced in different countries, particularly those states with territories in the Arctic (Canada, USSR, United States, Denmark, Norway), within the development of international exchanges in architecture, international architectural standardization, and the emergence of a global architecture market. It will also be important to contextualize these productions within the Cold War context, which saw architects, urban planners, and developers serving strategic interests, both in terms of the natural resources of these territories and the geographical position of Arctic regions at the intersection of different blocs and their military significance. The evolution of climatic architecture is situated within the broader emergence of economic geography, which encompasses the establishment of human settlements and its translation into spatial planning. One of the earliest works emphasizing the physical, spatial implementation of geo-economic planning was written by Thomas Adams (1871-1940) on the Canadian territory, before similar works emerged in Russia with Lenin's GOELRO Electrification Plan, in the United States with the works of the RPAA (Regional Planning Association of America), and in England with the works of the Town and Country Planning Association. Canada's role as a model for economic regionalization, as well as a laboratory for construction techniques tailored to specific climatic contexts, has thus far received little attention from European research. Our research project stands to benefit from Canadian bibliographic and documentary resources, as well as archival funds that are essential for our inquiries. These include the archives of the Department of Public Works, which funded research and construction projects for northern regions, the Samuel Gitterman Fund (1911-1988), responsible for developing housing programs in the Canadian Far North for the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, the archives of architect Harold Spence-Sales (1907-2004), a leading theorist of urban decentralization, and Edwin Alexander Gardner (1902-1986), an architect at the Department of Northern Affairs of Canada. By examining Canadian, American archives, as well as those already studied in Russia, we aim to explore the exchanges that have developed in these areas at the international level. This involves examining exchanges between architects and firms, as well as within international organizations such as the International Union of Architects, International Congresses of Modern Architecture, International Federation for Housing and Planning, CIB (International Council for Research and Innovation in Building and Construction), and RILEM (The International Union of Laboratories and Experts in Construction Materials, Systems, and Structures).