Situated off Alaska’s northwestern coast, the Shishmaref island community faces significant land erosion due to climate change. This environmental crisis disproportionately impacts indigenous populations, depleting vital resources for their subsistence lifestyle. Despite these challenges, the community demonstrates resilience through their belief in life’s continuity after death, prompting the question: can the community of Shishmaref find renewal in a new location?
Responding to their land loss, the community must gradually relocate to Tin Creek Hills, embodying life’s cyclic nature through phases of loss, commemoration, renewal, and growth. Inspired by the destructive forces of thawing permafrost and winter storms, their new settlement mimics ice cave formations shaped by the elements threatening their ancestral homes.
This strategy balances human needs with environmental preservation, adapting to the land’s temporality and harsh climate. For winter, they employ a tent-like structure that regulates thermal conditions using an interstitial air gap and snow as thermal mass. The main structure, partially underground, enhances thermal efficiency and draws from local building techniques, replacing traditional materials with sustainably sourced, beetle-killed pine wood. This design creates low, rounded forms for optimal thermal comfort in cold climates. Flexible and expandable, it allows the community to adapt as more residents relocate from Shishmaref.
