Peter Barfoed, "Cold Climate Building Architecture"
Peter Barfoed, Architect with Tegnestuen Nuuk A/S in South Greenland
Summary: Mr. Barfoed shared his struggles as an architect in one of the harshest climates in the world in Nuuk, Greenland. His company designs cold weather buildings that incorporate solar panels, lower level entry ways, and are situated for natural light and wind deflection. Mr. Barfoed discussed their building projects – what worked and what didn’t.
Mr. Barfoed began with a brief background on where he lives in Nuuk, on the west coast of Greenland and is powered by hydro-power. They have a coastal climate similar to Alaska with average temperatures of +7C or 45 F in the summer to -10 C or 14 F. These are averages so it can get colder and warmer. They get lots of snow. So much snow, that it is used to make facades around buildings. His architecture firm used snow to make a “castle” like facade. Nuuk provides public transportation with buses. People used to live in subterranean houses made of peat, stone and grass but in the 1950’s began living in modern built Cape-Cod style homes. They started experiencing population movement from rural villages to the cities. They are experiencing global warming. People come from all over the world come there to see their famous ice shield. He showed several photos that demonstrated how global warming is melting these ice shields. The polar bears will have to swim now to get to the ice shield to hunt seals and they won’t survive. Only in certain areas will they survive.
The Danish Technical University provides builder and architect education and has about 7,000 students. He showed a building on the cover of Dynamo, a university publication. This design was the spearhead of Greenlandic sustainable design that his company uses. The entry of the traditional igloo is lower than the living chamber to act as a cold air trap (as cold air sinks) so this design incorporates an entry lower than the main living area of the residence. The house design is small, approximately 1,000 sq. ft., with 12” thick walls and flooring composed of Rockwall and tempered wood. Solar panels are incorporated within south facing walls. The roof acts as a shield to the coastal winds, rising on an angle to the wind and includes an angled section of solar roof panels. The homes are built on stilts and sited to allow the wind to pass through underneath the home. Homes are also sited to allow a view of either the ocean or the mountains because the view is very important in Greenland. They had some problems with these homes, mainly due to HRV’s not working properly causing moisture to form on the windows and the lack of sustainable building codes in Greenland. For example, the plans called for R50 insulation in the walls but the contractor only used R30 (which is code). It also used more oil than they had thought it would.
The company used similar concepts in their design for the “smallest university in the world” that they built for 146 students. The design consisted of several small buildings situated at an angle to the wind and utilizing passive sunlight with clerestory windows providing light to a central “corridor” in each building. The structure is made of concrete walls with wood exteriors. The concrete is heated by solar. The massive curvy cultural house has a row of solar panels on the roof. Problems encountered with this project were: 1) the warm roof design tended to have glacier problems and lots of icicles. 2) The wood exterior facades were hard to maintain and has to be oiled every three years. 3) There were mold problems.
Mr. Barfoed showed slides of several other projects, some with more traditional designs, but all making the most use of natural day lighting, solar, and positioning for wind as well as ocean view. He prefers to use metal siding for easier maintenance of longevity. Material costs are high as everything must be flown in to the airports and then barged to the various coastal communities surrounding Greenland. They are exploring rock heat storage – using rock to store summer excess heat and pumping it back out in the winter. Nydalen Energisentral in Oslo, Norway has development a process using 64 stilts at depths up to 200 meter and has been installing about 50 of these every year. Mr. Barfoed said that the country of Sweden has also discovered a way to make this work. Mr. Barfoed is also interested in developing the eco-municipality concept in Greenland.