Modelled after an igloo, St. Jude?s Anglican Church, in Iqaluit, was rebuilt in a version of Ron Thom?s original design following a fire. Photo: Ansgar Walk
PROJECT Canadian High Arctic Research Station (CHARS), Ikaluktutiak (Cambridge Bay), Nunavut
ARCHITECTS EVOQ + NFOE in joint venture
Two signal constructions of the 1970s in Iqaluit (then called Frobisher Bay) have cast long arctic shadows over the architecture of Nunavut. The Ron Thom-designed St. Jude?s Anglican Cathedral (1972) has been a much-loved building for local residents and visitors alike?so much so that it was rebuilt in a variation on the original design after a 2005 fire.  The church takes the form of an igloo, with radial glulam beams exposed inside, rising to a single skylight at the apex. The Thom design updates a traditional Inuit building form, abstracting it somewhat without losing its emotional resonance, comparable to how Arthur Erickson employed Haida house forms in his UBC Museum of Anthropology a few years later. The Gordon Robertson Education Centre in Iqaluit, by PGL Architects, exemplifies a technologically driven approach to arctic design. Photo courtesy estate of Guy Gérin-Lajoie
The contrasting tendency in Nunavut architecture is a more futurist one, embodied by the Gordon Robertson Education Centre (1971), designed by PGL Architects, led by Guy Gérin-Lajoie. The school uses pre-fabricated fiberglass panels?each one cast and insulated in a southern factory, then shipped and installed a...