Building Considerations in Cold Climates

I had a comment in response to an earlier posting that I thought might be of interest. The contributor, who lives in Alaska, expressed concern about foundation methods and permafrost.

I lived in the arctic for about a year and a half (Baffin Island) and noticed that all the new construction had the houses and apartment buildings on steel posts which were sunk into the permafrost, down to the bedrock. The underside of the houses were enclosed and insulated to prevent utility pipes from freezing while ensuring good air flow between the houses and ground.

The pictures below illustrate what I'm talking about. They were taken in Iqaluit, Baffin Island, Nunavut, Canada several years ago. The dark blue unit with the Toyota parked in front is where we lived while we were up there - a two-bedroom unit. You can see that the entire thing is on posts. It was one of eight units that ran horizontally. There were enclosed porches front and back (air-locks), to minimize heat loss to the house when going in and out. The bottom picture shows a polar bear skin leaning up against a large apartment building, which was also built on a steel framework of posts and beams. This building was visable from the back step of the unit shown in the top photo. Both buildings are in the territorial capital, Iqlauit (Inuit for "place of many fish"). In both pictures the perimeter is also enclosed by a lighter framing and chain link fencing (to prevent animals and children from crawling under and tampering with the mechanical systems).