Permafrost Floating Lab
A transportable citizen science laboratory that manipulate algae growth in the tundra of Alaska
Permafrost Floating Lab
revives the nomadic means of living of the Alaskan as citizen scientist dwellers. The pneumatic laboratories serve as a zero carbon footprint aerial transportation that migrate over the region where permafrost exists in partially continuous form. Through activating the lab by its changes in nature of temporarity as well as material phase, the snow darkening process is reversed.
Permafrost Cosmogram
A scaled model of the arctic circle of 9000 km where permafrost exist is being physically built as a base model where all the information about the relationship and categories of historical incidents that happened within the region are overlaid on. Due to the large area included, the height is of the topography is represented in a different scale.
Permafrost is melting.
Dark snow is causing the ground to absorb more heat.
The impact of microbes is being studied.
The Dark Snow Project organization has 50 years of citizen science studies on ice sheet melt and sea level rise.
Aerial image of dark ice sheet surface in around the 'Black and Bloom' campsite in Greenland.
The dark snow project gathering data to quantify the impact of black soot, mineral dust and microbes induced by industrial activities and wildfire on the melting of ice
Cryoconite Holes. Favourable for microbes photosyntesis.
Maintain high light intensities and blocked harmful uv.
Nutrient in melt water flow through hole walls.
Relative long term storage (years) of microbes.
Cryoconite topography, Greenland.
Cryoconite Holes on Matanuska Glacier, Alaska.
Ice algae are contributing to the surface darkening of snow.
Ice algae grows on glacier surface worldwide. They belong to group of green algae (zygnemato phyceae or conjugating algae) that produce purple brown pigment, which is a kind of pigment found in black tea.
There exist tens of thousands of algae cells in every mm of ice sample. The estimated biological area is greater than 400,000 sq.m.
Albedo value of the ice surface changes due to darkening effect, contributing to ice melt.
Cylindrocystic brebiggonii
Mesotaenium berggrenii
Ancylonema nordenskioldii
Despite having a shorter life, methane is 4 times more powerful in terms of heat trapping ability than carbon dioxide .
When permafrost melt to a certain point, the process of warming of the earth can be automated without human actively polluting the environment.
The boundary defining species, time and human activities morph as permafrost melt.
Certain natural and man-made process are being learnt from.
In which the products of the phenomenon suppress instead of escalate the phenomenon to form a vicious cycle.
I.S.C.T.P Matrix
Ice Sheet Contaminants Tracking and Purifying Matrix is made for the permafrost area to mitigate the snow darkening process.
The idea is to adsorb algae pigment to methane gas to shield off certain amount of light to limit the overgrowing of harmful algae species.
A chamber of cells for smoke to circulate within.
The chamber is fabricated by vacuum forming of 0.5mm PETG sheet on a CNC-milled mdf board. A combination of soft and hard joint enhance the flexibility of the cells chamber.
The lasercut acrylic structure combines loft edges at various angle to adjust the projection of shading profile on the ground.
To divert smoke into the chamber, a funnel module is made by 3d printing Zglass.
In order to contain the smoke at a specific cell and to read the light sensor value of the darken surface, a solenoid valve balloon joint is developed for the low precision vacuum formed cells.
In response to the aforementioned problem, scientists launched expedition to collect dark snow samples and start to research on their effect on warming the arctic permafrost.
Caterpillar vehicle, which is the most conventional means of conducting expedition, is polluting the environment.
Caterpillar vehicle parked outside halley VI mobile antarctic research station
Sno-Cat hangs precariously over Crevasse during Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition, November/December 1957.
Green scientific expedition
Windsled Traverse Project taken place in 2017 in Greenland is part of dark snow project to collect of black carbon samples to investigate spatial variability and relationship to snow melt.
Ramón Larramendi had invented his Wind-powered Sled for the expedition, which is a kite hauled sled system requiring no active input of energy.
The latest development of ACCIONA Windpowered Sled by Ramón Larramendi, inspired by Inuit/Eskimos technologies, make used of kite of surface area up to 48sq.m, and a base that is flexibly adapting to the terrain, at the same time, having the capacity of supporting 1200kg, is composed of three modules.
Namely, the locomotive, loading and habitable module.
Comparing the two great expeditioners that crosses the Antarctic shows that learning from the native Eskimos is a crucial factor of success.
Eskimos were people that originally lived a nomadic lives.
After the American colonization, Eskimos are being relocated near the coast for easy loading and unloading of the material to build infrastructure. As permafrost thaw, Inuit people are exposed to fierce tides due to the lost of natural barrier.
Extreme climates causes many parts of the coastal land to be inhabitable, communities are displaced, some to higher land, others have to search for new locations, limited to the presence of permafrost under the ground, which is thawing and unstable, the affected communities have great difficulties finding new places where they can relocate to.
186 Alaskan villages are at risk because of climate change
The communities displaced by melting permafrost has large concern about climate change and how it impacts their livelihood and also express a strong desire of remaining in their original land.
Consequently, my design temporarily relocate the affected communities to the atmosphere above their homeland. The living unit floating on the atmosphere has an extension use as laboratory dedicated to the research of dark snow. The two major aspects are
How pigment of ice algae affects the albedo of snow surface?
What is the relationship between light intensity reaches the ground and the growth of ice algae?
The first concept sketch convey the idea of adopting a inflatable funicular geometry to separate the space between water particles and human space to provide spaces for the two to interact. The second sketch convey the idea of having a portion of locomotive space made by the flexible tensegrity system, which also create a porus content to divert air flow, the two system is linked by a ring truss which prevent the tensegrity base to experience too much local shear force when the inflatable portion deform.
Permafrost Floating Lab
An augmented layer of icescape
The phenomenon of fierce tides contribute to pressurizing water and releasing in gas form through nozzle, which insulate the architecture, separate indoor from outdoor space and was supplied to device for the experiment.
Upon various arrangement of the units, inspired by organization of traditional Inuit settlements, spaces where people are empowered through engaging in citizen science are formed.
Under the temporary organization of units, vapour are condensed and bigger and heavier droplets are formed based on surface tension. Depends of the organization of units, spaces defined by the water curtain and floating units is created for larger scale experiments on dark snow.
As the droplet-formed-pound become heavier, the building rains and the long distance freezes the rain to form new ice cubes that are planted on the ground. Hot wire was placed between each layer of ice cubes dropped, melting and refrozening the ice to seal the seam in between. Depending on the solar exposure of the ice pillar formed, the surface resolution will be different.
Eventually, a permanent form of living is re-established, a “Home for All” re-explore the new social models, The architecture could be interpreted as “Igloo 2.0”, which is grounded on Inuit technology and at the same time being capable of confronting the present challenges. “Home for All” is a platform for Eskimos / Inuit communities to talked about the future of their living environment and to developed collective strategies to combat climate change.
Permafrost Floating Lab is a project of IaaC, Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia
developed in the Master of Advanced Architecture in 2018/19 by:
Students: Timothy Ka Kui Lam
Part I Cosmogram developed by: Timothy Ka Kui Lam, Gayathry Mohan, Karisma Bhagnani
Faculty: Enric Ruiz Geli, Josep Perello, Mireia Luzarraga,and Alejandro Muino
Support: Mohamad Rachid Jalloul and Francois Nour