ABSTRACT

Permafrost—continuously frozen ground for more than two years—is one of the defining landscape elements in the Arctic. In the U.S., its development as an idea has parallelled mid-twentieth-century territorial struggles in Alaska and is inextricably linked to permafrost science and frontier engineering. Permafrost is more than a scientific category and engineering risk subject to correction and control; it is a foundation for dynamic socioecological and cultural expressions in arctic landscapes. In response, a relational approach is taken to examine permafrost’s cold, vibrant and plural materialities, with an aim of generating design possibilities that are attuned to these dynamics. In the Arctic where science continues to play a central role in determining putative futures, the article further suggests to creatively instrumentalise scientific forms of landscape inquiry, highlighting thermo-material interactions and multiplicities of arctic ground.

摘要

多年冻土-连续冻土超过两年-是北极的主要景观元素之一。在美国，其思想的发展与二十世纪中叶在阿拉斯加的领土斗争并驾齐驱，并且与多年冻土科学和前沿工程有着千丝万缕的联系。多年冻土不仅仅属于科学范畴，而且还应进行纠正和控制。它是北极景观中动态的社会生态和文化表现形式的基础。作为响应，采取了一种相关方法来检查多年冻土的冷，充满活力和多种材料，目的是生成与这些动态相协调的设计可能性。在北极，科学继续在确定假定的未来中发挥核心作用，