The 2008 CCA Master’s Students Program invited candidates to produce a collaborative research project on the topic of Cold Environments from a historical, theoretical or critical perspective. This resulted in the online publication Cold Snap, which examines the responses of architecture and urbanism to our cultural and physical relationships to the cold. The participants describe their project:

Driven by our own individual interests, the research presented here does not attempt to be a comprehensive survey of the subject matter, but instead takes the form of a variety of inquiries around our cultural and physical relationship to cold environments. The investigation moves from the larger regional scale, to urbanism and concerns of the built environment, followed by issues of cold interiors.

Although global temperatures may be on the rise, a relative “colder” place will always remain. What is important in the response of architecture to the questions raised here, however is that it maintains a dialogue with its environment, a dialogue that responds to and challenges our own perceptions of cold.

Tomek Bartczak
University of Toronto, Canada

Shannon Harvey
McGill University, Canada

Per Kefgen
McGill University, Canada