We are the Air... We are the Water...  We are the Land....    

      I met Bill Semple at the International Green Build Expo in Toronto, Ontario. Bill, a guest speaker for the Rural Affordable Housing Symposium, immediately stood out. That's because when Bill says rural, even the good ole' country boy on the open range can't quite grasp his meaning. Bill works in rural affordable housing design for the vast open space of the Arctic Circle.

     "When I first started working on these projects I realized the enormous challenges the Arctic presents and the opportunities we had to push the limits of efficient building design" Bill Semple The Arctic winter is beyond what many "Southerners" can imagine. Average temperatures from November to March range from -18 to -33 degrees Celsius, with temperatures often dropping below -50 C. If you have ever watched Star Wars Episode V: Empire Strikes Back, you may remember the scenes set on the icy planet in the Hoth system where Hans Solo and Luke Skywalker battle for their lives against the freezing elements and a furry Wampa. It's not science fiction for the residents on the top of our world. While there may not be any Wampas, there are Polar Bears, white outs and hypothermia. For generations, the tribes of the northern frontier have lived in one of the harshest environments on earth... they are an ancient people. For many years affordable housing sponsored by the Canadian Government consisted of double wide trailers with poor insulation, cramped spaces and a picture manual on "How to live in the new houses." Traditionally, the Inuit would migrate through the seasons to take full advantage of hunting grounds and had no concept of living for four seasons in a stick built houses. Bill and his team took an approach to their research that had not been utilized in previous attempts to build houses for the people of the North. They went to the Arctic and asked the people what would make a successful Arctic dwelling. The wisdom of the Inuit people immediately made an impression on Bill. He told me of his meetings with tribal elders where they described the nature of the north. "The animals of the north do not have to eat more fuel in the winter, instead they spend their energy creating thick fur and insulating fat to maintain their body temperature." In Alaska Bill and a team from the Cold Climate Housing Research Center in Fairbanks embraced that wisdom creating a home that used just 60 gallons of heating oil in the first winter. On a project in Nunavut, with the help of countless hours of counsel with the community members, Bill's team designed a super energy efficient house that had rooms with various temperatures; a cold room for keeping traditional skin clothing, cool rooms for working with the skins, and a central warm area for gathering.

     When I asked Bill about costs for such an incredibly efficient build, he pointed out a slide from his presentation and said " Yes, there is going to be a larger initial cost, but as we have proven to the canadian northern territorial government and the people of the north, the energy cost savings over 10 years based on the inevitable rise in fossil fuel cost, more than pays for the larger out of pocket investment... and thankfully the northern Canadian Governments and people have embraced it!"

   Bill continues his work as a senior researcher for the Sustainable Housing Policy and Research Dievision of the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corp.