An Atlas of Ephemeral Geographies: Identity in the Alaskan Arctic

In both practice and academic pedagogy, the initial pro forma analysis of site performed in order to lay the groundwork for design has left the profession with an incredibly shallow and even inimical understanding of place. Physical geographies alongside the extension of human construct (buildings, street grids, nodes, axes, etc.) have become the framework for the reading of identity within place; identity, however, is driven by an array of agents traditional cartography often neglects. These agents are especially evidenced in geopolitically fragile environments within the arctic where an intimacy with place is rooted in diurnal and seasonal patterns and migrations, fleeting phenomena stemming from climatic arcs, ecological frameworks and sequencing, and histories and cultures tied directly to spatial landscapes. Without factoring these agents into analysis, these very places are left to be perceived against a fictional background that promotes singular architectural strategies and policy decisions devoid of equitable impacts.

https://doi.org/10.35483/ACSA.AM.110.38

Volume Editors
Robert Gonzalez, Milton Curry & Monica Ponce de Leon

ISBN
978-1-944214-40-1