Bare Poles

Designing successfully for people in the world's coldest climates demands a broad understanding of site conditions and their unique social context. Until now such knowledge often lay unarticulated in the minds of a few experienced practitioners or in the disappearing traditions of aboriginal peoples. Bare Poles is a guide for the future.

A lively text, informed by more than 150 drawings, photographs, tables, and maps, it sets out the information and questions designers must keep in mind when building in high latitudes and remote communities. A key reference for architects, engineers, planners, builders, hamlet managers or building program administrators in the Canadian North - and a one-stop briefing for newcomers - Bare Poles is equally relevant to other polar regions and to cold climate zones at midlatitudes.