Tuktoyaktuk : responsive strategies for a new Arctic urbanism

Abstract

The Canadian Arctic is facing a set of compounding crises that will drastically impact the future of its coastal frontier. At a time when climate change is having a detrimental impact on the Arctic landscape, Northern communities are on the frontline of resource development where industrial money promises major territorial and social change. In this way, the Inuvialuit population of Tuktoyaktuk will find opportunity in crisis as they strategically manipulate both the agendas of the petroleum industry as well as the federal government's own incentive for Northern development in order to construct a new coastal frontier and secure a post-oil economy defended from the rising sea. This form of oil urbanization provides an architectural and infrastructural imperative for this thesis, as change will occur rapidly and at a much larger scale than these communities could spark or manage on their own. The Tuktoyaktuk landscape will undoubtedly become transformed by the creation of occupiable, defensive infrastructure that secures new land on which to reimagine the arctic dwelling and its temporal interface with a rising sea and a changing economy. Mobilized by the demands and goals of the Inuvialuit population, this thesis examines Tuktoyaktuk as an exemplary model for strategic modernization and development of remote Arctic communities on the frontline of industrialization. The goal of designing this enhanced urban structure is to make use of the finite economic opportunity to set up the framework from which the community will thrive and grow upon the retreat of the oil operations. By maximizing the opportunities that emerge from these complexities of place, we begin to unveil a unique and timely moment for architectural and infrastructural innovation.