Igloo house made of snow and ice. How to build an ice eskimo igloo with a domed roof made of snow blocks. Igloo construction technologies with visual diagrams and photos How Eskimos make an igloo
Eskimos, inhabitants of the northernmost regions of our planet, have the skills to survive in difficult climatic conditions to be envied by any resident middle lane. One of the most important inventions of the Eskimos, time-tested, is the igloo - traditional houses from ice and snow. We will tell about the features of this amazing structure in our review.
Researchers believe that the Eskimo tribes settled in the Arctic in the 11th-12th centuries. Today, the number of Eskimos is about 170,000 people, and they live mainly on the territory of three regions: the island of Greenland, which belongs to Denmark, in northern Canada and the US state of Alaska. By the way, the Eskimo is an Indian word, which literally translates as "raw eater", and the Eskimos themselves call themselves Inuit.
The traditional dwellings of the Eskimos are the summer yaranga - a domed structure made of animal skins and snow igloos that build the cold season. Building a real igloo is not so simple work requiring certain skills and knowledge.
An igloo can be built in a large pile of dense snow, or it can be made up of individual blocks of ice. The size of the igloo is small: about 3-4 meters in diameter and no more than 2 meters in height. If there are no suitable snowdrifts, then the igloo is built from blocks that are cut out of ice or snow. Blocks are stacked in a circle, which gradually narrows towards the ceiling. In order for the structure to acquire greater strength, it is poured with water during construction. Windows are made of ice blocks, but an igloo can be windowless. In this case sunlight penetrates through the snow walls.
The most important thing, from the point of view of the functionality of the entire building, is the correct arrangement of the entrance to the igloo. If the igloo is built in a large snowdrift, then the entrance is made right in the floor, and a tunnel breaks through to exit to the surface. If the igloo is built from blocks, then the entrance is always made at the bottom, at floor level. At the same time, any door in traditional dwelling not provided, the entrance is always open.
This low entry is done in order to warm air, located under the ceiling, did not go outside. But the needle is open so that in a small room there is always an influx of fresh air saturated with oxygen. If there are several people in the igloo and it burns oil lamp or a hearth for cooking, which is also used as a heater, then a lot of carbon dioxide is formed in the air, and the oxygen content is reduced. The heavier carbon dioxide sinks down and out through the low inlet, and instead enters Fresh air.
Despite the fact that most of the Eskimos no longer live in their traditional houses made of ice and snow, there are still Eskimo communities that build igloos and fish for marine animals. In addition, polar explorers and some tourists who go on winter hikes master the technique of building an igloo, because a shelter made of snow is very convenient.
For a long time, people have been using any material suitable for this to build their homes: someone has wood of various species, someone has clay, and someone has even found a use for snow. Yes, yes, we will talk about those very snow houses of the Eskimos, called "igloos", and so unusual for the perception of most people.
Translated from Inuktitut, "igloo" means " winter dwelling Eskimos." Such houses are dome-shaped buildings, the diameter of which reaches about 3-4 meters, and the height is 2-2.5 meters. The main material for the construction of the igloo is ice or snow blocks, compacted by the wind. With a large depth of snow cover, the entrance to the room is equipped in the floor, breaking through to it small corridor. If the snow cover does not have the required depth, then the entrance is equipped in the wall, completing an additional corridor with the help of snow blocks.
Each Eskimo camp has several buildings, where up to four related families are located. Eskimo housing is divided into two types: summer and winter. The first is stone buildings located on a slope, the floor of which is deepened into the ground. From below, a long passage of stones leads to the house, partially buried in the ground. The last part of the passage, which is located above the floor, is covered with a wide slab of stone, and is at the same height as the bunks in the hut.
The house made of snow has a quite ordinary layout: sleeping bunk beds are located in the back of the room, and bunk beds for lamps are equipped on the sides. When walls are built above ground, stones or whale ribs are used, whose arcs are arranged in such a way that their ends intersect with each other (or both materials). Sometimes, when building a roof skeleton, whale ribs are used, adding props to the structure. Seal skins are tightly tied to the finished frame (which allows you to qualitatively insulate the house from ice), on which small heather bushes and another additional layer of skins are then laid in a thick layer.
Scheme of construction and arrangement of the igloo house When erecting an igloo, snow or ice slabs are used. Blocks are stacked in a spiral, from right to left. To do this, two blocks are cut diagonally in the first row to the middle of the third, after which the construction of the second row can begin. During work, each row is slightly tilted so that a neat one is obtained. A small hole that remains at the top is closed from the inside with a wedge-shaped block. Then the builder, who is inside the hut, closes up all the cracks with snow.
The entrance tunnel is digging through a snowdrift with outer side, ending with a hatch in the floor of the building. In the event that the layer of snow is shallow, then an inlet is cut in the wall of the igloo, and a corridor of snow blocks is laid out to it.
In this video you can see the process of building a snow igloo house
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The outer entrance to the tunnel has a height of about 1.5 meters, which is why you can only walk through it with your head bowed. The entrance to the tunnel is even smaller - you can find yourself in it only if you crawl on all fours. But in the hut itself, the ceilings are quite suitable for moving freely around the room - their height reaches about 2 meters. Large snow house Eskimo can reach a diameter of 9 meters, and the height of the ceilings in it reaches 3-3.5 meters. Usually such large structures are built much less often and are used mainly for big holidays.
To make the final decoration of housing, a lamp-bowl filled with seal oil is lit inside the room. The heated air causes the snow to melt, but the resulting moisture does not drip, but is absorbed by the snow layers. When the inner surface of the hut is sufficiently moistened, cold air is let in, due to which the walls from the inside are covered with a strong layer of ice. This technique increases the safety of heat and the strength of the walls, and also makes staying indoors more comfortable. In the event that the ice crust is absent, one careless movement is enough, as the snow begins to crumble.
In order for the strength of the dwelling to become even greater, it must stand well in the cold. Due to heating with warm air, the seams in the hut are reliably soldered, the snow shrinks, and the structure itself, made of several blocks, turns into a monolithic strong structure.
Secrets of building a reliable igloo
- When working with blocks that are located next to each other, contact of their corners should be avoided, otherwise the structure will turn out to be unstable. For convenience, it is recommended to leave a triangular hole at the bottom of the junction of adjacent blocks small size(it can be easily repaired with snow in the future).
- It is strongly not recommended to move the block installed on the wall in one direction or another, as this can cause it to wear out and lose its original shape. You can simply place the block, cut off strongly protruding parts from one side and bottom, and then carefully move it as tightly as possible to the neighboring block. Then, with the help of a saw, it is made final finishing. It is recommended to lay the slabs with the "nasty" side inside the structure, as it is more durable.
- To facilitate the work process, the upper hole in the dome can be carefully covered with one of the plates. Large gaps that are between the blocks are sealed with pieces of crust, and small ones are treated with loose snow. through holes and the cracks are easiest to see in the evening, by the light of a bowl of seal oil burning inside the igloo. In addition, warm air will slightly heat the joints, which will improve the quality of the processing of holes and crevices.
- Before making a fire inside the needle, it is necessary to make a hole with a diameter of about 10-15 cm on the leeward side in the upper part of the dome and attach a smoke exhaust pipe made of strong crust to it.
People have long learned to use the material that is nearby for their needs.
(the video is even more refreshing, so watching and dreaming about snow is a must:)
What is an igloo
The igloo, translated from Inuktitut (as most Inuit Canadian dialects are called), means "the winter dwelling of the Eskimos." The igloo is a domed building with a diameter of 3-4 meters and a height of approximately human height. They build it from what is at hand, and in the winter tundra, only snow is at hand from building materials ... From snow or ice blocks compacted by the wind, they erect an igloo. If the snow is deep, the entrance to the igloo is made in the floor, and a corridor is cut through to the entrance. If the snow is not deep enough, you have to make an entrance in the wall, and an additional corridor of snow blocks is completed to it.
Alone, an Eskimo builds a spacious snow hut for his entire family in three-quarters of an hour. The strongest blizzard in the hut is not audible. The snow bricks stick together tightly, besides, the hut freezes from heating inside. They say the igloo can even support the weight of a polar bear.
From the point of view of physics
As a result of heating, the inner surfaces of the walls are melted, but the walls do not melt. The colder it is outside, the more high heat can withstand the needle from the inside. After all, wet snow loses its heat-shielding properties and passes the cold more easily. Having made its way through the thickness of the block, frost freezes the inner surface of the walls that has begun to melt, and the temperature pressure outside and inside is balanced.
In general, the thermal conductivity of a snow dome is low, and it is easy to maintain a positive temperature in a hut, often the heat generated by sleeping people is enough for this. In addition, the snow hut absorbs excess moisture from the inside, so the igloo is quite dry.
Secrets of the Inuit
So, an igloo is an arctic dwelling in which you can survive even without heating.
It is known that Finnish snipers and mountain rangers of the German Wehrmacht were trained in the skills of building an igloo. Today, igloo huts are used in ski touring as emergency shelter in case of problems with a tent or a long wait for the weather to improve.
However, polar travelers did not immediately learn how to build an igloo. For a long time it was believed that only a native Eskimo could build an igloo.
The explorer of the Arctic and Antarctic, the Irish Shackleton, once complained about the difficult fate of the researchers southern mainland: "There are no Eskimos in Antarctica that we could hire, as Peary did, to build snow houses for us." So Amundsen, according to Shackleton, although he experienced a temperature of 62 ° C during an expedition to the North Magnetic Pole, was much happier: “It should be remembered that there were Eskimos with him who built a snow house for him every night.”
The Canadian Viljalmur Stefansson was the first to learn how to build an igloo in 1914. He wrote about this in his book and in articles, but even from them it was not easy to learn how to do it. The secret of building an igloo lay in the special shape of the plates, which made it possible to fold the hut in the form of a “snail”, gradually tapering towards the arch. The method of installing the slabs also turned out to be important - relying on the previous ones at three points.
Experience shows that for a person who knows how to build an igloo, it is enough to have a saw and a shovel to quickly build shelter, wherever night or bad weather overtakes him.
Life under the snow
The Eskimos skillfully turn their winter settlements into a complex complex of snow buildings and, in bad weather, can visit neighboring huts without leaving the surface. Rasmussen, in his book The Great Sledge Way, tells of snowy villages with covered passages between igloos, of entire architectural ensembles erected by the Eskimos with amazing speed, of large huts-houses.
“The main lodging could easily accommodate twenty people overnight. This part of the snow house turned into a high portal like a "hall" where people brushed off the snow. A spacious bright annex adjoined the main dwelling, where two families settled. We had plenty of fat, and therefore 7-8 lamps burned at a time, which is why it became so warm in these walls of white snow blocks that people could walk around half-naked to their fullest pleasure.
Snow hut interior
interior the igloo is usually covered with skins, sometimes the walls are also covered with skins. Grease bowls are used for heating and additional lighting.
The Eskimos cover the bed with a double layer of reindeer skins, and the bottom layer is laid with the mezra up, and upper layer- mezdra down. Sometimes under the skins they put old skin from a kayak. This three-layer insulation serves as a comfortable soft bed.
Sometimes windows of seal intestines or ice are arranged in the igloo, but even without that, the sun penetrates the igloo right through the snowy walls. soft light different shades.
At night, one candle lit in the hut brightly illuminates the snow-white vault, and at the joints of the bricks this light breaks through a thinner layer of snow.
Outside, in the frosty darkness of the night, the igloo glows in a web of blurry lines. This is truly an extraordinary sight. No wonder that Knud Rasmussen called the igloo "a temple of festive joy among the snowdrifts of the snowy desert."
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Each nationality has its own special traditions that distinguish them from others. These are national clothes, cuisine, epic, language, features of building a dwelling. Depending on the place of residence of people, the materials used to build houses are also distinguished. It can be stones, wood, clay, branches, straw, bamboo. Inhabitants Far North they have nothing but snow and ice, so they could use only frozen water to build a dwelling.
In summer, deer skins and whale ribs were used. And in winter, the building material was a dense snow flooring, lying in a thick layer on the surface of the earth. With the seeming simplicity of construction, the house turns out to be very durable and warm. The name "igloo" is translated from the language of the northern inhabitants as "the winter dwelling of the Eskimos."
Why do you need a snow house?
The Eskimos live in the harsh conditions of the Far North, where cold winds constantly blow, bringing with them heavy snowfalls. The inhabitants of this region survive thanks to the herds of reindeer located in in constant motion in search of food in the tundra. Eskimos cannot have a stationary strong house, as they have to move behind the herd. Stopping for the night, people learned to build huts from deer skins, laid on tied long sticks or whale ribs.
And in the long polar night, the Eskimos came up with another way to quickly build a shelter that would be strong, durable and warm. It will seem strange to many how it can be built from snow warm dwelling, sheltering people in severe frosts and winds. But in fact, the dwelling of the Eskimos is very warm. Travelers, climbers and Arctic explorers have seen this more than once. So knowledge of the rules for building an igloo can be useful to all travel lovers and adventurers.
How to choose the right material?
How to start building an igloo? What is a snow house? The Eskimos build their dwellings out of snow or ice bricks. big size laid in the form of a dome with an inlet. If the snow is deep, then they begin to break through the passage into the house so that the inlet would be in the middle of the floor and always below its level. To do this, a tunnel is made under the igloo wall. If the snow is not so deep, then an additional entrance corridor is built.
How to choose snow decking for igloo building blocks? What is quality snow? It is necessary to take dense, dry snow with a uniform fine-grained structure that retains heat well. The necessary blocks are cut with a hacksaw or cut out with a sharp long knife. When lifting and carrying such bricks, they must keep their original shape, not crumble or break. If the snow is very hard and strong, then it will have poor grip in the blocks, and it will be worse to keep the heat in the room. And when severe frosts may break, as it has increased fragility.
The most suitable place for sawing blocks is a young snowdrift with a powdery structure. From it you can cut a block up to a meter long, calmly transfer it to the construction site, without fear of breaking the material. You need to choose a snowdrift according to the color of the snow. Old snow has a grayish tint, while young snow is bright white. Be sure to listen to the sound when walking. Good snow for building a house should crunch, and leave traces 2 cm deep. When pushing with a stick, you need to find out the thickness of the snow cover and its density. It must be uniform.
The size and location of the snow house
Building an igloo begins with thinking about the size of the room. For a small family, a building with a diameter of 3 m and a ceiling height of 2 m will be sufficient. But there are cases of both smaller sizes for one inhabitant, and huge igloos up to 9 m in diameter and a 4-meter ceiling.
There are entire villages for several families, consisting of a large number needle. Usually, under the snow, they are interconnected by corridors along which people can visit relatives without going out. cold surface long winter arctic night.
A place is chosen for the Eskimo's house, usually on top of a large and dense snowdrift, so that an entrance corridor can be dug. Next, you need to find a suitable young snowdrift for sawing snow blocks. It should not be located very far, as it will have to be moved construction material. If the Eskimos keep dogs and have carts, then the blocks are delivered with their help. Often use the draft power of deer.
Start of construction
Having thought over the size of the needle, they take a stick with a rope and, having organized a kind of compass, draw a circle in the snow. Further along the perimeter, the first layer of igloo blocks will be laid out. What is the first layer bookmark? This is the most important point. First you need to determine the side of the inlet. The main thing is that the wind does not blow cold air into the home. The entry must be downwind or perpendicular to the main wind direction. You can understand this by the sastrugi on the surrounding snowdrifts.
Along the perimeter of the future home of the Eskimo, a recess is trodden for the first row of blocks. This will give the layer density and better docking with the base. If the surface of the snow is frozen, then the crust must first be removed. A slippery surface is a poor base for an igloo.
For the first row, blocks are taken bigger size. Lay them in a spiral and at an angle in the middle. The first row ends with the last three blocks beveled down. The next row should be started with this notch in a circle from right to left. A distance of 1 cm must be left between the bricks so that the severity of the upper rows does not displace the blocks of the first layer.
Cutting blocks
How to properly position the blocks in the igloo? What is a domed structure? In order to get a rounded room, you need to trim each brick a little before laying. sharp knife. Joints between blocks should be perfectly smooth. To do this, a knife is drawn several times over the surface of the ice. The well-ground surface of the rib should fit snugly against the adjacent block easy with a blow of the hand. The joints are "cemented" with powdered snow.
Each block has the shape of a trapezoid. At least two people are required to build a house. One feeds the bricks from the outside, and the second lays them from the inside. The last brick should be cut in the shape of the top hole and fit snugly into the recess so as to jam the exit.
Description of the igloo
Opposite the entrance, a bed is made of snow, covered with seal or deer skins in two layers. The focus is fat. To exit the smoke, a small hole is hollowed out in the roof round hole into which the pipe is inserted. The inlet is hung with a screen of cloth. Sometimes they make small depressions in the snow, which are niches for storing things. Lighting is natural through snow blocks, and at night - from fattening. If the arch begins to thaw, then a small layer of snow is scraped off from the outside.
The igloo reliably serves the people living in extreme conditions North, so it became very popular. Now hotels and entertainment venues, which are in great demand among tourists, are made from such buildings.
An igloo is built from snow blocks. Snow is compacted, because in this state it is lighter than ice. Air is trapped between the snowflakes in these snow panels. It protects from the cold and there is a lot of air between its snowflakes. Air is a poor conductor of heat and a good insulator against cold.
The igloo is built from the inside. To do this, the blocks cut with a hacksaw are arranged in a circle. Blocks should not touch each other with their bottom corners. Because of this, the structure may lose stability, and the house will collapse. To prevent this from happening, small triangular holes are left in these places. Then they can be easily patched up. Vertical joints also do not have to match. Otherwise, a long crack is formed in this place along the entire length. Blocks are not recommended to be moved. The protruding parts are best then cut off with a hacksaw.
To prevent the structure from melting, the outside air temperature must not exceed 0°C. This condition is easily fulfilled. Indeed, for the Arctic regions, such temperatures are quite common. Inside the house does not melt even if it is heated with lamps. This is made possible by the rounded shape of the roof: water does not drip, but is absorbed into the walls. Therefore, it is dry inside the snow hut.
Breaks through the dome air vent for ventilation. As a rule, on the contrary, a couch is built from the same blocks. And finally, cut out the door.
Why is the inside of an igloo warm?
To keep the room warm, the door to the hut should be below the floor level. In this case, oxygen enters and carbon dioxide exits. The Eskimos heated themselves in their dwellings and cooked food with the help of a device for burning melted fat - a fat pan. Live fire they used only for cooking or tea. At the same time, the temperature there was never lower than 5 degrees Celsius. This temperature is quite comfortable to endure, if you also take cover warm blanket from fur. If you sleep on animal skins, it will be even warmer. After all, it is an excellent thermal insulator. In addition, it does not allow the snow floor to melt.
The colder it is outside, the higher the temperature in the igloo. This is due to the ability of wet snow to lose its heat-shielding properties. Frost, freezing the inner surface of the walls that had begun to thaw. Thus, the temperature outside the needle and inside it is balanced. In addition, the snow dome has very little thermal conductivity. Therefore, to maintain a small above-zero temperature, human heat is sufficient.
