This research project initially began as a study of the annual displacement, due to seasonal flooding, of the community of Kashechewan, whom reside in the area south of Hudson Bay, Canada.

 

This flooding occurs when an ice dam forms at the mouth of the Albany River over Winter and then rapidly melts in the Spring. The entire community, who’s houses are situated on the bank of the river, are subsequently evacuated for up to two months at a time. 

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Whilst my research originally took the form of 1:1 scale building of small experimental structures, this rapidly evolved into a series of investigatory studies into the melting of ice. 

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This then lead to the final phase of the research in which a bridge was designed that would hold packed wool 'sandbags', to slow the melting of ice at the mouth of the river in the spring.