Igloo v1.0

A couple weeks ago, as Jess and I were walking across Harvard Yard we spotted this igloo in the distance. It was not a "complete igloo," as it was lacking a roof but it definitely piqued my curiosity. Not enough to walk across the snow field in my low-top shoes, but it was piqued. I filed a little note to myself - "next storm build igloo." And so when last weeks blizzard rolled in I knew what had to be done. I texted our good friend Eitan and asked him if he wanted in on the project. A couple minutes later the team was assembled.


Ten minutes of intensive research on the internet led me to believe that this whole igloo project would be a piece of cake. Major thanks to Matthias Wandel for his thorough write-up on modern igloo building practice. Now although igloos have been built for thousands of years, building an igloo in a park with fresh snow is a completely different matter. Traditional igloos are built with already compressed and packed snow; the kind of rock hard snow that snow plows love to encase your car in. In our case we were going to be working with freshly fallen snow before it got trampled on by Harvard kids building snowmen and other frozen sculpture.

Let's first lay out the basics of igloo construction and then we can walkthrough what went right and what went wrong with igloo v1.0. The first thing you need when building a sizeable igloo is a whole lot of snow. Luckily we just happen to live across the street from a giant park. If it was large enough for the Continental Army to make camp in for the winter, it must surely be large enough to supply raw materials for a simple two person igloo. Second you need a good form to build your snow bricks. Ours included a couple of rubbermaid containers (bad) and a giant kitty litter bin (good).

Unfortunately I don't have photos of our entire igloo building process. But I will walk you through our build step by step (or how I wish our build had proceeded), so you can try this in your own park. Building an igloo in a public space is highly recommended. For one - tons of people come by and say things like "awesome igloo", or "nice igloo", or "what are you building", to which you can respond "an awesome nice igloo." Second, a park is filled with passerbys whom you can enlist in your igloo building endevour (not for the super fun part of laying the bricks, but the more tedious brick building phase)

Step 1 - Choose a site
Since you are going to be collecting snow for your bricks it is important to pick your site in the middle of your snow field. This will greatly reduce the amount of walking you will have to do while building your bricks.

Step 2 - Prep the site
The igloo is essentially a dome you live in. Draw a circle on the snow field that is large enough for two adults to stand in. I put the handle of our snow shovel at what would be the center of our igloo and rotated it until it drew a full circle in the snow.

Step 3 - Build some bricks
The basic concept here is you have a brick-like form, you tightly pack some snow into it and you turn it upside down. You do that around 150 times and you have enough bricks for an igloo. The key to brick making is to let the bricks set before trying to work with them. I would wait at least ten minutes, but thirty would be even better. When you pack the snow into the form it melts a little, and the idea is that letting it set before handling it allows the melted snow to refreeze into a solid brick. Think of the outdoors as one giant freezing cold kiln.


As for forms it is important that your form be sturdy and deep enough so you can stack your bricks. We began the build with some rubbermaid containers which started to crack and fall apart before we have even completed the first ring of our igloo. The issue with your standard household container is that under stress they will bend and crack. Luckily one of our neighbors had just thrown out a giant kitty litter bin which turns out to be a nearly perfect brick shape and also is made from really sturdy plastic. So if you have a cat or no someone who does, or don't mind digging through some trash, find yourself some of these. I recommend at least two (because who wants to build an igloo all alone) and some extra for the occasional volunteer who wanders into your construction site. (Those really sturdy blue recycling bins might also do the trick)

As you are building bricks remember to note which are your oldest and therefore most set and frozen bricks. You will be tempted to start building your igloo right away, but you need to resist that temptation. An igloo with a weak foundation will just not work.

Step 4 - Build your Igloo
Start laying down your bricks along the circle you drew in the snow. The bricks should be as tightly spaced as possible. Fill in the cracks with loose snow and try to make sure your ring is fairly level. Any early imperfections will be greatly magnified when you are on your fifth or sixth level so be careful. After your first ring is complete start on the second level. The key is to stack the second level an inch or two in from the first level. This is how you build your dome and hopefully have all your walls meet each other. Also you want to make sure the bricks are offset from the layer below, just like you would when building a brick wall.


I would like to tell you how to finish your igloo off, but to be honest, igloo v1.0 was never finished. We made some crucial mistakes I have tried to correct for in this post, but I don't know exactly how to finish off an igloo because I never have. That is an excercise for igloo v2.0.

What didn't work
1. Do not build a doorway into your igloo in advance. The entranceway will just lead to instability in your dome as you put it together. A doorway should be cut into the igloo after it is finished.
2. Do not start building your igloo before you have lots of bricks ready to go. As you build your ever shrinking circles you will want to have extra bricks on hand to pack together and keep the growing arch intact. If you don't have extra bricks you may suffer a cave in.
3. Make sure each of your levels is as uniform as possible. One side of our build was a little off and this led to multiple cave-ins when our igloo reached any significant height.

What worked
1. Build your igloo with friends.
2. Pick a public place so kids can play in your igloo for days after the storm and you can walk by and say to yourself - "that's my igloo". Or a spontaneous fashion shoot might take place.



Anyway, thats all for now. Stay tuned for the next storm when Igloo v2.0 comes to life. I just purchased a snow-saw with the hopes that it will assist in carving the bricks in the late stages of the igloo build and also...I have a snow saw. How ridiculous is that.



Major thanks to Jess for shooting these pics.