At McGill University, engineers and architects work together to show that ice is nice!
Professors Pieter Sijpkes (Architecture) and Jorge Angeles (NSERC Chair in Design Engineering) have received a $173,000 SSHRC Research Creation Grant, “The New Architecture of Phase Change: Computer Assisted Ice Construction.” Based at the School of Architecture, this three-year study will use computer numerically controlled (CNC) digital fabrication to construct buildings out of ice. Working with part-time faculty Thomas Balaban and David Theodore, and including students from robotics, this ground-breaking program builds on experimental teaching and research into the design of ice structures by adapting McGill’s impressive expertise in rapid prototyping and engineering design for extreme environments. The outcomes will lead to inhabitable, environmentally-friendly, digitally-fabricated ice architecture.
