Ralph Erskine, (Skiing) Architect

Jérémie Michael McGowan

doi:10.7557/13.1313

Authors

Jérémie Michael McGowan The University of Edinburgh, Scotland

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.7557/13.1313

Keywords:

Ralph Erskine, Arctic architecture,

Abstract

In this paper I focus on Ralph Erskine's enduring image in architectural discourse as the Arctic Architect of Modernism. My interest lies with the relationship between portrayals of Erskine - both in textual accounts an images - and the way his sub-Arctic projects, especially his unrealised utopian projects for an ‘Ideal Town' north of the Arctic Circle, have been canonised in architectural discourse as exemplars of an architecture that is truly regional in character and, moreover, ideally suited to the unique cultural - especially with regard to indigenous populations - and environmental habitats of Arctic and sub-Arctic environments.

Author Biography

Jérémie Michael McGowan, The University of Edinburgh, Scotland

Jérémie Michael McGowan is an AHRC Doctoral Award holder in
History of Art at The University of Edinburgh (Scotland, UK),
where he is completing work on a PhD thesis entitled Cowboys
and Indians: Architectures of Encounter, 1956-1976. Jérémie was previously a Fulbright Grantee (2001-2002) in Creative and Performing Arts / Design at the Giellagas Institute, University of Oulu (Finland). From August 2008 he will be Lecturer in Architectural History and Theory at The Scott Sutherland School of Architecture and Built Environment, Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen (Scotland, UK).