The Camden Conference and Camden Public Library present Judith Bing and J. Brooke Harrington on Zoom on Tuesday, Jan. 19 at 6:30 p.m. Their talk,  “Arctic Architecture,” is open to all. Please email jpierce@librarycamden.org ]jpierce@librarycamden.org for a link to the program.  This slide-show presentation will be best viewed on a computer-size screen.

Only four million of the world’s nearly eight billion people live in the remote Arctic region due to its extreme climate. The original indigenous inhabitants adapted to their environment but outsiders introduced new ways of life and came to dominate life in the Arctic – whether North Americans, Northern Europeans or Russians. They came to explore the unknown, open sea routes, exploit resources, perform scientific research, and enjoy exotic travel. Today, startling changes in climate erode assumptions and add incalculable pressures.

Viewed through the lens of the built environment – of Architecture – this illustrated presentation surveys selected settlements and structures of the past and present, in the context of The Arctic’s climate extremes.

The presenters are professors emeriti of architecture, Brooke of Temple University and Judith of Drexel University, in Philadelphia. Currently they are Center Associates at the Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies at Harvard University, and Visiting Scholars at the Aga Khan Documentation Center at MIT, in Cambridge. They live in Cushing.

This event is presented in anticipation of the 34th Annual Camden Conference—The Geopolitics of the Arctic: A Region in Peril, filmed live at the Camden Opera House and around the world, and presented via Livestream on Feb. 20-21.

The mission of the Camden Conference is to foster informed discourse on world issues. For more information, please visit www.camdenconference.org or call 207-236-1034.