Research Report / Greenland / Fall 2018
Infrastructure in Greenland is a complex and multiscalar topic, inherently linked to issues of ecology, economy and inequality. The Greenlandic cultural and natural landscape is changing rapidly due to the acceleration of climate change in the Arctic, which in turn is affecting global geopolitics. Despite the massive challenges that climate change brings, the melting sea ice is also opening up access to new opportunities in the tourism, mining, energy, and shipping sectors - attracting the interest of foreign nations.
In the current Greenlandic context, there is a fascinating duality and a tension between preserving the environment versus promoting economic growth, as the country is entering a critical phase of development. Thus the airport, and the extrapolated notion of ‘port’ as a spatial typology, arguably should be rethought in relation to the challenges and opportunities of a changing climate, Greenland’s unique geography and its global positioning. In order to accommodate these factors, a Greenlandic port space needs to be more flexible in terms of site, program and possibilities, incorporating aspects of multiple productive port typologies and a political space, to form what we propose as a hybrid port-land: a specific infrastructural intervention that supports sovereignty, instead of a generic ‘non-space’ focusing primarily on transport and free market logics. Through the lens of the port typology, this report aims to investigate potential resilient hybrid infrastructure models which strengthen Greenland’s independent position.