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The Northwestern Branch of the Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of New Brunswick (APEGNB) has been notified by Guinness World Records that they have officially established a new world record for the largest self-supporting dome igloo.The ice igloo, which was built for the second annual APEGNB Igloo Building Competition in Grand Falls, NB (February 15 to 17, 2008) measured 7.9 m (25 ft 9 in) in diameter and 4.2 m (13 ft 8 in) high. The previous world record was held by Hydro Quebec. Their 2005 igloo had an internal diameter of 7.36 m (24 ft 2 in) and an internal height of 3.81 m (12 ft 6 in). Event organizer Eric Ouellette, P.Eng., says the igloo took 70 volunteers, 2000 blocks of ice and 50 hours to build.
“It required a lot of planning and hard work to build a safe and solid structure that ultimately accommodated more than 200 people at one time,” he says. “The igloo was so strong that it stood intact for 59 days until a warm stretch of weather brought it down on April 8.” Ouellette also credits the cold northern New Brunswick weather and the engineering expertise of the team as contributing factors to building the successful world-record igloo. “Many people don’t realize how engineering impacts their everyday life. Without engineers, the roads we drive on, the buildings we work in and the clean water we drink wouldn’t be possible. Engineering improves our quality of life and the safety of our environment. We thought the APEGNB Igloo Building Competition would be a creative way to demonstrate practical engineering principles and pay homage to our ancestral engineers—the Inuit—who invented the igloo.”
addition to hosting the world record attempt, the 2008 APEGNB Igloo Building Competition had 10 teams of igloo builders who competed for the coveted APEGNB igloo trophy. The teams spent the weekend of February 15th building their own igloo using only traditional and environmentally friendly tools like snow spades and saws. Restigouche Construction from Saint-André took home the gold for their whimsical igloo that looked like a seal. The silver medal went to the Falls Construction Team and SNC-Snam received the Bronze medal.
The Guinness criteria defines a world record igloo as a structure that:
Is constructed entirely and solely of blocks of ice (note that this means the structure must be built from the ground up, and may not be carved out of a larger mound of ice or snow, for example).
Is constructed entirely and solely of blocks of ice (note that this means the structure must be built from the ground up, and may not be carved out of a larger mound of ice or snow, for example).
Is broadly circular in shape.
Has a roof consisting of a dome that is completely self-supporting (thus it must be completely unsupported from either the inside or outside).
Has an arched doorway. Money raised during the 2008 APEGNB Igloo Building Competition was used to fund three engineering scholarships for New Brunswick high school students and provide a donation to Habitat for Humanity’s upcoming projects. For more information on the APEGNB Igloo engineering scholarships, the Igloo Building Competition and the world record igloo, visit the official website at http://www.igloocompetition.ca/
