An igloo is a shelter made from snow blocks that was predominantly built and used by the indigenous Inuit communities that inhabit Canada’s Central Arctic region along with those who lived in the Thule area of Greenland. Inuit communities in other areas also used snow to insulate their homes but the main structures were usually constructed from hides and whalebone.
During an Arctic winter, there were very few resources other than snow for the Inuit to build shelters from. Although shelters could be made from driftwood, animal bones and skins in the short period of the year in which temperatures reached above freezing, the temporary igloo structures provided warmth and shelter in the winter. Snow can be used as an effective insulator and temperatures inside an igloo may reach between −7 °C to 16 °C through being warmed by body heat, even though temperatures outside the igloo may fall as low as −45 °C.
Location, construction and the type of snow used to build an igloo were all important in order for the structure to be an effective insulator. For example, the best snow to use could be found in a snow bank formed by a single snowstorm as these snow blocks would not break as easily as those from banks containing layers of snow from several different storms.
The term ‘igloo’ is derived from ‘iglu’ which means ‘house’ in Inuktitut, the Inuit language and is transcribed as ᐃᒡᓗ in Inuktitut syllabics. It is only in other languages that the term refers only to houses made from snow.
There are three types of traditional igloo, each used for a different purpose. The smallest type was often built on open sea ice during hunting trips and was only used for a night or two. Another type of igloo was a one-roomed dwelling that would act as a semi-permanent home for one or two Inuit families. An Inuit village could be formed when several of there were built in a small area. The largest of the three types of igloo may have up to five rooms and anywhere up to twenty people would live in them. Smaller igloos may be connected to each other through a series of tunnels, forming one larger igloo. Two of these igloos would be built together and while one was used for living, the other would be a temporary structure that the Inuit would use for special ceremonial and community occasions including dances and feasts.