by Ted Cushman Time was when buildings in the Far North weren't much different from buildings in more moderate climates. Leaky and underinsulated, they were set apart only by their heating equipment: furnaces and boilers powerful enough to roast a woolly mammoth whole. Since the 1973 oil crisis, government and market forces have pushed northern builders to improve energy efficiency. Twenty-five years of evolution and study have produced a radically different house from the typical home of the 1960s — tighter, more heavily insulated, and equipped with advanced windows and mechanical ventilation. But the various energy-efficient techniques have been adopted piecemeal by builders around the continent, and there is still plenty of discussion about what is the "right way" to build. Tundra
