The costs and the ability to build living space in Alaska – be it in fair banks, anchorage or on the northern slope – have long been expensive and challenging.
Researchers at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, the Cold Climate Housing Research Center (CCHRC) and the University of Virginia, in cooperation with several other organizations, examine opportunities to change this dynamic.
Some of these potential solutions were outlined in a webinar on Wednesday by the Cold Climate Housing Research Center and the Arctic Research Consortium of the United States (Arcus).
“We really need more living space to be built in Alaska to solve many problems, and it has to be a high quality apartment,” said Rosa Vogel, CCHRC program director. “If we continue to build at the price we are doing now, it would take about 180 years to build the units we need now.”
One of CCHRC's top destinations is to develop strategies for affordable constructions in Alaska, including in rural communities. Vogel said the plan must include the prioritization of the construction, the use of local materials and the development of a workforce.
“We would like to make sure we have a safe supply chain,” said Vogel. “Many communities can only receive their deliveries by barge, which leads to high transport costs and delays.”
CCHRC has teamed up with Alaska Adaptable Housing, a prospective company that focuses on standardized building systems and recommendations for apartment design in order to create an adaptable fundamental system that can be used in various environments such as permafrost.
Nima Farzadnia, director of the UAF Institute for Automated Construction and Advanced Materials Lab from Northern Engineering, said that there are potential solutions for supply chain fights and high material costs. But they would require optimal thinking, the use of automation and practical applications of artificial intelligence.
Farzadnia found that the traditional obstacles to housing – short -time seasons, a close specialist market and the lack of state building standards – do not help.
He pointed out that the last Arcus conference in Maine Alaska appreciated over a long-term period of at least 50,000 houses. In a study published by Agnew :: Beck Consulting 2023, the state quoted at least 27,500 new housing units over 10 years to meet demand.
“This is enormous, it is huge, and that needs that carefully with regard to the building in Alaska,” said Farzadnia.
Two years ago, the Institute for Northern Technology set up the automated construction laboratory to examine inexpensive methods, including three-dimensional printing and alternative building materials.
“We speak of using the materials available in Alaska with advanced functions that make you more resistant,” said Farzadnia. This includes the production of mixtures made of volcanic ash and Schlickton.
“Waste from an industry could be used for construction so that we do not have to import goods from the lower 48,” said Farzadnia. He noticed that NASA examines similar methods for continuing manned missions on the moon or Mars.
But different areas of Alaska have different material composite materials. Tok has a large amount of volcanic ash, Valdez has glacier to and nome has sewage mud.
In 2024, Farzadnia's laboratory built a demonstration shed with a concrete from a coal flight from a Fairbanks power plant.
“We can not only produce concrete, but also print these composite materials that can be used under construction,” said Farzadnia.
His team took the next step this summer by building a house in Nome.
The project is a partnership between Labor, Penn State, Cold Climate Housing Research Center, Xtreme Habitats Institute (XHI), X-HAB 3D, the city of Nome and other groups.
“This is still in progress,” said Farzadnia.
He emphasized the need for ratings in supply chain management and in the life cycle of such buildings.
“We have to find out whether these materials from the region are viable for the mass construction,” said Farzadnia. “We also have to make sure that all these efforts are comparable or more economical than importing materials from the lower 48.”
There is no silver ball formula for creating building materials from these unique sources.
Farzadnia said that the AI software is getting in here and helps with processes and predictive models to create composites.
While his laboratory has made progress in the past two years, Farzadnia said that it will require partnerships with local communities, organizations and universities.
The laboratory has submitted a subsidy proposal to the National Science Foundation in order to absorb AI software, tool development and alternative source materials for construction.
“This could be one of the more promising opportunities to solve problems for construction,” said Farzadnia. “We can build Alaskan with Alaskan materials according to Alaska.”
Jennifer Schmidt, an anchorage Associate Professor of the University of Alaska, said that the challenges of the apartment go beyond the development of the supply chain and the workforce. They are also bound with the climate.
Schmidt heads the Arctic urban risk and adaptation project, which assesses urban risks in Arctic and subarctic communities. These risks include the change in weather, fire and permafrost conditions in anchoring, fair benches and Whitehorse as well as the cost of adapting to these challenges.
She found that households with lower incomes in fair banks live in areas with a high risk of forest fire and have significant concerns about the increase in forest fire activity.
“There is a lot of areas in the Fairbanks area to burn,” said Schmidt. “You can see the effects of previous forest fires on the landscape.”
She said resources such as the protection plans for Wildfire Protection of the Community offer buyers and developers invaluable instructions if they are considering where a house is to be built or bought.
Schmidt has worked on CWPPs for anchorage and other areas, while the Fairbanks North Star Borough commissioned a similar plan. She said that these resources ask for the communities to discuss problems such as preventive measures, water resources and emergency evacuation plans.
Winter rain and freezing events are another area in which the Schmidts team team examines.
“The models show that there will be a lot more winter regulations in fair banks,” said Schmidt. “Fairbanks only gets worse.”
According to Schmidt, the freezing rain in combination with infrastructure can be a recipe for a disaster. It has reduced electricity lines in fair banks, increasing the risk of ice slides for vehicles and frozen through leakage and storm drains.
Frozen storm flows increase the risk of flooding when the snow melts during the dew width and the separation season.
After the winter season from 2021-2022, in which an ice -cold rain was frozen at the end of December, the department for public work in fair banks fought to fend in storm outflows.
After a snow back event in October 2024, the city moved quickly to remove Slush from the streets as a precaution against potential freezing when colder temperatures occurred.
According to Schmidt, her team is working on a project to evaluate the number of houses based on different types of permafrost, together with the results of dropping as permafrost melt.
The last to take away, she said: Research before buying or building a house in a specific area.