Engineers break record for building igloo

The ice igloo, which was built for the Nothwestern Branch of the Assn. of Professional Engineers’ second annual Igloo Building Competition in February, measured 25.92 ft in diameter and 13.78 ft high.

By Consulting Specifying Engineer Staff April 23, 2008

The Northwestern Branch of the Assn. of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of New Brunswick are in the Guinness Book of World Records by building the world’s largest self-supporting dome igloo.

The ice igloo, which was built for the association’s second annual Igloo Building Competition in February, measured 25.92 ft in diameter and 13.78 ft high.

The igloo took 2,000 blocks of ice and 50 hours to build. The igloo stood intact for 59 days, until a warm stretch of weather brought it down on April 8.

The Guinness criteria define a world-record igloo as a structure:

  • Constructed entirely of blocks of ice (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)

  • Broadly circular in shape

  • Has a roof consisting of a dome that’s completely self-supporting (thus it must be completely unsupported from either the inside or outside)

  • Has an arched doorway.