Introduction

Ice is a relatively strong material that, in cold regions, is abundant and inexpensive to manufacture. This gives it a high potential in construction, especially considering that transportation of other building materials to remote arctic areas is very expensive. The problem, of course, is that even in the coldest areas of the world ice is so close to its melting temperature that its mechanical properties are strongly temperature-dependent, and melt protection is usually necessary. The engineering properties of ice, the applications, the construction techniques and solutions of the special problems are reviewed in Chapters 2 and 3.