Temperate Infrastructures and Thermal Control

Abstract

Where I live, on the island that is now known as Montreal, which lies between colonially baptized rivers—the St. Lawrence and the Rivière des Prairies—winter can come quickly and early. Clear, luminous, cold air comes into contact with the surface of the waters that run under the Jacques Cartier, Champlain, and Mercier bridges—echoes of colonial connection. Vapor rises. Ice crystals form then dissolve through the rolling motion of the current. When the time between the sun and moon rising is shortest, sheets of ice may form near the island’s shorelines. Farther east on the St. Lawrence, shards of ice lock together and come apart. These are all reminders of a planetary cycle of temperature variation that inhabits and regulates our present. Water and ice make these cycles apparent.