Who We Are

A bunch of design nerds who got tired of seeing Arctic communities struggle with buildings that just weren't built for the cold. So we decided to do something about it.

Our Story (The Real One)

Look, we're not gonna feed you some polished origin story. Frosthalenquinth started in 2012 when three of us were freezing our butts off at a job site in Whitehorse, watching another "southern" design fail spectacularly in -35 weather. We were architects, sure, but we'd grown up in these climates - we knew there had to be a better way.

Turns out, designing for extreme cold isn't just about slapping on extra insulation. It's about understanding how people actually live when it's dark for months, how communities gather when it's brutal outside, and yeah - how buildings need to breathe even when everything's frozen solid.

Fast forward to now, and we've got a team of 23 folks who actually get it. Not because they read about cold-climate design in some textbook, but because they've lived it, worked in it, and honestly - they've seen enough badly designed northern buildings to know what NOT to do.

The Team

People who've actually frozen their fingers on metal door handles in January

Sarah Kollendorn

Sarah Kollendorn

Founding Partner & Lead Architect

Grew up in Yellowknife, spent way too many winters watching buildings crack and communities struggle. Got her degree in sustainable architecture, then spent five years working on projects from Nunavut to northern Sweden. She's the one who'll tell you exactly why your "innovative" heating system won't work at -40.

"If it can't handle a polar vortex, it doesn't belong up north."

Marcus Tuvendahl

Marcus Tuvendahl

Founding Partner & Urban Planning Director

Born in Kiruna, Sweden, moved to Canada in his twenties. Marcus knows how cities need to function when you can't just "add more outdoor space" for half the year. He's passionate about creating gathering spaces that actually make sense when it's freezing, and he's got zero patience for southern planners who think they can just copy-paste designs north.

"Community planning isn't about what looks good in renderings - it's about what works in February."

Jen Macallister

Jen Macallister

Energy Systems Specialist

Jen's the engineer who makes sure our beautiful designs don't turn into ice boxes. She's worked on everything from passive houses in Alaska to retrofit projects in northern Manitoba. When she's not calculating heat loss coefficients, she's probably skiing or complaining about how mild Vancouver winters are.

"You can't design your way out of bad physics, but you can work with it."

Thomas Napartuk

Thomas Napartuk

Heritage & Community Design Lead

Thomas is Inuit, from Kuujjuaq, and he joined us because he was tired of seeing northern communities get stuck with cookie-cutter designs that ignored thousands of years of cold-climate knowledge. He bridges the gap between traditional building wisdom and modern tech - and he's not shy about calling out designs that won't work for the people who'll actually live in them.

"My ancestors survived here for millennia without central heating. Maybe we should listen to what they knew."

What Drives Us (Besides Coffee)

Real Climate Understanding

We're not talking about reading climate data sheets. We mean knowing what it feels like when your car won't start for the third day in a row, or when your pipes freeze despite your best efforts. That's the kind of knowledge you can't get from a textbook.

Community First

Every project starts with listening. Not just to clients, but to the folks who'll use the space daily. We've learned more from casual conversations in northern coffee shops than from years of formal training.

Sustainability That Makes Sense

Yeah, we care about the environment, but we're pragmatic. Solar panels are great, but not when they're covered in snow for six months. We design for efficiency that actually works in the real world, not just on paper.

Innovation Through Experience

We've seen enough failures to know what doesn't work. But we've also seen enough successes to keep pushing boundaries. Sometimes the best innovation is just adapting old ideas with new materials.

Team working

Why Work With Us?

Honestly? Because we've made the mistakes already, so you don't have to.

We've worked on projects from Iqaluit to Inuvik, from small residential renovations to major urban developments. We've dealt with permafrost, extreme wind, brutal cold, and all the weird stuff that happens when you're building in climates that most architects never experience.

But more than that - we actually care. Not in a corporate mission statement way, but in a "we lose sleep over whether your building will stay warm in January" kind of way. We're not just designing structures. We're creating spaces where people live, work, and build communities in some of the harshest environments on Earth.

Let's Talk About Your Project

Come Visit

Our office is in Vancouver - yeah, we know, not exactly the Arctic. But we spend a lot of time on job sites up north, and when we're in town, we're always up for coffee and talking shop about cold-climate design.

1247 Granville Street, Suite 420, Vancouver, BC V6Z 1M5

(604) 555-0847

info@frosthalenquinth.info