Building Blocks: Igloo

But we’re here today to talk about igloos, so let’s focus our attention there. You’ll find igloos in most snowy biomes – snowy plains, snowy slopes, and snowy taigas. The exterior is built almost entirely of snow blocks, but the inside is decked out with a bed, a furnace, a crafting table, a nice carpet, and a redstone torch to provide some light.

Have you ever looked under the carpet of an igloo? Sometimes you’ll find nothing. But sometimes you’ll discover a trapdoor which leads down into a secret basement. In the basement, you’ll find what can only be described as evidence of a dangerous experiment. There’s a brewing stand with a potion of weakness inside, a chest with a golden apple, and then a prison containing a villager and a zombie villager. Can you cure the zombie villager before it eats your brains?

The chest will usually have some other goodies in it too – usually nothing too fancy. Some coal for the furnace maybe, some food, occasionally a gold nugget or an emerald. But really the reward here is a cosy place to spend the night when you’re exploring the Overworld’s snowy landscapes.

Outside of Minecraft, “igloo” is the word used by Inuit peoples to describe a house or shelter built out of snow. You might think that would be a chilly place to live, but actually the air trapped in the snow makes it a really good insulator. Even if the temperature outside is -45C, the temperature inside an igloo warmed by body heat alone can be as high as 16C.

Traditionally, igloos were only used by the Inuit living in Canada’s Central Arctic region, and the Qaanaaq area of Greenland, while other Inuit built houses from whalebone and hides and just insulated them with snow. There are three types – the smallest is a temporary shelter, used for just one or two nights on a hunting trip. Medium-sized igloos were for families to live in on a semi-permanent basis, often in a cluster with others. Finally, the largest size were used to house multiple families, with up to five rooms and 20 people, often with a large space for special occasions.

To make one, snow bricks are cut out of the ground with saws and stacked carefully into a dome shape. If done correctly, with the right kind of snow, the bricks lean on each other and support their own weight. If done incorrectly, with the wrong kind of snow, it all collapses. A tunnel is used as an entrance to keep the wind out, and sometimes the interior would be heated after construction to melt the inside and then allow it to refreeze into ice to add additional strength.

So now you know how to build an igloo. Consider trying it out next time you find yourself in a snowy landscape – either inside of Minecraft, or out of it.