Paper short abstract:

Coldness is an invisible, yet crucial "produce" that has historically been based on utilization of frozen water, natural ice. This paper explores the network of hidden urban spaces of isolation and insulation that were created to preserve the icy resource of early cooling infrastructure.

Paper long abstract:

During the 19th century mastering of low temperatures resulted in increasingly networked systems of controlled coldness for the purposeful refrigeration of objects, spaces and processes. Coldness, as such invisible to people, materialized in natural ice that was harnessed for cold production. The creation of ice based cold infrastructures became an indispensable part of modern life by enabling year round operation of industries reliant on cooling (e.g. beverage industries), enhancing food hygiene (especially meat and dairy) and supporting the increased consumption of new types of thermally defined goods, such as cold drinks or iced delicacies.

Since the extensive temporal lag between harvesting of natural ice during the winter season and the end use of ice as a coolant necessitated lengthy periods of storage, preventing the exposure of the ice to ambient warm air was crucial. Thus, the basis of urban cold infrastructure was the invisibilizing of the materiality of coldness. This paper explores these spaces of isolation and insulation that were created to preserve the icy resource of early cooling infrastructures in Helsinki, Finland. Ranging from fenced piles concealed under saw dust, to underground cellars and closed storage houses these hidden urban spaces became an invisible, yet crucial component of the urban coldscape (Twilley 2012) that was to precede modern, yet also invisibilized, but carbon-fuelled cooling infrastructure.