The project investigates three spatial interventions pivotal to Western Siberia’s transformation into a resource-centred territory: the establishment of a network of permanent cities and fly-in fly-out settlements supporting extractive labour mobility; the production and circulation of mobile dwellings and associated “acclimatisation” theories for incoming settlers; and construction technologies that sought to make resource-driven modernisation scalable in a terrain defined by permafrost soil, swamps, long distances, and “extreme” temperatures. It also examines how these interventions facilitated the displacement of Khanty, Nenets, and other Indigenous groups, marginalised their relationships with the environment, and selectively drew from their material culture to shape imaginaries of portable architecture.

Preliminary findings reveal extensive trans-regional and international connections in the development of built environments for Western Siberian extractive industries. Major oil settlements such as Kogalymsky and Lyantorsky, along with key road infrastructure, were produced by organisations based in Soviet Estonia, Lithuania, and Latvia. The Yambourg gas settlement involved the Finland-based contractor YIT, and the widely used Unimo mobile housing model for shift workers was supplied by Czechoslovakia. Therefore, archival records relating to these projects can now be found in these successor states, which enables continued research despite the current inaccessibility of Russia-based archives.

Archival fieldwork began in spring 2025, with research conducted in Estonia, Latvia, Finland, and Canada.