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Yep, Eskimos weren't stupid, and the igloo has the correct shape.
Patrick and I have made the "one dimensional heat transfer" assumption, where heat flows only perpendicular to the surface. That's fine for rectangles and objects that are much larger than they are thick, but for the igloo you describe, you may want to break out some semi-empirical correlations for spheres or cylinders. Interesting fact: adding additional insulation to a cylinder can INCREASE heat transfer by increasing the outer surface area faster than it increases the insulation thickness. I don't believe this applies to any geometry but cylinders.
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