I think...mountain range with ice,snow,sheltered by a circle of mountains from the harsh blizzard, swarming around fire , cooking meat,with the harsh environment yet cheerful faces , a magic circle appears in this village it's a demon asking for aid for the humans are invading their town , orcs don't need any preparation as they are always holding their weapons and wearing their armor and furious to fight they reach the town under the mountains BAM an explosion magic circle activates they have been betrayed the demon giggles for they decieved the orcs...no one knows about it they blame the humans for the casualties and continue to seek world domination by being the leaders of the Domination and fighting every other race in existence so they be the only rulers of the world BAM bamboozled everyone...sorry for that I just went along
About the architecture I think houses and castles of rock and snow as the hardest thing is rock and what breaks rock is water (you know when rain hits mountains)so they believe the snow must not melt and they must maintain this harmony in the snowy mountains or..you know water breaks rock so if the snow melts it cracks rock..that is just a part of their wisdom acquired through aged and ages of philosophy...BUT WAIT THERE'S MORE if it happens and the ice melts they use fire magic because fire evaporates the water and done house safe