Designer in the Arctic collapsed (9)
I believe the answer is:
architect
'designer' is the definition.
(synonyms)
'the arctic collapsed' is the wordplay.
'collapsed' indicates an anagram.
'the'+'arctic'='thearctic'
'thearctic' anagrammed gives 'ARCHITECT'.
'in' is the link.
(Other definitions for architect that I've seen before include "Designer of buildings" , "Perhaps Scott" , "Building designer" , "Wren perhaps" , "professional" .)