Extreme Context: Antarctica
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Overview map of Antarctica by Natural
Environment Research Council.
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Terra Australis, the mythical land of the South
Antarctica, on average, is
the coldest, driest, and windiest continent on Earth. About 98% of Antarctica
is covered by ice of at least 1.9km in thickness which extends to all but the
northernmost reaches of the Antarctic Peninsula (British Antarctic Survey,
2013). With annual rainfall of only 200 mm along the coast and far less inland,
it is considered as a desert with a land mass 1.3 times as large as Europe.
Although here are no
permanent human residents, around 1,000 to 5,000 people reside throughout the
year at the research stations scattered across the continent. Only cold-adapted
organisms survive, including many types of algae, bacteria, fungi, plants,
protista, and certain animals, such as mites, nematodes, penguins, seals and
tardigrades.
Antarctica has no
indigenous population. Because of its hostile environment, lack of resources
and complete isolation, the continent remained largely neglected until the 20th century and there is no evidence that it was
seen by humans until the 19th century. After the first recorded and
confirmed landing was made in Antarctica in 1895, the southern land was
frequently being visited and temporarily settled ever since, mainly by
researchers.
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A cutaway view of Antarctica and its ice sheets.
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What is so important with Antarctica?
A key to understanding how our world works, and our impact upon it
1. Global climate and Human impact on Earth's atmosphere
Scientific investigation is the predominant human activity in Antarctica. The number of science and support personnel working in Antarctica each season provides a crude estimate of the level of this activity. States Parties to the Antarctic Treaty report on the numbers involved in an "Annual exchange of information" required under Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting agreements (UNEP/GRID, 2007).
Antarctica is important for science because of its profound effect on the Earth's climate and ocean systems. Locked in its four kilometre-thick ice sheet is a unique record of what our planet's climate was like over the past one million years. Antarctic science has also revealed much about the impact of human activity on the natural world. The discovery in 1985 by scientists at British Antarctic Survey (BAS) of the hole in the ozone layer above Antarctica revealed the damage done to the Earth's atmosphere by man-made chemicals.
Since regular activities began, the number of people participating in Antarctic scientific programmes grew steadily up to 1989/90. Associated with an increased number of people participating in Antarctic activities was an increase in both the number of countries represented and the number of operating stations.
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Levels of science and support activity, 1941/42 to 1989/90
Source: Data from J. C. N. Beltramino, The Structure and Dynamics of Antarctic Population (New York, Vantage Press, 1993)
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2. Tourist Attraction
As well as being the world's most important natural laboratory, the Antarctic is a place of great beauty and wonder. Around 30,000 tourists now visit the Antarctic each year to experience what life is like in the Earth's last great wilderness. Antarctic commercial tourism has undergone a period of accelerated growth in the last decade, both in the number of passengers on ships and, more recently, in overflying aircraft.
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Levels of Antarctic tourism activity, 1980/81-1995/96
Source: Adapted from D. J. Enzenbacher, "Tourists in Antarctica: numbers and trends", Polar Record, vol. 28, No. 164 (1993), United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, "Recent developments in Antarctic tourism", Information Paper 13, XIX ATCM, Seoul, 8-19 May 1995, International Association of Antarctic Tour Operators, "Preliminary overview of Antarctic tourism", Information Paper 96, XX ATCM, Utrecht, the Netherlands, 29 April-10 May 1996.
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Antarctic Bases and Buildings Evolution
1. Early buildings along the Coastline
Buildings have been built in the Antarctic ever
since the early 20th century as science bases where scientific
experiments are made. One of the earliest Antarctic buildings can be exemplified by
the Discovery Hut of Ross Island which was built in 1902. The structure is
a good example of the early building construction for Antarctic buildings with the
use of natural materials such as timber and stones. Another similar design
can be seen in the Mawson's Huts which was erected by the Australians in 1912.
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| Discovery Hut. |
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| Mawson's Huts. |
Most of the earlier land-based Antarctic buildings
are not feasible to be used permanently due to the unsustainability of their conventional
construction materials within the Antarctic climatic condition. The Argentinian
Orcadas Base, however, is known to be the first permanently inhabited base in Antarctica,
although its recognition is rendered possible due to its location on South
Orkney Islands which is at the far tip of the Western coastline, far from the
hostile conditions of the Antarctic mainland.
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| Orcadas Base (Argentina), built in 1904, is considered to be the first science station in the Antarctica and remained as the only station on the islands for 40 years. |
The McMurdo station, built by the U.S is
the largest community in Antarctica, capable of supporting up to 1,258
residents, and serves as the United States Antarctic science facility. All
personnel and cargo going to or coming from Amundsen–Scott South Pole Station first
pass through McMurdo. The station illustrates the sense of permanency of the
built environment in the Antarctic land and has successfully evolved into the
modern context with additional facilities provided such as a harbor, airfields,
heliport and the continent’s only ATM which is provided by Wells Fargo Bank.
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| McMurdo Station, a U.S. Antarctic research center established in 1955 and located on the southern tip of Ross Island. |
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| Artist ’s conception of the long-term plan for McMurdo Station. The McMurdo Long-Range Plan is currently in the concept stage. The purpose of the development is to increase the logistical effectiveness of the science base. It is clear that the built environment in the Antarctica is undergoing developments that allows permanency in human settlements in this remote iceland which was once impossible to achieve. Credit: U.S. Antarctic Program/National Science Foundation Source: http://iamwilderness.org/2013/03/21/nsf-to-streamline-antarctic-science/ |
2. Buildings on the Ice-shelf and the South Pole
While
coastal regions in Antarctica experience the melting of snow and ice in the
summer months, regions that are further inland often experience no melting at
all and so all of the snow and ice that falls accumulates continuously. Bases
that are built in such places therefore become slowly buried in the snow and
ice (BAS, n.d.).
Some
research stations in the Antarctica are required to be located at the more inhospitable
areas due to the purpose of the scientific studies that are conducted. A good
example of this scenario is the Halley Research Station of the British
Antarctic Survey which is located on the brunt ice shelf floating on the Weddell Sea (Meier, 2014).
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| View of Brunt Ice Shelf from the maiden flight of Operation IceBridge's Antarctica 2011 campaign with NASA's DC-8. Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brunt_Ice_Shelf#mediaviewer/File:Brunt_Ice_Shelf.jpg |
Being
revamped six times during its service, Halley Research Station has contributed
towards extremely valuable record of atmospheric composition and weather
patterns over the last 50 years, which can be used as a baseline to help
understand the impact of human pollution on the planet. The permanent presence
of this research station on the brunt ice shelf, despite being on one of the
most unstable location in the Antarctic is therefore considered crucial.
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The Halley VI centre consists of series of four-legged pods which stand on moving ice and can be raised to keep them above the snow which builds up
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Another
place in the Antarctic where there was once no permanent human structure at all
and very little human presence is the South Pole. It was not until 1956 that this
southernmost place on the Earth becomes frequently occupied by human activities
with the erection of the Amundsen–Scott South Pole Station, which is a US
scientific research station. It is at the only place on the land surface of the
Earth where the sun is continuously up for six months and then continuously
down for six months, which makes it an ideal place for astronomical
observations. Also, due to its location which is farthest from any cities, the buildings are considered to have the highest carbon footprint, since they are nowhere near manufacturing facilities for building construction and the high cost of delivering the construction materials into the area.
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| Amundsen - Scott South Pole Station's main entrance port. |
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| The earlier version of The South Pole station built in 1956 by the U.S Navy, where the second level were built atop the first since the first level would be covered with snow drift within a few years.
Source: http://glacierexplorer.com/2013/01/amundsen-scott-south-pole-station-oasis-in-the-desert/
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It appears that the building design of each research stations in different locations in the Antarctica have their own typologies. But the ones that are located at the more hospitable part of the Antarctica are more distinctive, by which they experienced more evolutionary process in terms of design than the others in order to maintain their presence in the region. There are a few research questions that come out from my interests which will be discussed on the second week of the blog post:
1. What are the key design features that affect the evolution of Halley Research Station to Halley VI?
- How does the surrounding context affected the design evolution of Halley Research Station?
2. What are the key design features that affect the evolution of Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station?
- How does the Amundsen-Scott South Pole station respond towards the snow build up that constantly buries the building?
Reference:
UNEP/GRID, 2007, Role of Antarctica in The Global Environmental System
http://www.gridc.canterbury.ac.nz/unga/role_of_antarctica.html
British
Antarctic Survey. Bedmap2: Improved Ice Bed, Surface and Thickness Datasets for
Antarctica. The Cryosphere journal. p. 390. Retrieved 6 January 2014.
British Antarctic Survey, "Why Protect Antarctica?"
http://www.antarctica.ac.uk/about_antarctica/environment/why_protect_antarctica.php
"Facts
About the United States Antarctic Research Program". Division of Polar
Programs, National Science Foundation; July 1982
National Science Foundation, The Environment, Antarctica
http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/1997/antpanel/3enviro.htm
"Mawsons
Huts and Mawsons Huts Historic Site (entry AHD105713)". Australian
Heritage Database. Department of Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population
and Communities. Extracted from http://www.environment.gov.au/cgi-bin/ahdb/search.pl?mode=place_detail;place_id=105713
Meier, A. C. (2014) The Architecture of Antarctica: Designing for The Extremes of Our Planet And Beyond. Extracted from http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/wonders-of-polar-architecture.
British Antarctic Survey, "Who We Are", Introduction to BAS.
http://www.antarctica.ac.uk/about_bas/our_organisation/who_we_are.php
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