Three design teams have made the shortlist for a new research station at the South Pole.
RIBA has short-listed three designs for one of the world’s most extreme architectural challenges, to build a new research station for the British Antarctic Survey at the South Pole. Designs for the global change research centre by Buro Happold and Lifschutz Davidson; FaberMaunsell and Hugh Broughton Architects; Hopkins Architects and Expedition Engineers were selected by RIBA on the strength of their engineering, as well as architectural merits.
The three finalists will now travel the 10,000 miles to the Antarctic in January to see the site of the Halley VI Research Station, which must be relocatable, and able to withstand some of the harshest conditions on the planet. The Antarctic is the coldest, highest and windiest continent on earth, with an average winter temperature of –60 degrees centigrade.
Halley VI, which replace the current Halley V, will be build on the Brunt Ice Shelf, which is 150m thick and flows at a rate of 400m per year northwest towards the sea, where, the British Antarctic Survey says “at regular intervals, it calves off as vast icebergs.” Scientists predict a major calving event around 2010.
The final winner of the competition will be announced in September 2005.
