Sandra Ross
“This strange construction looks like a giant caterpillar but it is, in fact, the sixth iteration of the Halley research station, which was first established in the Antarctic in 1956.
Becoming fully operational earlier this year, it’s the first fully re-locatable structure of its type and was the result of a design competition overseen by the Royal Institute of British Architects.
It sits on a floating ice shelf, which is continually moving towards the sea while accumulating around 1.5 metres of snow per year.
The first two Halley stations were crushed by snow. There’s an image of an iceberg with one of the abandoned buildings sticking out of it.
The following two stations were tube-like structures designed to be buried, which proved to be quite a bleak experience for everyone involved. Halley V was the first to have legs to raise it above the snow but the problem of the ice shelf moving towards the sea was not addressed until now.
With legs and skis, Halley VI can deal with enormous snowfalls and can also be towed out of danger if necessary. It’s not exactly the same as the Walking City envisaged by Archigram in the 1960s, but it’s not a million miles away.
Halley VI is made up of eight different modules. The central red one is the social hub and has wonderfully high ceilings and big windows.
This architecture is not only sustainable and ecologically friendly. It’s also a very pleasant place for people to live and work, something that hadn’t previously been too much of a consideration.
One of the architects of another station there has described how they forgot one crucial component when they were building. It wasn’t an expensive thing but it cost £150,000 to ship it there.
The exhibition – which includes drawings, models, photographs and films – looks at the very innovative architecture needed in an extreme environment where the coldest recorded temperature is minus 84 degrees Fahrenheit and where winds can blow up to 200mph.
The work carried out there has a massive impact. It was the Halley station that discovered the hole in the ozone layer in 1985 and, as the continent is the closest thing to Mars on Earth, Nasa and the European Space Agency are there working on prototypes for space exploration.
The clearest skies in the world also make it the perfect place for cutting-edge astronomy.
The bulk of the science takes place in the summer season when it’s light for three or four months but there are hardy souls called ‘winterers’ who stay out there in the pitch black for months.
They apparently work on sensory deprivation and what it could be like to live on another planet.”
Sandra Ross is the curator (experience and learning) at The Arts Catalyst, which commissions art that engages with science
Hosted by the Manchester Science Festival, Ice Lab: New Architecture and Science in Antarctica runs at the Museums of Science and Industry until 6 January 2014
