Architecture for Extreme Zones
[ architecture for extreme zones ]
00 {text tactics}
01 Tactics
ARQZE emerged through the exposure of architectonic practice to Antarctic conditions. Being situated in this critical translation from strategies into actions provoked new forms of response that manifest a different organizational logic. tactics is a synthesis of this new approach to making space.
01.1 Deployability
deployment is a military operation involving transportation, assembly and implementation . ARQZE infrastructure is shipped into Antarctica in hercules planes and installed under extreme climatic conditions by trained personnel. deployability entails prefabrication and collapsibility, and an assembly process designed to implement limited means in specific contexts. deployable infrastructure articulates a hybrid choreography in which all of the phases of the timeline are inflected in the form. the deployed is strongly eventual and provisional, transforming a given context in the generation of a modeled reality that is open to unforseen interaction.
01.2 Lightness
lightness is the most critical dimension in air transportation.
in an increasingly mobile society that is retreating from the age of cheap energy, lightness is also an ethical attitude fundamental for sustainability. to do more with less. lightness is a product of the complex interaction of shape, structure and material process. structural shape maps out vectorial flows in which tension forces becomes increasingly protagonist, articulating new fields of contemporary research. geodesic structures are maximally efficient and their mathematical conjugation can be interpreted in multiple variations that respond to different contexts. double curvature membranes dematerialize stability, and pneumatic structures are totally self supporting. advanced modeling software permits the dynamic exploration of these structural shapes and the evaluation of their performance in simulated conditions by computer aided engineering. design solutions become increasingly optimized, maximizing the potentials of different materials in the fabrication of precision components.
01.3 Performance
performance refocuses architectural practice, insisting on the active participation of space in the constitution of emerging situations. architecture is transformed from a passive context to a responsive medium, hybridizing spatial practices and programs. structural shape anticipates dynamic interaction, generating fuselages that register multiple informational inputs in the constant curvature of their surfaces.
urban culture changes its clothes with increasing frequency, and information surfaces become interfaces in which the shape of the moment is constantly being recycled. performance involves behavior through time, a specific frequency of transformation.
deployable structures permit the rapid implementation of new organization, allowing testing and feedback to be integrated into evolving design solutions. performance intensifies architecture.
01.4 Zero impact
the antarctic treaty subjects all human interventions in the continent to the environmental demands of the madrid protocol generating a culture that we have defined as zero impact. The principal problems are energetic, related to the production of water, and environmental in relation to the disposal of the waste. the implemented support systems make visible the fragility and temporality of living systems within this extreme energy field through a series of transparent artifacts and the evacuation of all waste. zero impact introduces a culture of reversibility, defining a soft temporal habitability that is retractable. this antarctic culture can be exported to other contexts, informing an attitude of extreme energetic efficiency and the use of minimum resources in the generation of habitats. the relationship with context becomes intensive and performative, integrating the participation of natural and artificial resources in a reconfigured synthetic reality.
02 Antarctica
02.01. antarctic tactics
Antarctica is the highest driest and coldest continent on earth, and its extreme energetic condition has resulted in the absence of biotic systems in its interior, and until modern times, its total isolation from human civilization. This energy frontier that is crossed where the ocean begins to freeze gives access to a completely virgin territory where scientific investigation is recently discovering decisive information about the climatic history of our planet. The inevitable impact of human presence in this environment was controlled by the madrid protocol in 1994, that proposed antarctica as a new model for environmental coexistence. However increasing scientific research conducted by national antarctica programmes is now being joined by diverse tourist activities to present a threat to the environment and the coastal ecosystems. The challenge of designing zero impact installations that permit the controlled introduction of human activity into this continent requires an integrated approach to design that combines logistical, environmental and programmatic dimensions within a holistic approach to the question of energy. ARQZE has investigated the potentials and qualities for prototypical installations that are situated within the emerging logistical networks that are beginning to spread a technologically reinforced lifeform across the surface of the antarctic continent.
02.01.01 Logistic
In antarctica all supplies and technologies are imported from urban centres in other continents. This dependence entails that transportation infrastructure is essential for the development of all activity. Logistical networks define potential and connectivity is fundamental. These networks define quantitative limitations and dimension the activity that is to be realized. Coastal stations can rely on the cargo capacity of supply ships while interior infrastructure is limited to the capacity of different types of aircraft. Supply networks negotiate between intercontinental and intracontinental scales in the development of integrated strategies for distribution. The first issue in all antartic matters is how do i get it there and what does it cost. Antarctic tactics proposes that the articulation of these logistical issues into an infrastructural practice is a fundamental orientation for architects and designers in antartica
02.01.02 Environment
The extremity of the antarctic environment demands a significant technological support for the introduction of human life. The nature of these support systems has been profoundly affected by the madrid protocol that established a strict code of environmental protection for all antartctic activity. The traditional approach of introducing large scale systems that consume vast quantities of hydrocarbons is being transformed by the adoption of diverse strategies for sustainable energy generation that are incorporated into the design of the architectural body. These soft technologies make a significant impact on logistical planning and renegotiate the energetic equation that is the major limitation on antarctic practice. The extreme climate in antartcia makes the performative dimension protagonic, and innovative structural design and material specification are fundamental, together with a clear attitude towards deployment under adverse conditions.
02.01.03 Program
Antarctic activity has passed through two phases in its short history. The initial heroic exploration has been followed by scientific investigation undertaken by national antarctica programmes of 30 the member states of SCAR/COMNAP. This activity is now being complimented by an increasing quantity of touristic programmes based mainly in self sufficient passenger ships around the coast with certain intrusions into the interior of the continent. With the development of optoelectronic technologies and satellite communications antarctic activity is now entering into a simultaneous continuity with the rest of civilization, opening the possibility of cultural and informational programmes that are exported in an activity that produces the constitution of a new virtual continent. The potential interrelation of these different layers of activity, together with the initiation of commercial interaction within the continent itself opens a field in which a new generation of networks and structures are emerging.
02.02 antarctic projects
02.02.01 Eptap antarctic blue ice station
02.02.01.01 blue ice runway
morphology. Situated at 80 degrees south, the Patriot hills perforate 850m of ice and produce an acceleration in the catabatic winds which flow constantly downwards from the 4000m polar icecap. This local increase in the velocity of the winds displaces the snow layer and exposes the surface of the highly dense and transparent blue ice.
landing. In 1984 it was confirmed that this extensive horizontal surface could be implemented as a natural runway capable of receiving cargo planes such as h the hercules_c130, flying directly from punta arenas in 6 hours and landing with wheels on the ice.
Air transport. given the difficulties in terrestrial travel in antarctica and the limitation of ski equipped aircraft, blue ice runways will completely transform air transport, reducing costs spectacularly and establishing a network of natural airports that will activate the interior of the continent.
02.02.01.02 polar network
logistical potencial. EPTAP [estacion polar teniente arturo parodi] was a commission undertaken by ARQZE for the Antartic Division of the chilean airforce [FACH], establishing a permanent infrastructure in Patriot Hills to accommodate the increase in the logistical activity of the blue ice runway.
support. EPTAP is the first permanent polar station in a blue ice zone and has a residential capacity for 24 persons, allowing the Chilean Air Force to provide navigational, communicational, and logistical services throughout the summer months. EPTAP becomes the first node in a network that is extending national activity towards the pole and an aerial link with other continents close to antartica.
02.02.01.03 situ data
02.02.01.03.01 Geolocation
Latitude 80°19´south
Longitude 81°18’ west
distance to south Pole 1084km
altitude 855m above sea level
02.02.01.03.02 sunlight
sunrise august 25 12.00hrs
sunset april 17 12.00hrs
summer 135 continuous days of sunshine
winter 135 continuous days of darkness.
02.02.01.03.03 Temperature
minimum rec. temp. –35.8°C .
average temp. jan feb -20°C
min. predicted –70°C
02.02.01.03.05 catabatic wind
max. registered velocity150 km/h 29 [dec.] 1999
average velocity 20 km/h [mission 1998]
max. predicted 200km/h
02.02.01.03.06 blue ice area
length 8km east west.
width 2km. north south
thickness 700m
average displacement 8m each year [Cassassa1995]
02.02.01.04 deployment
cargo capacity. The entire station was designed to be transported in one Hercules c130 plane with a cargo capacity of 13 tons. The station components were adjusted to fit the 3m x 3m standard pallet size. Twenty personnel participated in the installation process.
Transportation. transportation from the runway to the station site was realized by four skidoos and sledges. A snowcat tractor belonging to the adventure network international tourist company was employed in the installation of the station.
02.02.01.05 superficial equilibrium
snow accumulation . The EPTAP station incorporates the processes of snow accumulation particular to blue ice fields into its location and organization. The zone of superficial equilibrium defines an area of snowfield located 800 m north of the blue ice , where the wind decelerates, generating a surface condition that is stable , avoiding the burying of the station in time.
hardened snow. This zone has a depth of hardened snow of approximately two meters that is supported on the ice. this ground condition allows the station to be situated without suffering the problems of sinking that affect other antarctic stations. These two conditions generate a very favorable situation for the development of future stations within this zone uniquely associated with blue ice fields.
02.02.01.06 module
igloo cabins. ARQZE developed the EPTAP design on the basis of a detailed critical analysis of six Igloo Cabin living modules that had been purchased previously by the FACH. The organization, deployability, materiality, and performativity of this fibreglass unit informed a proposition for their transformation and incorporation into the design of a permanent polar station adapted to the extreme conditions of Patriot Hills.
insulation. The most critical deficiency of the modules is their low level of insulation and the cold bridges and filtration of air produced in all of the joints between panels. The u-value of the modular panels was increased by applying a layer of 50mm of high density polyurethane on the interior surface, finished with a white pvc membrane, isolating the interior of the module completely from the existing fibreglass and resin structure and eliminating all filtrations. The resulting internal surface promoted tactile contact, inviting the inhabitants to occupy the space from its limits in a mediation through the skin and the body of an architectonic construction that is energetic and corporeal, while increasing the habitable volume .
Protesis. The intention of maximizing the void at the centre of the module together with the recognition of a series of activities that are superimposed in this space led to the proposition for a furniture system that was flexible, transformable, and capable of disappearing when not being used. An aluminum framed canvas stretcher formed the basic component of the system, providing material support for the activities of sleeping, working and relaxing in a sequential cycle within the same space.
02.02.01.07 tunnel
02.02.01.07.01 acumulation.
intereference patterns. In the antarctic interior static bodies located on the surface of the snow provoke intereference patterns in the prevailing catabatic wind, leading to an accumulation of snow which tends to consume the original body, making access extremely difficult. In response to this condition a new lineal element called the distribution tunnel was developed, providing an independent protected access to all of the modules.
downwind. This tunnel is located downwind of the modules, and incorporates the accumulated snow as a structural defense against the extremity of the catabatic winds and a thermal defense against the extreme winter temperatures. Access to the tunnel is organized by orientating its extremes upwind, constituting the two leading points of the station, and giving the impulse to the development of a curved form for the tunnel.
02.02.01.07.02 Interstitiality.
interstitial. originally incorporated as a strategy for guaranteeing access, the tunnel was subsequently developed as an interstitial space graduating the energetic and programmatic relationships between the reduced interiors of the modules and the full exposure of the antarctic exterior. This interstitial potential was expanded through proposing the tunnel as an unheated and uninsulated interior constituted by a simple membrane that provided protection from the wind and the accumulation of snow within a territory where the catabatic winds can make exterior habitation impossible for days on end.
maximize. This decision reduced dramatically the cost of fabrication and transportation, and allowed the tunnel to be developed as an architectonic space with a dimensional generosity that was inconceivable within the energetic parameters of the modules, constituting the experience of the station as a unitary installation.
02.02.01.07.03 structural section.
Arcs . The section of the tunnel was developed initially from ergonometric notations that were rationalized within a circular arc with a radius of 2 metres and a rotational angle of 240 degrees, coinciding with the dimensions of the cargo pallets of the hercules plane and invoking the scale of its fuselage.