Indian Research Base / Bof Architekten

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Text description provided by the architects. The team of plan­ners in­clu­ding Bof Ar­chi­tects (Ham­burg), IMS In­ge­nieur­ge­sell­schaft (Ham­burg) and m+p con­sul­ting (Bruns­wick) was able to win an open com­pe­ti­ti­on for the new con­struc­tion of the In­di­an po­lar sta­ti­on in the Antarc­tic in De­cem­ber 2006. The con­tract was awar­ded by the Na­tio­nal Cen­ter for Antarc­tic and Oce­an Re­se­arch (NCAOR) and plan­ning com­men­ced in spring of 2009.

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The plan­ning was con­duc­ted pri­ma­rily in Ham­burg and the co­or­di­na­ting mee­tings with the cli­ent were con­duc­ted eve­ry two months with the cli­ent in Goa, In­dia. Du­ring the win­ter of 2010/2011 the in­fra­struc­tu­ral mea­su­res for the site were exe­cu­ted in­clu­ding the he­li­pad, the pipe­lines and the ke­ro­se­ne tanks etc. The ac­tu­al po­lar sta­ti­on struc­tu­re was as­sem­bled du­ring the win­ter of 2011/2012.

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The lo­ca­ti­on of the sta­ti­on is on a pen­in­su­la in the Lars­mann Hills re­gi­on in the nort­heast sec­tion of the Antarc­tic. The ex­tre­me cli­ma­te con­di­ti­ons and the li­mi­ted me­ans of trans­por­ta­ti­on re­qui­red a spe­cial ar­chi­tec­tu­ral so­lu­ti­on in re­gards to the exi­sting cir­cum­stan­ces. Cen­tral as­pects in re­gards to the pro­ject in­clu­de the fol­lo­wing: re­dun­dan­cy, su­stainabi­li­ty and mo­bi­li­ty.

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Due to the re­stric­ted ac­ces­si­bi­li­ty to the re­gi­on and con­si­de­ring the sti­pu­la­tions of the Antarc­tic Trea­ty, the sta­ti­on must be com­ple­te­ly self-suf­fi­ci­ent and con­struc­ted in a man­ner that al­lows for a com­ple­te di­sas­sem­bly.

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The buil­ding is out­fit­ted with a self-suf­fi­ci­ent sour­ce of energy, hea­ting and coo­ling sy­stems and its own fresh wa­ter treat­ment sy­stem. The com­bined heat and po­wer unit pro­vi­des the energy for the sta­ti­on. The re­si­du­al heat re­sul­ting from the pro­duc­tion of electri­ci­ty is more than suf­fi­ci­ent to heat the en­ti­re sta­ti­on. The CHP unit and all other ele­ments of the con­struc­tion re­qui­red for li­ving pur­po­ses are con­cei­ved in such a man­ner, that in the event an ele­ment should mal­func­tion, a sub­sti­tu­te ele­ment is available on site.

The buil­ding con­sists of 134 stan­dard ship­ping con­tai­ners that not only de­fi­ne the in­di­vi­du­al spa­ces, but which also ac­count for the struc­tu­ral sy­stem. The high de­gree of mo­bi­li­ty and fle­xi­bi­li­ty as­so­cia­ted with such con­tai­ners pro­vi­des for an op­ti­mal me­ans of trans­port and ex­tre­me­ly short as­sem­bly pe­ri­ods. The func­ti­ons of the buil­ding are cle­arly struc­tu­red and or­ga­nized. A to­tal of 24 sin­gle and doub­le rooms are lo­ca­ted on the se­cond flo­or as is a kit­chen and di­ning room, a libra­ry, a fit­ness room, an OP room, as well as the of­fi­ces and a lounge. The lo­wer level hou­ses the la­bo­ra­to­ries and the sto­ra­ge spa­ces, the tech­ni­cal spa­ces,  the CHP unit as well as the ga­ra­ge which in­clu­des a work­shop. The third level hou­ses the air con­di­tio­ning sy­stem as well as the ter­ra­ce which can be used for di­ver­se sci­en­ti­fic ex­pe­ri­ments.

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Due to the ex­tre­me con­di­ti­ons in the Antarc­tic, the ex­tre­me­ly low tem­pe­ra­tu­res and the po­wer­ful winds, the con­tai­ners have been clad with an in­su­la­ted, ae­ro­dy­na­mic skin con­si­sting of me­tal pa­nels. The form of the fa­ca­de was te­sted in a wind ca­nal and was op­ti­mi­zed for this pur­po­se. The pri­ma­ry goal was to mi­ni­mi­ze the build up of snowd­rifts around the buil­ding to eli­mi­na­te the chan­ces of being sno­wed in. Ad­di­tio­nal­ly the ef­fects of wind loads on the fa­ca­de had to be re­du­ced to a mi­ni­mum. The ends of the sta­tions are ge­ne­rously gla­zed and of­fer pan­ora­mic views of the ice and the sea from the di­ning room and the lounge.

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The in­te­ri­or of the sta­ti­on is cha­rac­te­ri­zed by wood, di­ver­se co­lors and amp­le day­light, all of which ac­count for a com­for­ta­ble work­place and a high qua­li­ty so­journ.

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Du­ring the sum­mer months the sta­ti­on can house ap­pro­xi­mate­ly 47 re­se­ar­chers and sci­en­tists and ap­pro­xi­mate­ly 24 mem­bers du­ring the win­ter.

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The sta­ti­on, in­clu­ding a mock-up, was pre­fabri­ca­ted in Duis­burg du­ring the sum­mer of 2011. Sub­se­quently the in­di­vi­du­al ele­ments were ship­ped by way of Ant­werp and Cape Town to the Antarc­tic for as­sem­bly pur­po­ses.

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