Halley VI Antarctic Research Station Opens

In something straight out of a science-fiction story or an Archigram cartoon, the Halley VI Antarctic Research Station — billed as the world’s first re-locatable research facility — officially opened last week. The opening of the facility — run by the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) — comes 100 years after Captain Robert Falcon Scott’s tragic expeditions, when Scott and his crew died on their attempt to return home after reaching the South Pole. The brutal conditions that led to their demise are the main factors that Hugh Broughton Architects with AECOM had to contend with in their design.

The station replaces a 20-year-old facility (Halley V), and is therefore the sixth station to be built on the floating Brunt Ice Shelf, whose periodic movement necessitated the hydraulically elevated skis that prop up each module and allow the facility to be relocated inland when needed. The seven blue modules contain bedrooms, laboratories, offices and energy plants, while the double-height red module is the social heart of the facility. The research station focuses on studying the Earth's magnetic field and the near-space atmosphere. Data from a previous Halley station is credited with the 1985 BAS discovery of the ozone hole above Antarctica.