Information about this scheme

The Halley VI Research Station is home to the British Antarctic Survey on the floating Brunt Ice Shelf, Antarctica. Bedrooms, laboratories, office areas and energy centres are housed in standardised blue modules. A larger two-storey light-filled red module provides the social heart of the station and is used for living, dining and recreation. Inspiring interior design provides an uplifting environment to sustain the crew through the long dark winters. Halley VI incorporates medical operating facilities, air traffic control systems and CHP power plants and is a microscopic self-supporting infrastructure-free community. The station is arranged in a straight line perpendicular to the prevailing wind so that snow drifts form on the leeward side, reducing snow management requirements and creating a hard icy surface across which vehicles can easily move. The modules, constructed with a robust steel structure and clad in a highly insulated airtight composite GRP panel system, are supported on giant steel skis and hydraulically driven legs that allow the station to mechanically ‘climb’ up out of the snow every year. As the ice shelf moves out towards the ocean, the modules can be lowered and towed by bulldozers further inland, and eventually taken apart when the time comes.