Flyover of the station
The greatest challenge to sustainable facilities at Amundsen-Scott has been the annual snow deposit and drifting. Conventional structures built on-grade at the South Pole are covered by winter snowdrifts after only one or two seasons. The drifted structures are further buried by the typical annual snowfall of 20-30 cm. As there is no thaw cycle at the Pole, they eventually become too deeply buried to practically excavate or even access. The buried structures deform under the ever-increasing weight of the snow and must be abandoned. The new design for the habitat portion of Amundsen-Scott has over- come this historical dilemma with an elevated, linear complex of two interconnected C-shaped buildings that are configured and oriented to control snow drifting. The snow drifting design evolved from a series of predictive studies at the Canadian based research facility of Rowan Williams Davies & Irwin (see Bill Waechter’s article on page 71) including water flume and wind tunnel testing, computational fluid dynamics, and finite area element computer modeling techniques.Two buildings are connected and sit 3m above the surface with the long axis of the complex perpendicular to the prevailing winter winds. The windward face of each building and the connecting link is chamfered to smoothly channel the wind beneath the complex. Forced to accelerate, the wind carries the snow well past the buildings where it is deposited in long leeward drifts. A windward drift also forms just in front of the station as a result of momentary turbulence where the wind encounters the building face. Over time, the leeward and windward deposits will tend to accumulate around the ends of the station in a rough crater shape. Eve ntually, the surrounding snow field will build to a height where it will prevent the wind from channelling beneath the station. When this happens, the station can be jacked and raised approximately 4m. The
cycle of effective drifting mitigation will resume.The initial cycle has been extended by building the station on a compacted snow berm that is itself 2m higher than grade. Studies indicate that when all factors are considered, the station’s ability to control drifting could continue until the windward drift approaches the height of the building’s mid-section — it may not be necessary to raise the building for well beyond 25 years. This new generation of sustainable building design met the National Sci- ence Foundation’s goals to protect and sustain the pristine polar plateau research environment, providing both environmental and energy effi - cient aspects and a higher margin of safety for the station’s occupants. Besides reducing future construction activity, the design redirects valu- able fuel supplies from snow plowing to the direct support of science programs. It also gives station personnel a higher quality of life, living and working above the snow surface. When this project design started, the U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design (LEED) rating system had not been established. However, when the project is completed in 2007, it could be considered for a Gold certification. In its unique location and with other project constraints, it also might be the basis for a new divi- sion of LEED criteria and a standard for new Antarctic building design for all Antarctic Treaty nations.
Joe Ferraro, AIA is a founding principal at Ferraro Choi. He is a graduate of Pratt Institute and has been working on Antarctic projects for over twenty years. He is also a LEED accredited professional. Bill Brooks, AIA is a principal at Ferraro Choi and is Director of Architecture at the firm. Bill is a graduate of the University of Hawaii and is the project manager for the firm’s Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station project.
On Site review 11
71
Spring 2004
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