A remarkable testament to the durability of timber is a wood cabin on McMurdo Sound in Antarctica. It was built during Captain Scott’s first Polar expedition in 1901. After a century of the worst weather on the planet, it’s still intact and even has some of the explorers’ provisions inside – including a packet of digestives.
This week it was announced that, within a couple of years, wood products will have another Antarctic ‘reference’ to their all-round performance – and this one will be even more remarkable.
Last summer the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) launched an architectural competition for a new hi-tech base where it will monitor the polar environment. The specification for the building was that it not only had to last and keep the BAS’s scientists warm, safe and sound, it also had to have very strong environmental credentials, using the most eco-friendly materials and energy efficient construction systems possible.
The winner of the competition has now been named as London architect practice Hugh Broughton, working with engineers Faber Maunsell. Their design comprises a series of pods standing on ski-mounted legs that will enable the building to lift itself above the latest snowfall and be towed around.
The £19m base will have a steel superstructure, but the key component keeping out temperatures as low as -40OC will be wood-based structural insulated panels (SIPs).
Hugh Broughton told TTJ that the task is now on to find the right SIPs. His practice wants fire-resistant products with either OSB or plywood skin and 200mm of insul-ation. Ideally he’d like to specify British SIPs, but that will depend on their achieving the performance required – an insulation U-value of 0.133.
Hopefully TTJ has helped point the project in the right direction. We first found out about the ultimately victorious design earlier on in the design competition. One of the architects, having come across ttjonline and our sister title Timber Building, called us to ask for names and contacts of SIPs suppliers.
