An Antarctic research base shipped in 113 containers

Arctowski Station, designed by Kuryłowicz + Architects for the Institute of Biochemistry and Biophysics of the Polish Academy of Sciences, is now operating on King George Island, Antarctica. It accommodates 28 researchers in a prefabricated mass-timber structure wrapped in insulated golden metal panels, with interior timber sourced from Polish forests.

The plan is three-pronged around a double-height communal hub containing a library, gym and sauna, and the whole building sits on steel stilts about three metres above the ground so wind passes underneath and snow accumulates less. It is engineered for winds up to 160 kilometres per hour and temperatures below minus 20 degrees. Logistics shaped the architecture as much as climate: the station arrived in 113 containers and had to be assembled within a three-month summer window. Grouping the library, gym and sauna together concedes something the technical brief rarely states — that living with the same 28 people for half a year is also a design problem.