Neither time nor distance were obstacles for the Alcheh-Magariños studio, which was commissioned by the Bulgarian Antarctic Institute to build three buildings on Livingston Island.
The architects Deiana Alcheh and Néstor Magariños had to overcome many challenges since the Bulgarian Antarctic Institute (BAI) proposed them, in 2006, to build new constructions at their base on Livingston Island, in the South Shetland Archipelago, 4,500 km from the port of Buenos Aires.
The proposal was to build two small accommodation buildings, one to be used as a biological and geological laboratory and the other as a medical office, plus a third for storage. The materials were to be selected, the parts were to be built and shipped to the site, where they would be assembled by Bulgarian personnel, previously trained in Buenos Aires. Transportation and logistics were of vital importance, that is why we chose Rush Cargo. In addition, the work could only be carried out during the Antarctic season, which includes the austral summer.
Time was also short. Once the preliminary design was approved, the budget was submitted and finally approved on October 21, 2006. It was established that the finished work had to be delivered to the Navy’s isolation shed by the end of December of that year. In other words, they had 65 days to ship the materials. Finally, the logistics ship Patagonia, of the Argentine Navy, left Buenos Aires on January 10, 2007, bound for Ushuaia. The transshipment of all the parts of the work was carried out at the end of that month on the icebreaker ARA Almirante Irizar, which landed by helicopter on Livingston Island. In spite of having only February and a few days in March, it was possible to build the structure and the enclosures of the office building and the entire shed, which were sealed until the beginning of this summer, when the personnel will return to their activities at the base.
During these days the pending works will be finished, that is, the construction of the laboratory, while it is foreseen to add, in the next austral summer, roof carpentry with DVH thermal panels, with air and light regulation, to achieve good visuals and luminosity.
The materials and the construction site
The location of the constructions was made on two platforms. Weather conditions and summary information on the characteristics of the soil (a bed of disintegrated rocks resulting from glacial erosion) were previously provided by IAB personnel. With this information available, the type of foundations was decided and the shape of the constructions was agreed upon: “A” for the housing buildings and semi-cylindrical for the shed. In both cases, these shapes guaranteed a better structural performance, while the “A” model allowed for an easier arrangement of the thermal insulating materials.
A three-layer panel with a polyurethane core was used for the roof-wall enclosure, while the steep slope minimized the risk of excessive snow load. In the interior, advantage was taken of the over-height, and the buildings were provided with a mezzanine floor to accommodate a minimum number of bedrooms. The perimeter terminations were resolved with custom-made zinguerías. In all cases, thermal bridging was avoided with appropriate Teflon gaskets and PVC openings, with profiles of Canadian matrices and domestic manufacture.
By Juan Pablo Trevisani Vespa
Source: La Nación
