NOAA’s Antarctic Ecological Research Division (AERD) leads scientific investigations into the lives of Antarctic seabirds and pinnipeds. After two decades, their humble research station began to succumb to the harsh Antarctic elements, prompting a much-needed upgrade. This project saw the design, test-build, shipping, and construction of buildings to function as cooking, dining, recreation, berthing, scientific laboratories, maintenance, and emergency evacuation spaces.

Adhering to one of our core values of education, Bespoke partnered with the University of Colorado’s Master of Architecture and Planning’s Colorado Building Workshop (CBW) and Oz Architecture during the design and test-build phases of the project. Senior construction leadership from Bespoke along with professors from CBW presented complex, real-world design challenges to students, and guided them to a completed design focused on sustainability, efficiency of maintenance, and harmony with the surrounding landscape.

Bound by Antarctic treaty guidelines limiting the footprint of the new campus, and the remote locale accessible only by zodiac; these new buildings were carefully crafted to occupy the same space as their predecessors while increasing storage capacity. They also needed to be able to be disassembled into small pieces for flat-packed shipping that were light enough to off-load and reconstruct by hand on the island. The completed design is comprised of 4 buildings: three form the nucleus of the main campus, while the fourth, a remote penguin research station, stands one mile away.

The uniquely beautiful and fragile landscape of Cape Shirreff is at the center of the campus design. The buildings are thoughtfully constructed with structurally insulated panels and triple-pane windows with water-resistant plywood for interior finishing. Offset gable roofs collect rainfall, the lab and workshop building is oriented broadside to the persistent wind and prevents snow from encroaching into the courtyard and deck areas; it’s roof covered with 8.4Kw of solar panels that harvest the constant sun of the Austral summer and power campus activities.

This incredible project has won multiple awards and been featured in design publication, Modern in Denver, as well as the Design-Build Institute of America (DBIA) podcast, Design-Build Delivers.