New Antartica Base Design Competition

Hi, I came across a new item about a competition to design a new base for the hostile Antartica.

http://news.google.co.uk/url?ntc=5M4B1& ... 848133.stm

How cool will that be? (Pun intended) Basically, they're gonna have similar problems as Moon or Mars outpost. Apart from the some atmospheric conditions of course. But they'll need to selfsufficient, with power, waste, air and sea ports. On top of it all, they need a quick construction schedule, because summer (temp get's as high as -5C) is only two months long.

It could be intersting to follow. The final designs may be the forerunner to Moon and Mars bases. What do you think?

I'm an architect, and I think I'm going to goad my firm into taking a shot at this competition. You're absolutely right in that it will be something of an analog to non-terrestrial habitat designs!

what power do you have to "goad" your firm into anything?

Go for it Skyburn. I'd imagin that any experience a firm has in a particular field will enable similar work to be won. You guys could well be the Moon Base deisgners.

It's quite possible he has the power to open his mouth and say "Hey guys, I have this idea. Wanna hear it?" Go for it skyburn.

Found a more appropriate link...


http://www.antarctica.ac.uk/News_and_In ... index.html

Sweet!

Blimey, time scale for the competition is a little short.

Yeah, I'm gonna make a stab at it, but I'm a bit pessimistic about my chances. Although I've been napkin-sketching antarctic base designs for a good ten years now, and think I could field a truly excellent design -- I'm still a young and not terribly accomplished architect. And unfortunately, the competition at this point is really for the design *teams*, not the designs themselves. A number of teams will be selected, presumably based on their long and distinguished track records, of which I have neither. I'm convinced I'd have a much better shot at an open competiton for the actual design.

Still, it's worth a try. Wish me luck!

good luck

earlier I asked how much power you had because I wondered... well, how much power you had...

I was not being sarcastic

Sorry, Texan. Didn't mean to ignore you. The answer is that I'm 50% of my firm, so the odds are pretty good that I can convince at least half the company to work on this project. Even if both of us take it on, that won't be enough to put together a convincing entry -- I think we'll need about two dozen people. So I'm now trying to form a virtual collaborative group of other architects and engineers that I know. If I'm able to get enough of us together, I think we might have a real shot at being competitive. There's some precident for this: I believe that "Team T.H.I.N.K.," which made it to the final round of the World Trade Center competition, was organized along these lines.