When Hugh Broughton Architects won a design competition for the Halley VI Antarctic research station, which officially opens on February 5, the small London-based office had no experience working in extreme environments. But its proposal, developed with engineer AECOM, impressed the jury both for its technical ingenuity and its understanding that for up to 50 scientists, this inhospitable place is home. — archrecord.construction.com

Russia is to build an ultra-modern city on a frozen island deep inside the Arctic Circle - in the Kremlin's latest move to back its claim to vast oil and gas reserves under the polar ice cap.

Named Umka, after a popular Soviet polar bear cub cartoon hero, the initial 5,000 residents will live under a vast dome to protect themselves from temperatures sinking below minus 30C in winter. — dailymail.co.uk