Archinect - News

Summer's here in Antarctica — let's build!

2024-12-02T15:50:00-05:00

As the Northern Hemisphere approaches the winter season, construction activity on our southernmost continent has kicked into overdrive: More favorable summer temps have opened up a brief six-month window at the British Antarctic Survey's Rothera research station and operations hub, allowing for completion of the new 'Discovery Building' purpose-built scientific support facility.

Work at the Rothera site has brought together expertise from BAM, Ramboll, Sweco, GA Barnies, Turner and Townsend, and Hugh Broughton Architects.

The British Antarctic Survey's website describes the modernization efforts in more detail.

Previously on Archinect: Construction season begins for UK's largest Antarctic research hub

Passersby injured by falling ice from Billionaires' Row supertall

2022-02-28T13:55:00-05:00

Ice believed to have fallen more than 1,400 feet from a Midtown condo crushed the roof and smashed the windshield of Deneice O’Connor’s car as she drove up Sixth Ave., the shaken motorist said Saturday. “It just crashed down on me. I immediately thought a body had fallen on my car,” O’Connor, 35, told the Daily News.

The ice is believed to have fallen from the SHoP Architects-designed 111 W. 57th Street supertall, one of the world's thinnest skyscrapers and tallest residential buildings in the Western Hemisphere. It is a prominent fixture along “Billionaires’ Row”. Police have also reported that another person, a 17-year-old girl, was injured by falling ice originating from 40 W. 57th Street. The Friday afternoon incidents are being investigated by the city Building Department, with the inspectors issuing a violation against the owners of 111 W. 57th Street.

The TikTok post below shows large panes of ice falling one by one onto the surrounding street as pedestrians walk by.

@japanesecarlos The thump was loud af #nyc #nyclife #nycproblems #omg #newyorker #newyorklife ♬ Paris - Else

Brief summer season allows construction on British Antarctic Survey's new Discovery Building

2021-01-14T13:53:00-05:00

The next stage of building a scientific support facility in Antarctica begins this week [...] A 20 person-plus team from BAS construction partners BAM, Ramboll and Sweco is working on the second season of building the cutting-edge science and operations building. Construction can only take place during a short window during the Antarctic summer months, avoiding the harsh, dark winter.

Antarctic architecture is finally taking shape

2020-01-10T15:01:00-05:00

Throughout the 20th century, architecture in Antarctica was a pragmatic and largely makeshift affair, focused on keeping the elements out and the occupants alive. [...] Construction in Antarctica, long the purview of engineers, is now attracting designer architects looking to bring aesthetics — as well as operational efficiency, durability and energy improvements — to the coldest neighborhood on Earth.

The NYT looks at the increasingly maturing architectural designs of Antarctic research stations, from early, highly pragmatic shelters to Britain’s now iconic Halley VI, designed by Hugh Broughton Architects, all the way to the brand new (and very nice looking) Brazilian Comandante Ferraz Research Station which opens this month.

Fire & ice: blaze breaks out in Quebec City's ice hotel

2018-01-16T13:59:00-05:00

After a seemingly perfect start to the season, with temperatures well below the freezing point, Quebec City's ice hotel was hit by one of its fiercest opponents: fire. A small blaze broke out in one of the hotel's 45 guest rooms early Tuesday morning, forcing the evacuation of the structure, made completely out of ice, at the Village Vacances Valcartier winter park. "When I received the phone call they had to repeat twice that there was a fire in the ice hotel," said manager Jacques Desbois.

The fire was quickly extinguished and nobody was injured, however hotel operations had to be halted for a few days to remove smoke damage throughout the structure and buff up the snow and ice walls.

CBC News reports that this was the first fire incident in the 17-season history of the Quebec City Hôtel de Glace.

The fire allegedly started when a candle in one of the guest rooms like these fell on a sleeping bag.

All images via Hôtel de Glace on Facebook

Architect Gustav Dusing selected for inagural Antarctic Biennial

2016-12-13T15:19:00-05:00

As part of the newly launched interdisciplinary Antarctic Biennial, architect Gustav Dusing and artist Sho Hasegawa will be sent to Antarctica in March 2017 for what could be described as an inspiring, if chilly, imaginative tabula rasa. The winners for the Biennial were chosen during this year's Art Basel Miami. As the website for the organization explains, "We are building a unique community of people who are interested in reimagining the future of shared spaces, beginning with Antarctic culture as a model for global development. With the artistic core, we are creating the platform for the interdisciplinary dialogue."

For more on ice-related architecture:

What could go wrong? North Korean construction workers are being given crystal meth to finish projects faster

2016-08-12T14:13:00-04:00

project managers at a building site in North Korea’s capital Pyongyang are openly supplying their exhausted work force with powerful methamphetamines called “ice,” North Korean sources say. [...] Officials in charge of the project are pushing workers hard to finish frame construction on the buildings, which include a 70-story high-rise apartment building and at least 60 other structures, before the weather gets too cold, sources said.

The construction project in question appears to be Ryomyong Street, a so-called "Pyonghattan" for its giant scope and reportedly the country's tallest apartments. According to a report in Foreign Policy, the spread of methamphetamine (aka "ice") first began in North Korea during the 1990s, when it was being produced and sold as a medication.

Best snow + ice architecture, 2016 edition

2016-01-27T14:35:00-05:00

In China each year, the Harbin Ice and Snow Festival features both buildings and sculptures constructed entirely of ice and snow, which are augmented with nighttime illumination. Here are a few highlights from this year's festival:

China doesn't have a lockdown on spectacular ice and snow architecture. The Pyotr Yeropkin-designed 20 meter tall by 50 meter wide Russian Ice Palace, which has been reconstructed every year since 2005 (although the design dates back to 1740) in St. Petersburg, has interior spaces with custom ice furniture:

Quebec's Hotel de Glace offers a functional, if chilly, opportunity to experience ice and snow architecture. Each year, guests can stay inside one of its 44 rooms (some of which come with seemingly oxymoronic amenities, like a fireplace):

Lastly, there is the SnowCastle of Kemi by the Gulf of Bothnia in Finland, which is constructed annually and features an accompanying SnowRestaurant, SnowChapel, and SnowHotel. The SnowCastle's official website ...

Rejected Leonardo da Vinci design will finally come to life as world’s longest ice bridge

2016-01-06T13:32:00-05:00

In 1502, at the request of the Turkish sultan, Leonardo da Vinci came up with the design for a stone bridge that would cross the Golden Horn [...]. With a span of some 240 meters, it would have been the longest bridge in the world—if it had been built. Now, more than 500 years after the sultan rejected da Vinci’s design, a team of students and volunteers in the Finnish town of Juuka are in the process of constructing a scale model of the original drawing—out of ice.

IceCave Iceland is a city in the glacier

2015-01-05T14:25:00-05:00

There's an interesting construction/excavation project going on over in Iceland right now: an artificial tunnel and cave complex being dug into the Langjökull Glacier. When complete, the publicly accessible infra-glacial facility "will consist of numerous nooks and dens which will house exhibitions, information, restaurants and even a small chapel for those who would like to marry deep within an ice cap."

Gaudí’s uncompleted masterpiece will finally be finished—in ice

2014-06-30T13:54:00-04:00

A group of students at the Eindhoven University of Technology are trying to build a new, temporary version of the monumental church well before then, but with some notable differences. At just over 123 feet tall, their Sagrada Familia will be a 1:4 model of the original. It will be erected on a site in Finland, almost 2,000 miles north of Barcelona. It will take them three weeks to build it this winter, rather than a century. And instead of stone, it will be constructed out of ice.

Frank Gehry designs "Icehenge" desk for Inland Steel in Chicago

2013-07-30T19:30:00-04:00

This is a story about a desk — not any desk, mind you, but a startling, Frank Gehry-designed security desk in the lobby of the Inland Steel Building, one of Chicago's great mid-20th century high-rises. The U-shaped desk is best described as a piece of furniture that's been elevated to the level of art, or is simply an emblem of excess.

Warming Huts v.2013 - Five Winners Selected

2012-12-04T13:52:00-05:00

Warming Huts: An Art + Architecture Competition on Ice has unveiled the five winning projects of its 2013 edition. Like in previous winters, the selected huts will be built in early January on site and placed on the Assiniboine Credit Union River Trail in Winnipeg, Canada - the longest naturally frozen skating trail in the world.

Warming Huts Competition: „POLAR HEN“ by mjölk architekti

2011-12-21T15:18:00-05:00

Czech firm mjölk architekti has shared with us their fascinating proposal "POLAR HEN" which was - under the title "ICE PILLOWS" - just recently named one of the five winners in the internationally acclaimed Warming Huts v.2011, An Art +Architecture Competition on Ice (...with one of the other four winners being Frank Gehry!). For only one winter, the five winning huts will be created and placed on the frozen Assiniboine River in Winnipeg, Manitoba.

Mongolia bids to keep city cool with 'ice shield' experiment

2011-11-15T18:01:47-05:00

Mongolia is to launch one of the world's biggest ice-making experiments later this month in an attempt to combat the adverse affects of global warming and the urban heat island effect. The geoengineering trial, that is being funded by the Ulan Bator government, aims to "store" freezing winter temperatures in a giant block of ice that will help to cool and water the city as it slowly melts during the summer.