The most remote and climactically unforgiving place in the world, Antarctica has served as a setting for only the hardiest and most practical of architecture since its initial exploration in the 19th century. An exhibition at this year’s Venice Architecture Biennale examines how the man-made structures of the continent have evolved over the decades since, and how aesthetics could come into play in the future, adding some form to all that function.

‘Anarctopia’ is a pavilion featuring a model of the British Antarctic Survey’s Halley VI Research Station by Hugh Broughton Architects as well as work by 15 international architects and artists examining the provisional nature of architecture in Antarctica and new design proposals that go beyond the scientific, industrial and military missions that have directed the continent’s utilitarian architecture in the past.

Directed by artist Alexander Ponomarev and architect Alexey Kozyr, the pavilion offers visions of snowflake-shaped structures covered in solar panels nestled into a snowy landscape dotted with wind turbines and penguins. The organizers hope that the project will have an impact on the design of real stations in the future. “Among enthusiasts and unbolt schemes dwells the promise of a new Antarctic man.”

And while most of us will never get to explore the actual Halley VI Research Station in Antarctica, visitors to the Biennale can get up-close and personal views of models of the world’s fist mobile research center, which opened in 2013. The pods that make up the station are set on adjustable ski-like feet so they can be relocated inland to avoid being stranded on an iceberg, and raised above high snowfall accumulations.

Constructing a research station in Antarctica means thinking outside the box-like building but not TOO far outside… Great Scott it’s COLD out there!

USA: Palmer Station

(images via: Christopher Michel and WHOI)

Built in 1968 on Anvers Island, Palmer Station is the only American antarctic base located north of the Antarctic Circle. The base’s activities focus on the study of marine life and most projects are seasonal in nature: the station’s resident population averages around 40 in summer but drops to 15-20 in winter.

(image via: NASA)

But enough about the station, check out the photo above! In November of 2009, red-parka’d base personnel got together to send a friendly greeting to NASA’s DC-8 flying science laboratory flying overhead.

Ukraine: Vernadsky Research Base

(images via: EYOS Expeditions, Wikipedia/Lewnwdc77 and Around This World)

Ukraine didn’t build the Vernadsky Research Base; the former Faraday Station on Winter Island was purchased from Great Britain in 1996 for the bargain price of one pound. The station’s main claim to fame is its bar, said to be the southernmost such establishment on earth, where thirsty and/or bored patrons can pay $3 a shot for vodka brewed on-site.

(image via: Rachel Lea Fox)

Now operated by the National Antarctic Scientific Center of Ukraine, the Vernadsky Station consists of nine buildings and can house up to 15 staff members. Full credit to Flickr user Rachel Lea Fox for the image above. Time for a new flag? Er, I wasn’t asking you, President Putin.

Norway: Troll Research Station

(images via: Norwegian Polar Institute, Wikipedia/Islarsh and Reuters, Alister Doyle)

Constructed in 1990 and expanded 15 years later, Troll Station is Norway’s only year-round antarctic science base… problem? The Norwegian Polar Institute operates 8-person capacity Troll Station, which is located in the Norwegian antarctic dependency of Queen Maud Land. Troll Station is built on a bare rock outcrop poking through the ice cap and since the region is considered to be a “desert” in meteorological terms, heavy snowfalls and wind-blown drifting are not major concerns.

(image via: Epoch Times/Heiko Junge/AFP)

As is the case with all antarctic research stations, accommodations at Troll Station are both limited and spartan… even if you’re Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg.

Belgium: Princess Elisabeth Antarctica Research Station

(images via: Treehugger, International Polar Foundation and Architects24)

Belgium’s futuristic Princess Elisabeth Antarctica Research Station opened in February of 2009 and claims to be “the world’s first zero emission polar research station.” The 16-person capacity station draws electric power from solar panels supplemented by a network of nine wind turbines.

(image via: IRM)

Though sunlight is unavailable for months at a stretch, Princess Elisabeth Antarctica Research Station’s location backing onto the rocky Utsteinen Ridge in Queen Maud Land exposes it to howling gales measured at up to 300 kph (190 mph). Calmer days are much appreciated by station staff. He’s rollin’, don’t be hatin’.

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Home Ice 12 International Antarctic Research Stations

At the end of the earth, in some of the most remote places known to man, the remains of ill-advised human exploration and activity can be found in the form of rusting equipment, buildings almost entirely buried in snow, and abandoned ships. Left behind due to inaccessibility, war, failing industries and harsh, inhospitable conditions, these whaling factories, military bases and research facilities make up some of the world’s eeriest ghost towns.

Whaler’s Bay Ghost Town, Deception Island

(images via: wili_hybrid, wikimedia commons)

Established as a ship base on C-shaped Deception Island by a Norwegian-Chilean whaling company in the early 20th century, Whaler’s Bay was abandoned when oil prices plummeted during the Great Depression. It sat empty until the British reclaimed it as a base in 1944, but a series of volcanic eruptions in the 1960s sent everyone packing again. A mudslide caused by the most recent eruption in 1969 buried many of the structures.

Decades later, it’s totally empty but for the remains of the buildings, equipment and ships. Deception Island is so named because the tiny entrance to its bay is difficult to find; some explorers thought the island was nothing but high, rocky cliffs that are impossible to access. Once inside, however, visitors are greeted by surprisingly warm waters courtesy of the dormant volcanoes, which boil in some spots but offer comfortable bathing in others.

Pole of Inaccessability with Bust of Lenin

(images via: wikimedia commons, npolar.no)

The southern point of inaccessibility – the point in Antarctica that’s furthest from any ocean – is the location of a now-defunct Soviet research station established in 1958. As difficult to reach as it was, the station was never very robust; it had a hut for four people, a radio shack, and an electrical hut, all of which were pre-fabricated and brought in on tractors. The base was in use for a whopping 12 days before it was suspended indefinitely due to its remote location. All that was left behind was a single building topped with a bust of Vladimir Lenin. Snow drifts have buried most of the building so that the bust is all that can be seen of it today.

Grytviken Harbour, South Georgia

(images via: wikimedia commons, tripmondo)

This rusted jumble of equipment was once a large Norwegian whaling base, with about 300 men working to process captured whales, rendering the blubber, meat, bones and viscera into oil. Established in 1904 in the most protected harbor of British-owned South Georgia Island, which offered plenty of flat land for building, it soon became home to an Argentine meteorological station as well. But over the following sixty years, the population of whales in the seas around the island declined dramatically, and by 1966, the station closed. The whaling station site is still littered with whale bones as well as carcasses of industry and architecture. The island of Grytviken is also the gravesite of the explorer Ernest Shackleton, who was buried alongside whalers who died there.

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Desolate Desertions 7 Abandoned Wonders Of Antarctica

Built under some of the most extreme conditions on planet Earth, the Halley VI Research Station by Hugh Broughton Architects is now serving as a mobile home base for Antarctic expeditions. The facility is located on the floating Brunt Ice Shelf, and can be moved inland on its ski-like feet to avoid being stranded as the shelf drifts. Hydraulic rams enable it to be raised above accumulating snow.

The $25.8 million research station was constructed over 36 weeks spread out over four years of Antarctic summers, and consists of seven interlinking blue modules that serve as laboratories, offices, bedrooms and energy plants. A two-story red module offers up to 32 crew members social space in the summers, with that number dwindling to 16 in the three winter months with total darkness, when temperatures dip as low as -56 degrees Celsius. One is reminded of a less-dystopian Snowpiercer.

In fact, the wintering team often includes no scientists at all – it typically consists of technical specialists including a vehicle mechanic, a doctor, an electrician, a plumber, electronics engineers and meteorologists to keep the scientific experiments running. Halley VI was shipped to Antarctica in 2007 after a trial-run assembly in South Africa, but due to the extreme weather conditions on-site, it only became ready for use in February 2013.

Halley VI replaces the 20-year-old Halley V, and is the sixth to be built on the Brunt Ice Shelf. The location for this research facility has long functioned as a ‘natural laboratory’ for the Earth’s magnetic field and the near-space atmosphere. It is under the auroral oval, resulting in frequent displays of the magnificent Aurora Australis natural light display overhead.

As the last continent on Earth to be explored – and still the least developed – Antarctica may yet fall prey to the onward march of human civilization, but its lack of resources beyond ice make it an inhospitable place to build. Architecture student Taylor Medlin of the University of California at Berkeley has developed a thesis project packed with ideas, and while some may be fantastically tongue-in-cheek, the project itself is a work of art, revealing tiny worlds cut into the ice.

Medlin’s architectural proposals use various forms of ice as the primary building material rather than unsustainably transported materials from other continents, often reinforced with a variety of additives that could make the ice stronger and easier to work with.

A refrigerated display cabinet holds blocks of ice and wax carved into little rooms, illuminated from within, complete with human figurines that illustrate Medlin’s ideas with stunning detail.

Reminiscent of the miniature models of Thomas Doyle, these rooms are visible through both fisheye lenses that peer inside and magnifying glasses fixed to the outside of the case. Entranced viewers find complex compounds with steel frames, huts on stilts and simple ice caves with secret subterranean basements, all bathed in an eerie golden light.

Medlin, a John K. Branner fellow, has many more photos of the project and scans of his sketchbook available on Flickr.