Cool move: Modular research station is mobile

Designed by Hugh Broughton Architects and engineers AECOM, and constructed in the summer months in Antarctica by Galliford Try in collaboration with the British Antarctic Survey, these portable buildings are made from a series of hydraulically elevated ski modules.

The blue modules can be raised sufficiently to avoid the annual snowfall and relocated when ice breaks away from the shelf. They are designed to be used as bedrooms, laboratories, offices and energy plants, while the two-storey red module is designed to be a social space. The research station can hold 52 crew members in the summer and 16 in the months of total darkness.

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