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The Princess Elisabeth
Antarctic Base
/ 2007–2008
The new Belgian scientific base in Antarctica is one
of Philippe Samyn’s most recent technical missions.
In February 2007, he was consulted in an engineer-
ing capacity to define and update the construction
systems for the spatial arrangements (general form and
interior equipment), which had been previously deter-
mined (without an architect) by the International Polar
Foundation team. These were based on aerodynamic
criteria and energy conservation. Therefore an engineer
was required to give a physical structure to the base
and an impenetrable envelope, dictated by the rigour of
the geometric system. The installation of the polar sta-
tion has to stand up to extreme conditions: in addition
to very low temperatures (as low as -50°C) one also has
to take into consideration high winds (fortunately there
is a stable wind direction), atmospheric dryness, alter-
nating accumulating and diminishing snow, and even
the risk from the impact of stone projectiles carried by
the wind. With such a project, safety considerations are
naturally of the first order.
These specific conditions led to the design of a con-
struction which is as light as possible, mounted on pilo-
tis, literally stilts that rise above the ground at an average
height of four metres. These pilotis are divided into four
separate groups of mild steel bars, anchored some six
metres deep. The autonomy of the supports allows the
metal to adjust to changes in temperature while avoiding
the need to install expansion joints where it meets the
superstructure, and thus not endangering the stability of
the whole. The station itself, consisting of an orthogonal
grid of laminated wooden trusses, was designed to
be compact, comfortable and easy to assemble. The
station’s aerodynamic shape – which was wind tunnel-
tested in the laboratories of the Von Karman Institute for
Fluid Dynamics in Sint-Genesius-Rode – obviously owes
nothing to post-war, pseudo-design.
The station’s external envelope (flooring, roof and
facades) consists of two shells made of composite
resinous wood panels held apart by thin columns of
beech and separated by 40 cm of insulation. It is fitted
with a continuous interior vapour barrier (including at
the level of the interior columns, where the columns are
bonded to the structure by metal plates to which they
are attached), thus resolving the problem of thermal
bridges. The highly perfected joints between elements
were designed right at the start of the project. Inside,
the facades terminate with wool felt (a natural material
of which Samyn is quite fond) covering the vapour bar-
rier and, on the outside, by stainless steel plate.
The ‘object’ is singular but completely logical.
Assembled for the first time on the site of the former
Tour & Taxis customs warehouses in Brussels, the polar
station was shown to the public in August 2007. It was
then disassembled and transported in kits to the build-
ing site, where it was reassembled in five weeks under
the personal supervision of the engineer and explorer
Alain Hubert. The work was finished in March 2008.