Round table held within the context of Architecture in the Extreme
By conceiving a territory in anthesis and naming it Antarctica, the Greeks at once prophetically foresaw the essential role that the ultimate continent laboratory would play in our world’s ecosystem and synthesised in the short prefix (ANT-) the endless paradoxes that the southernmost territory conceals.
Driven by the conviction that it is essential, in the midst of the Anthropocene, to shift the attention South and reflect on existing and future modes of inhabitation in the extreme, Giulia Foscari curates a series of Antarctic Conversations run by Antarctica 200 within the context of the London Design Festival.
Antarctic Conversations between polar experts from the fields of architecture, engineering, science, medicine and psychology will unfold at the AA as a tryptic of Round Tables, each addressing a set of Antarctic antinomies.
Known to the general public mainly as the barometer of climate change (with media broadcasting alarming predictions on the unprecedented rate at which Antarctic ice is melting) very little is known of the effects of the human footprint on the continent itself. Whilst necessary to conduct reliable models on the planetary evolution, to date (most) scientific stations could be regarded as contaminating elements on the pristine landscape. The underlying difficulty of conceiving fully sustainable buildings in a continent that lies in the dark six months per year and in which winds reach a maximum recorded speed of 327 Km/h generates a profound contradiction: stations that were erected to inform a more responsible use of the world’s resources end up consuming unprecedented and disproportional quantities of fuel to be safely operational. The second Antarctic Conversation will invite the panellists to reflect on such paradox and discuss design solutions that might allow for greater self-sufficiency, and thus autonomy, to future Antarctic architectures. The presentations will include reflections on building site management, on Antarctic building services design, on the criticality of the architectural envelope at extreme temperatures, on the unique challenges of managing a scientific station on shifting ice, and finally on the achievements of sustainable design in the continent.
Speakers, in order of presentation include:
Tony McGlory, Ramboll Engineering
Hugh Broughton, Hugh Broughton Architects
Oliver Darke, British Antarctic Survey
Philippe Samyn, Samyn and Partners
moderators (Polar Lab directors):
Giulia Foscari, Antarctica 200 Co-Director, UNA/unless
Francesco Bandarin, Antarctica 200 Co-Director
Arturo Lyon, PUC
Juan Du, HKU
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Giulia Foscari – Curator + Antarctica 200 Co-Director, Polar Lab Co-Director (UK)
Giulia Foscari is an architect, curator and author who has been practising in Asia, South America and Europe. She is the founder of UNA, a Hamburg-based international architecture practice focussed on cultural projects; founder of UNLESS, a non-for-profit platform dedicated to research on the effects of the Anthropocene; and partner of Foscari Widmann Rezzonico Associati, an architecture practice based in Venice. Her working experience includes an extensive collaboration with OMA (Office for Metropolitan Architecture) which started in Hong Kong in 2009 and led her to run OMA’s South American platform. In 2014 Giulia authored “Elements of Venice”, a book published by Lars Müller Publishers which was awarded the DAM Architectural Book Award. In parallel to practicing architecture, Giulia worked on multiple curatorial projects (including exhibitions in four editions of the Venice Biennale) and is engaged in academia. Giulia taught at Hong Kong University for five academic years, and ran a Diploma Unit at the Architectural Association (between 2015 and 2018) where she now co-directs the Polar Lab.
Francesco Bandarin – Antarctica 200 Co-Director, Polar Lab Co-Director (UK)
Francesco Bandarin is an Architect and Urban Planner, specialized in Urban Conservation. From 2000 to 2010 he was Director of the UNESCO World Heritage Centre and Secretary of the World Heritage Convention. From 2010 to 2018 he served as Assistant Director-General of UNESCO for Culture. He is currently Special Advisor for heritage of the UNESCO Director-General. He is a member of the Steering Committee of the Aga Khan Trust for Culture and a member of ICOMOS Italy. He has been Professor of Urban Planning and Urban Conservation at the University of Venice (IUAV) from 1980 to 2016. His recent publications include: “The Historic Urban Landscape: Managing Heritage in an Urban Century”, 2012 and “Reconnecting the City. The Historic Urban Landscape Approach and the Future of Urban Heritage”, 2015, both co-authored with Ron van Oers and published by Wiley-Blackwell. A comprehensive book on the Historic Urban Landscape experience, “Re-shaping Urban Conservation”, co-edited with Ana Pereira Roders, is forthcoming by Springer.
Arturo Lyon – Polar Lab Director (CL)
Arturo Lyon is an architect dedicated to the experimental and professional development of architecture, landscape and urban design projects. He is founder of Lyon Bosch + Martic Arquitectos, firm that has carried out several public and private projects, including the XVIII Biennial of Architecture of Chile, the Las Majadas de Pirque Hotel, the Cerros de Chena Park — associated with Teodoro Fernández —and the Metropolitan Civic Promenade for the redesign of Alameda - Providencia, Santiago's main boulevard — associated with Groundlab. Arturo is Professor of the Faculty of Architecture, Design and Urban Studies of the Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile (PUC) in the areas of design studio, technology and landscape architecture. He leads the design studio courses for the undergraduate School of Architecture and is member of the Public Space Group of the Nacional Committee of Urban Development of Chile.
Juan Du – Polar Lab Director (HK)
Juan Du is Associate Professor, Associate Dean (International), and Director of the Urban Ecologies Design Lab at the University of Hong Kong. She also leads IDU_architecture, with projects ranging from the extent of built form to the social and ecological processes of the city, and her works have been published and exhibited in Asia, Europe and the United States. Juan's research and design focus is on the relationships between the urban and architectural, formal and informal, and specifically on informal settlements of extreme high-density within rapid urbanization. An upcoming book “The Shenzhen Experiment”, will be published by Harvard University Press in winter 2019. Juan has previously taught at MIT and Peking University, and her past curatorial projects includes Hong Kong’s participation in the 2010 Venice Biennale and the Housing an Affordable City Exhibition at the 2011 Shenzhen Hong Kong Biennale.
Philippe Samyn – Samyn and Partners
Sir Philippe Samyn, doctor in Applied Sciences, architect, civil engineer and urbanist, is a member of the Belgian Royal Academy of Science, Art and Literature since 1992, a member of the financial and advisory committees of SECO Belgium scrl, and a Commander of the Order of Léopold who was ennobled to Knighthood by HRH King Albert II on July 13th 2012. His work is based on permanent questioning, widely fed by numerous missions abroad, lateral thinking and his scientific work. More particularly, his discovery in 1997 of the volume and displacement indicators has since experienced continuous scientific development, leading to a general and open theory about the conception and predimensioning of structures.
Hugh Broughton – Hugh Broughton Architects
Hugh Broughton is the founder of Hugh Broughton Architects, one of the world's leading designers of buildings in Antarctica. Completed projects include the relocatable British Halley VI and Juan Carlos 1 Spanish Antarctic Base. Current projects include the redevelopment of Scott Base for Antarctica New Zealand and the modernisation of Rothera Research Station for the British Antarctic Survey.
Oliver Darke – British Antarctic Survey
Oliver Darke is Head of Estates for the British Antarctic Survey. Oliver has 5 years of Antarctic construction experience delivering projects across Antarctica. His project experience ranged from remote deep field science installations to major station construction. Oliver is responsible for the maintenance and repair for all BAS buildings in the Antarctic & Sub-Antarctic.
Tony McGlory – Ramboll Engineering
Tony is a Director in the Ramboll Building Services Engineering team, he has over 25 years’ experience in the management and design of complex engineering projects. During his career Tony has been a thermal modeller, Low Carbon Consultant, Authorised Person Petroleum and an Accredited Energy Assessor. Tony is responsible for the Building Services Engineering element for; Ramboll’s Technical Advisor framework with British Antarctic Survey (BAS), the design of a new Wintering Complex at Vostok Research Station, Ramboll’s Technical Advisor framework for the Falkland Islands. Tony has visited Antarctica, a number of sub Antarctic islands and the Falkland Islands.