Unveiled in 2017, OZ Architecture’s plan to renew McMurdo Station consists of a 300,000-square-foot, nine-building campus that will provide for all aspects of living and working at the bottom of the Earth: labs, offices, a cafe, a post office, a gym, a barbershop, lounges, a cutting-edge lecture hall, and more. The new design contains big ideas for reducing McMurdo’s lighting, heating, and water-energy demands, as well as minute details for improving residents’ quality of life. In the dorms, lights will cycle through the natural phases of the sun to support well-being. (With only one sunrise and sunset a year in Antarctica, a person’s circadian rhythm can get pretty confused.) The benches in the hallways are intended to promote community and the sharing of ideas, says Petersen: “When a scientist in one realm has a conversation by bumping into another in the hallway, there may be an exchange that advances both of their realms.” Photo 1 of 2 in Meet The Firm That’s Reimagining Life in Antarctica

Meet The Firm That’s Reimagining Life in Antarctica

1 of 2

Unveiled in 2017, OZ Architecture’s plan to renew McMurdo Station consists of a 300,000-square-foot, nine-building campus that will provide for all aspects of living and working at the bottom of the Earth: labs, offices, a cafe, a post office, a gym, a barbershop, lounges, a cutting-edge lecture hall, and more. The new design contains big ideas for reducing McMurdo’s lighting, heating, and water-energy demands, as well as minute details for improving residents’ quality of life. In the dorms, lights will cycle through the natural phases of the sun to support well-being. (With only one sunrise and sunset a year in Antarctica, a person’s circadian rhythm can get pretty confused.) The benches in the hallways are intended to promote community and the sharing of ideas, says architect Rick Petersen: "When a scientist in one realm has a conversation by bumping into another in the hallway, there may be an exchange that advances both of their realms."