NCAOR – India Research Station
Design Competition:
In 2006, Ferraro Choi participated in a competitive selection process for the design of a new 25-person Antarctic research station for India’s National Centre for Antarctic and Ocean Research (NCAOR). Ferraro Choi was invited to the table because of the firm’s deep experience in designing Antarctica facilities for the United States, including projects at McMurdo Station and the new Amundsen Scott South Pole Station at the geographic South Pole.
The NCAOR project was to be situated at 90 meters above sea level on an unnamed promontory of land between the Strornes and Broknes peninsulas located at the Larsemann Hills region of East Antarctica. Ferraro Choi’s placement of the new station in its concept design resulted from the assessment of several locations that were not susceptible to snow drifting and had feasible access to the sea and sea ice.
The submitted concept design consisted of two distinct elements, the main station and the remote science facilities which would be used for field research. Strategies defining the design included modular prefabricated building units, daylighting provisions during the austral summer, bio-diesel generators and water heat source pumps, facility compartmentalization for fire safety, zero waste discharge and a protocol to decommission and remove the facility in the future leaving no environmental footprint.