Antarctic Research Unit Concept Vehicle Was Inspired by Huddling Behavior in Emperor Penguins

The Antarctic Research Unit is a conceptual project as part of a Master’s of Architecture, exploring the idea of a modern-day nomad, completed by Henry McKenzie and Artur Kupriichuk.

Taken the place of Antarctica, it’s one of unique landscapes located on the coldest, driest, and windiest continent of earth. Technically, it can be considered as a desert with temperatures on average at minus 45-degree C. Regardless of this inhospitable characteristics, there are between 1000 to 5000 people who live, work, and conduct researches in this location. Keeping this in mind, these 2 designers took the challenge to design a transportation unit for a community to address the geographical issues that Antarctic researches have to face every day.

Designers : Henry McKenzie and Artur Kupriichuk

Antarctic Research Unit by Henry Mckenzie

Antarctic Research Unit by Henry Mckenzie

Antarctic Research Unit provides an ideal living and working condition that might become the basic standard of Antarctica Transportation. It challenges traditional ideas of communication, usage, and aesthetic in distinctive landscape. Each unit is designed to accommodate 2 researches, there are 3 different areas in this vehicle: living room, work area, and activity room. The flexibility of this space allows researches to eat, sleep, and live while conducting their research across Antarctic.

The inspiration of this design came from the unique behavior of Emperor penguins where the male penguins would group together in order to share warmth as well as conserve energy. They are packed in so tightly they begin to act almost as one giant organism. Heat loss is cut by up to 50% and temperatures inside the group can be as high as 24 degrees Celsius. Antarctic Research Unit has been designed with ability to interlock with each other to eliminate the cold, share services, and interact with one another.

Antarctic Research Unit by Henry Mckenzie

Antarctic Research Unit by Henry Mckenzie



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2 thoughts on “Antarctic Research Unit Concept Vehicle Was Inspired by Huddling Behavior in Emperor Penguins

  1. On the Antarctic Research Unit Concept Vehicles. When you "gaggle" the vehicles together, are the "through tubes or passage ways" Man-size walk through's or crawl-spaces…

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