If you want proof of the durability of timber building, just take a 12,000-mile trip to Commonwealth Bay in Antarctica. There, at the windiest place on earth on Cape Dennison, often up to its roof ridges in snow, is a collection of wooden huts, survivors from the dawn of Antarctic exploration. Mawson’s huts haven’t been immune to the ravages of gales and blizzards and one has just undergone a major – and logistically demanding – repair programme. But they were built 97 years ago.
The four buildings formed the base of the 1911-1914 Australasian Antarctic Expedition led by Sir Douglas Mawson. The aim of the venture was to map the area and take meteorological and geological measurements – during their first winter, the 18-strong team of scientists and explorers recorded average wind speeds of 95kph and a maximum of over 300kph.
Today the expedition is best remembered for the exploratory trip Mawson took with two of his colleagues Belgrade Ninnis and Xavier Mertz. This turned to tragedy when first Ninnis fell to his death in a crevasse and Mertz then died of exhaustion. And the final dramatic twist was that, when he made it back to the huts, Mawson saw the expedition ship Aurora disappearing over the horizon. It had left to avoid being caught in the ice and he and the six men who had waited for him had to spend a second winter in the huts before they were rescued.
The base was abandoned in 1914 and today it stands as it was left, complete with personal effects, food and other stores, all somewhat passed their sell-buy date, but still intact.
The buildings could probably have survived a few more years but, with some of the timber wearing wafer-thin through ice abrasion, the Mawson Huts Foundation (MHF) decided to give the heritage-listed buildings a bit of help, starting with replacing the roof of the biggest of the four, the main hut.
The project was completed ahead of schedule
The work had to be done as sensitively as possible, with the same materials and building methods as originally used (and the MHF supplied original documentation of the timber order to ensure authenticity). Consequently, the Foundation turned to Wright Forest Products (WFP), Australia’s leading Nordic timber importer and specialist in restoration work and complex deliveries, to supply the Finnish whitewood (known by Dawson simply as ‘Baltic’). It was quite a logistical exercise.
“The whitewood came from central Finland, virtually from the North Pole to the South Pole, which makes it probably one of the longest journeys ever taken by a shipment of timber,” said the company’s Ashley Wright. He added that the timber, from Wright’s Finnish supply partner Versowood Oy, was not only the authentic material, it also met modern environmental criteria, carrying the stamp of the Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification schemes.
Whitewood would have been specified by the original expedition for the hut roofs and walls because of its “outstanding durability and thermal qualities”, said Wright. The only difference between the original and modern material was that the restorers used a 22x160mm machined tongued and grooved flooring grade. “This is easier to fit and also provides the extra strength and stability you need and want to count on in a place like Antarctica,” he said.
In association with Michael Swan of timber importers Swan Le Messurier of Sydney and Timber Wholesale Pty Ltd of Hobart, the whitewood was prepared and delivered to the Australian Antarctic Division in Tasmania. There it was kept in quarantine to ensure it was pest free then loaded aboard French Antarctic resupply ship L’Astrolabe bound for Commonwealth Bay.
Next, the timber had to be prepared in special ‘helicopter packs’ suitable for lifting from the vessel to the ice cap. The project wasn’t straightforward, but WFP’s previous experience helped. “In the 1980s, we supplied timber to Australian Antarctic expeditions for use in other building projects,” said Wright. “The Foundation’s expedition was right up our alley; its conservation programme also fitted with our focus on heritage restorations and our connection to the Nordic timber trade.”
The first headache for the conservation team, comprising three ‘heritage carpenters’ and a conservation scientist, was apparent before they landed. As they flew in all that could been seen of the hut above the drifts was the apex of the roof, so the first job was digging out 80m3 of ice and snow by hand. Once the snow was shifted, high winds, blizzards, and temperatures as low as -40OC also slowed progress. “The team was often stuck inside for days at a time,” said Wright.
Personal effects from 1914
But with all hands on deck the job was completed with time to spare and the neighbouring ‘transit hut’ was also patched up with original material. More repairs are needed on the buildings, but at least Mawson’s main hut now has the protection of a solid new roof and, if necessary, could provide a safe, warm haven for future intrepid explorers of Cape Dennison for decades to come.
Modular at minus 40
Nearly a century after Sir Douglas Mawson’s expedition built their pine huts on Commonwealth Bay, timber is once more forming a key part of an Antarctic building.
Halley VI is the new, £22m state-of-the-art base of the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) currently being built, module by module, in the wilds of Halley Bay on the Weddell Sea – the opposite side of Antarctica to Mawson’s huts.
The seven-compartment building, designed by Faber Maunsell and Hugh Broughton Architects, sits on extendable legs with ski ‘feet’ so that it stands off the snow and can be moved.
The 20x10m steel framed, glass reinforced, plastic-clad modules, prefabricated in South Africa to minimise the amount of work needed in the Antarctic, include room pods made in the UK by Servacomm Redhall Ltd. These are fitted out and furnished as bed, bath and plant rooms, ready for the BAS team to move in immediately. The structure will also include laboratories, leisure and fitness zones, a restaurant, library and lounge.
Timber comes into the equation in the pre-engineered flooring cassettes and deck components from the UK’s Framework CDM. These vary in depth between 177-255mm and comprise a plywood top surface, C16 softwood joists and 6mm ‘masterboard’ on the under surface for added fire resistance. They will form the floor along the length of the building and were specified, says the company, because they provide a “fully tested and uniform” product that’s ready simply to slot into place. They include channels and openings for services and fixing details that allow one person to connect them to the steel frame from the top side.
“The cassettes are also lightweight and ensure simple interchangeability of parts and reduce the number of spares that need to be on site,” said Framework.
To ensure continuity and simplify repair and maintenance, a variant of the timber panels will also be used in the Magnetometer Shaft, a chamber sunk into the ice containing instruments for measuring the Earth’s magnetic field. The panels form the shaft flooring, with walls lined in a two-layer plywood skin: birch-faced internally and standard behind.
Halley VI, which will carry out research into climate change and damage to the ozone layer, is due for handover in 2010.
Keywords: Framework CDm Wright Forest Products Hugh Broughton
