Korean Jang Bogo Research Station Antarctica

Korea is becoming a significant player in Antarctic research and Jang Bogo, by Space Group (South Korea), will be one of the largest year-round bases on the continent when it opens in 2014.

The station’s aerodynamic triple-arm design will provide resistance to the elements and accommodate up to 60 personnel during the busy summer season.

Wrapped in a special aluminum case its extensive glazing offers magnificent panoramic views whilst withstanding powerful winds, below 40 degree Celsius temperatures, blizzards and unfathomable loads.

Located 10,000 miles from the UK on a floating ice shelf, the new station is designed to be self-sufficient, able to withstand freezing winter temperatures of minus 55ºC, have minimal impact on Antarctica’s pristine environment, and be an aesthetically stimulating place to live and work.

Antarctica is Earth’s southernmost continent. It contains the geographic South Pole and is situated in the Antarctic region of the Southern Hemisphere, almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle, and is surrounded by the Southern Ocean.

At 14,000,000 square kilometers (5,400,000 square miles), it is the fifth-largest continent.

For comparison, the continent is nearly twice the size of Australia. The continent is on average, is the coldest, driest, and windiest continent, and has the highest average elevation of all the continents. Antarctica is a desert, with annual precipitation of only 200 mm (8 in) along the coast and far less inland.

The Jang Bogo Station in Terra Nova Bay, Antarctica is a permanent South Korean research station. It is the second base of South Korean Antarctic research mission (after King Sejong Station), and the first that is located in mainland Antarctica.

Completed in February 2014,^[1] the station houses 15 people in winter and 60 in summer in a 4000 square-metre building with three wings, and is one of the larger permanent bases in Antarctica.

The base, named after an eighth-century maritime ruler of Korea, is located in the Ross Dependency and near the Zucchelli Station of Italy.

It was built by Hyundai Engineering and Construction, with material shipped from Busan to Lyttelton, New Zealand for transfer to the new Korean icebreaker, the RS Araon.

For aeronautic operations such as the transport of personnel or cargo, the base is supported by the Italian Antarctic Program using the ice runway operated by Zucchelli Station in Tethys Bay.

e-Architect.com / Crickey Conservation Society 2022.