The Race to Build in Antarctica

right now there's a construction boom taking place in one of the most unlikely parts of the world Antarctica the coldest windiest driest and somehow wetest continent in the world it is without a doubt the harshest environment known to man temperatures can drop to a Grizzly - 89° c wind speeds can exceed 200 mph and during winter parts of the continent can be submerged in 6 months of Darkness to travel here to live here you have to be brave there's no question about that and yet surprisingly the constant has a population of about 5,000 people in the summer and around 1,000 in the winter there are actually towns with bars and shops and even little Cinemas there is life here and it's growing construction is reaching an all-time high across the continent right now these settlements are mostly populated by scientists doing extraordinary work but that might be about to change you see in early 2024 Russian geologists found what looks to be like massive reserves of oil the reserves uncovered contain around 511 billion barrels worth of oil that equates to around 10 times the north Sea's entire output over the last 50 years and more than twice that of all of Saudi Arabia it's a discovery that has put this icy continent on edge since 1961 the country is laying claim to Antarctica have peacefully agreed to preserve the land for scientific research this treaty dictates that no military bases or oil operations can take place here but that agreement is set to expire by 2048 and we're already seeing some of those countries attempt to secure their claims through settlements construction projects and even babies so are we about to see a Scramble for the last continents Our Story begins with Nazis during World War II Germany sent expeditions to Antarctica and attempts to established a secret military base there as you can imagine Britain and America soon followed Suits now there are a number of colorful conspiracy theories on the internet as to what all these operations were up to what we do know is that in 1958 America detonated three nuclear weapons in the region kind of became obvious that Antarctica could be used as a porn in the growing C War to prevent this the 12 countries that lay claim to the continent agreed to a treaty and it's more or less stayed the same way ever since with each country claiming its own little slice there are now seven countries that won a piece of the pie Argentina Australia Chile France New Zealand Norway and the UK while America has its own research base now it should be noted that while the treaty is recognized internationally these claims are not and they remain contested this SCE over here you may notice has a few countries laying claim Argentina the UK and Chile have all marked this spot as their own and as these things tend to go this is where the oil's been discovered but we'll get to that in a moment to build anything in Antarctica takes an enormous strength of will this is an environment that really doesn't want us there and yet The Architects and Engineers who work down here to construct new buildings are busier than ever I have been working on projects in Antarctica for 20 years I've been twice with the British program once with the Spanish program twice with the New Zealand program and once with the Australian program there was another big building spree in like the late 80s and '90s and we're experiencing the same again now for the last few years the British Antarctic Survey has been undergoing a massive effort to update their existing infrastructure while you and I might wonder who in their right mind would want to spend 3 to 15 months at a time down here and anartica is full of scientists doing just that and they're achieving some remarkable things I remember seeing the first Iceberg on our first voyage and and the excitement that sent through the whole ship and then approaching the station and being on the peninsula was just a fantastic experience and I'm looking forward to going back again scientists here are the ones that discovered the hole in the ozone layer they are continually learning about the rapid effects of climate change obviously Antarctica is like a kind of thermometer around the world and a lot of the Key signs of climate change are witnessed in the Antarctic and of course they study the [Music] Penguins it's enough to make you forget the potential nation building amount of wealth that could be at stake under the ice enough to create a new generation of billionaires who will no doubt look for places to invest and grow that money a 2024 Bank America study found that 83% of young wealthy investors currently own art for investment purposes or would like to in fact the B&M subscribers have already been able to easily invest in Blue Chip art themselves thanks to our longtime video sponsor Masterworks is Art investing platform they've sold pieces from artists like Banky warhole and most recently an $8 million basar painting across their 23 exits investors have 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io an regulation A disclosures over at masterworks. io [Music] walking between the buildings so the discovery building replaces all of those with one big much larger structure and it just makes the whole experience more collaborative this is the UK's largest research station on Antarctica and includes a scientific Workshop a medical center operations Hub and even a gym with a climbing wall but the discovery building didn't actually begin its journey in Antarctica it was first built on the other side of the world in t-port there's really no room for error when it comes to building in this location if you're missing a piece you can't simply go around the corner to your local hardware shop every piece of material and Equipment has to be painstakingly checked and then carefully shipped to Antarctica so it's quite a challenge to get all of the materials that we need to Antarctica so that planning um prior to going down to Station and making sure we've got everything we need and some spurs to go along with it is so important it's why nearly all of the buildings there there are prefabricated think of them like Ikea flat packs this means that buildings can be constructed and tested in the UK before they get shipped over you see everything's initially built here it's then trialed improved on broken down before being put on an enormous containership and sent halfway around the world now to get to Rother where the British base is these ships have to cross the dreaded Southern Ocean the Southern Ocean is easily the most dangerous in the world this is because it's the only ocean that goes completely around the globe uninterrupted by land it creates a swirling mass of water with winds that can reach up to 70 knots causing the largest waves on the planet hitting an iceberg in that weather is catastrophic and because of its climate and location icebergs can form here at any time of the year all of that accumulates over here in the Drke Passage between South America's Cape Horn and the South Shetland Islands in some areas water currents flow as fast as 150 million cubic m a second making it the most volumous dangerous current in the world once the ships finally dock at rothera workers only have 6 months to assemble the buildings there's literally no time for mistakes or delays Beyond April the amount of daylight reduces dramatically and temperatures drop regularly below freezing the sea ice then begins to form and no new ships can come to the station meanwhile all flights already stopped going out by about mid March at this point it's almost impossible for anyone to get to or leave this continent R research station is on an island sea ice forms around it that we can't um Traverse through the buildings themselves of course have got to withstand extreme weather conditions temperatures can drop very suddenly often Landing at- 35° C snowfall can often exceed the depth of a single story while wind speeds can reach 38 m a second with gusts up to 45 m a second it's no surprise then that retaining heat is the primary focus of these structures the external cladding of the discovery building for example has to include thermal brakes and vibration dampers we then look at systems to make sure that they can be as airtight as possible so panels pull hard against each other but with really good compressible seals within to make sure that there's no path for the cold to get into the building many of the buildings in Antarctica are also to divided into zones and have sensors detecting when people are there rooms that are empty are then winterized and have their heat shut off or lowered to conserve energy there are also ventilation systems that recover heat from warm dirty air so during the summer we'll have in excess of 160 people on station but during the winter that'll go down to about 25 you don't want to be heating areas that are not in use there's still some really talented people maintaining the buildings you generally have a generator mechanic probably uh a plumber an electrician uh maybe even a builder but if something significant goes wrong you need to be able to survive and it could be for many months until you're rescued so that's why in most of these stations it's still important that there is more than one building cuz essentially you need one to be your Lifeboat that resilience underpins all of the design in Antarctica to fight the wind the discovery building is secured to the ground with 71 anchors it's also orientated in an East West axis to maximize the scour from the predominant northeasterly winds these winds are then deflected along the curved steel of the Southern Roof down to the sheltered side of the building where they actually help to clear snow it joins a number of other settlements across the continent the biggest of which is America's McMurdo Station situated on the heart Point peninsula of Ross Island in the Ross sea this complex has more than 80 buildings housing some 1,200 people it really is like a small town with shops and bars and there's camaraderie between the various bases kiwis from the New Zealand Scot base frequently make the trip to the US base to watch movies and Joint book clubs the Antarctic Community is is a great community and everyone does interact between stations and shares a lot of their knowledge and experience now when news of Russia discovery of oil hits Chile alerted its Defense Forces and held a security meeting at its base in Antarctica Chile along with Argentina have been steadily building up their bases on the continent over the last few decades as well to show up their claims to this piece of land 11 babies have been born in Antarctica between both countries the first back in 1978 mining of any kind is banned in Antarctica under the environmental protocol but like the treaty that is up for review in 2048 regardless we are definitely seeing a booming construction across the continent the booming construction is orchestrated by a number of factors the the first one is that there is a sort of 40-year cycle on buildings buildings just don't last as long as they would in a more temperate environment there's obviously also an element of geopolitical interest in Antarctica and we're seeing a lot of new nations developing stations at the moment alongside those that have been there for the last 70 or 80 years the Antarctic treaty which protects Antarctica and to which all the nations that operate in the Antarctica are signatories too and that that ensures peaceful activity it ensures a focus on science but you know the world changes people have different interests there have been some challenging sessions and certainly all the countries that we work with are very aware of that geopolitics is has probably always been there I think it's a little bit more heightened at the moment and certainly all the countries that we work with are very aware of that while Antarctica may seem like a desolate Wasteland to the most of us the continent's actually been inhabited for centuries Antarctica is a beautiful Sanctuary for this wildlife and it deserves to be protected we all know what can happen when countries begin vying for oil and it's clear we need to trade really carefully when it comes to the last continent every time you go it's totally magic and that first time when you step off the plane or step off the ship you just like look around in awe cuz it's just such a majestic environment I think one of the things I've always admired about Antarctica is the collaborative Spirit of all the people who work there and there have been countries that have been either at war with each other but in Antarctica they've continued to support each other helped when someone's been sick helped with a rescue you see the best of humankind in Antarctica now will that continue I mean who can know if it does continue and it provides a fantastic focal point for the rest of the world to understand how people can get on in the face of extremity if they really want to the coming decades may very well see even more construction projects take place as the seven countries that want Antarctica race to secure their claim whoever wins this continent is certain to change forever this video was brought to you by Masterworks you can learn more about that at the link in the description don't forget that we're raising awareness of construction's Mental Health crisis and supporting charities in this space through our get construction talking initiative there's a video series on our Channel and you can find support or donate over at get construction talk.