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Abstract
Antarctica is considered as an analogue for extra-terrestrial environments. Architecture located within these milieus exists in the realm of biopolitics, a term that denotes a certain power or control over life, necessary in such inhospitable conditions. The geodesic dome has featured at the South Pole and in outer space as an architecture and an architectural typology, both built and speculated upon, referring to “closed-world” environments. The geodesic dome, closely associated with architect, Buckminster Fuller, is a manifestation of ecological thinking that reached beyond terrestrial boundaries. Fuller’s theories altered the way in which humankind’s physiological relationship to the world and to space was understood. This paper considers the geodesic domes of outer space and on the South Pole from an architectural and cultural perspective, informed by architectural analysis and interpretive studies of written and visual resources. It explores the relationship between the speculative geodesic domes in outer space and the built terrestrial geodesic domes, specifically the former South Pole Dome in Antarctica. Connections between the domes in the two environments are explored through Fuller’s thinking and appropriated cultural layering. This research expands our understanding of the intersection of biopolitics and geodesic domes in Antarctica and outer space.
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank Prof. Dr. Stephen Loo for his invaluable comments on earlier drafts of this paper. We would also like to express our gratitude to the two anonymous reviewers whose comments and suggestions helped to improve and add clarity to this paper.
Notes
1 Edmondson, A Fuller Explanation, 258.
2 The recent decade shows an increasing involvement of architects in the design of Antarctic stations. Examples are: the US Amundsen–Scott South Pole Station (2008) by Ferraro Choi, the Belgium Princess Elisabeth Station (2009) by the International Polar Foundation, the Indian station Bharati (2012) by Bof Architekten/IMS, the British station Halley VI (2013) by Hugh Broughton Architects and the South Korean station Jang Bogo (2014) by Space Group.
3 Slavid, Ice Station, 9. The “featureless” nature of Antarctica is discussed.
4 Cohen, “Full Scale Architectural Simulation Research for Space Station Freedom and Exploration,” 542–51.
5 Kennedy, “Inflatable Habitats Technology Development,” 64–76.
6 Nixon et al., “Space Station Wardroom Habitability and Equipment Study,” NASA.
7 For a transhistorical study of architecture and its definition see Parcell, Four Historical Definitions of Architecture. (accessed June 14, 2017).
8 A geodesic dome is a network of intersecting lines forming triangular rigid elements on the surface of a spherical construction. The word “geodesic”, originating from Latin, signifies earth-dividing and refers to the shortest distance between two points on the surface of a sphere; useful in measuring horizontal distances on the Earth’s surface.
9 Grey ed., Space Manufacturing Facilities (Space Colonies).
10 The first geodesic dome was the Zeiss Planetarium built by Walther Bauersfeld in Jena, Germany in 1922.
11 Krausse and Lichtenstein, Your Private Sky: Discourse, 229.
12 Anker, “Buckminster Fuller as Captain of Spaceship Earth,” 424.
13 References to a list of publications: Krausse and Lichtenstein, Your Private Sky; Edmondson, A Fuller Explanation; Baldwin, Bucky Works; Zung, Buckminster Fuller; Chu and Trujillo, New Views on R. Buckminster Fuller; Anker, From Bauhaus to Ecohouse; Wigley, Buckminster Fuller Inc.
14 Krausse and Lichtenstein eds. Your Private Sky, 38.
15 Skrydstrup, “Of spheres and squares.”
16 Spiller, Frontiers for the American Century, 65.
17 Messeri, “We Need to Stop Talking About Space as a Frontier.” (accessed June 14, 2017).
18 Launius, “Establishing open rights in the Antarctic and outer space,” 217; mentions this “emptiness” as the basis for treaties involving outer space and Antarctica.
19 Messeri, Placing Outer Space, 47.
20 Brand, Space Colonies, 42.
21 Collis and Stevens, “Cold Colonies,” 237.
22 Ibid, 238.
23 Clancy et al., Mapping Antarctica: A Five Hundred Year Record of Discovery, 70. “Ptolemy retained the classical Greek concept of a balanced globe with a massive Antarctic continent reaching to within 15 degrees of latitude of the equator, forming a bridge between Africa and Asia and enclosing the Indian ocean”.
24 “4.0 Antarctica Past and Present.”
25 Siddiqi, Challenge to Apollo.
26 Spiller, Frontiers for the American Century.
27 Launius, “The Antarctic and Outer Space Treaties after the Cold War.”
28 The word “dome” originates from the Latin word “Domus” and the Greek word “Domos” which both signify terms house and home; a space which serves to protect human life.
29 Lerup, After the City, 37.
30 Geometry, as a theoretical discipline, is applied to understand the world around us and through which we can experience what is outside the realm of human experience, by making the invisible visible.
31 Pérez-Gómez, Architecture and the Crisis of Modern Science, 11. “Around 1800 a second great transformation took place. Faith and reason were truly divorced. Geometry and mathematics were now purely formal disciplines, devoid of meaning, value, or power except as instruments, as tools of technological intentionality”.
32 A sphere is a “round solid figure, with every point on its surface equidistant from its centre”. Considering all forms with an equal volume, the sphere has a minimum of surface and in its physical form the lowest surface tension. The most energetically efficient shape becomes, as nature shows, from cellular scale to planetary scale, spherical. Sphere originates from the “Sphaira” which means ball, globe, and in Latin “Sphaera” which indicates ball, celestial sphere, and globe.
33 The Geographic South Pole is one of the two rotation points of the earth and is related to its corresponding celestial pole. In geometry any arbitrary straight line, as an axis through a sphere’s centre, defines two oppositional points on the surface of a sphere: the poles.
34 Krausse and Lichtenstein, Your Private Sky, 327–8.
35 The term radome is a portmanteau of the words radar and dome.
36 Soojung-Kim Pang, “Dome Days,” 172.
37 Ibid., 183–92.
38 The concave structure of the dome functions as an interior reflector helping to generate natural airflows inside, while the minimal surface area prevents overheating or undercooling.
39 Soojung-Kim Pang, “Dome Days,” 192.
40 Meadows, The Limits to Growth.
41 Carson, et al., Silent Spring.
42 Anker, “The closed world of ecological architecture,” 527–52.
43 Kallipoliti, “Closed Worlds,” 67–90.
44 Following papers describe research outlining the suitability of the geodesic dome structure for use in space. Miller, A Study of Structural Concepts for Ultralightweight Spacecraft; Final Report, 1984; Nayfeh, Geometric Modelling and Analysis of Large Latticed Surface, NASA Technical Report, 1980.
45 Puttkamer, “Developing Space Occupancy.”
46 The US pavilion for the Montreal World Expo in 1967 facilitated the exhibition: Destination: Moon, with a simulated outer space terrain for training, together with mock-ups and used modules of former space missions.
47 An example that precedes Fuller’s geodesic dome in an exposition context is Joseph Paxton’s Crystal Palace (1851), created for the Great Exhibition in London, and an example that succeeds it can be found in the Palais de l’Industrie of the Universal Exhibition (1855) in Paris. The Paris Exhibition of 1867 continued this trend of consistent improvements to spans and volumes of exhibition spaces through technological developments.
48 Turner, “R. Buckminster Fuller,” 146–59.
49 Scott, Architecture or techno-utopia, 10.
50 Ibid., 11.
51 Involved with the R&D process of the radomes were Signal Corps Engineering Labs, Lincoln Labs and Bell Labs. Mark Wigley, Buckminster Fuller Inc., 198–202. The actual construction of the DEW line was in hands of Western Electric. See Lajeunesse, “The Distant Early Warning Line and the Canadian battle for public perception,” 56.
52 Nieboer, “The South Pole Dome: An Architect’s Perspective” (paper presented at the SCAR Open Science Conference, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, August 22–26, 2016).
53 Ibid.
54 Frampton, Modern Architecture, 281.
55 Krausse and Lichtenstein, Your Private Sky, 35.
56 Caluwaerts, “Design and Control.”
57 SunSpiral, et al., “Super Ball Bot.”
58 Morowitz cited in: Macy and Bonnemaison, Architecture and Nature, 340.
59 Fuller, Operating Manual for Spaceship Earth.
60 “The Antarctic Treaty.”
61 Spiller, Frontiers for the American Century, 57.
62 101.01 def. of Synergetics in Fuller and Applewhite, Synergetics.
63 Fuller, Nine Chains to the Moon.
64 Architects that were influenced included the New Alchemists, Alexander Pike and John Frazer and Ken Yeang increasingly looked at buildings as closed ecological systems.
65 Fuller, “Fluid Geography,” 119–36.
66 Anker, From Bauhaus to Ecohouse, 70.
67 Fuller, “Life presents R. Buckminster Fuller’s Dymaxion World,” 41–55.
68 Macy and Bonnemaison, Architecture and Nature, 313.
69 “Readers were able to arrange the pieces of Fuller’s map so that the ‘North Pole layout,’ ‘Mercator’s World,’ (around the equator), the ‘British Empire,’ ‘Hitler’s Heartland Concept,’ or the ‘Japanese Empire’ would emerge”. in Anker, From Bauhaus to Ecohouse, 70.
70 Leslie, “Energetic Geometries,” 161–70.
71 Krausse, “Bauen von Weltbildern,” 66.
72 Fuller, Utopia or Oblivion, 431.
73 Anker, From Bauhaus to Ecohouse, 72.
74 Anker, “The Ecological Colonization of Space,” 240.
75 Spiller, Frontiers for the American Century, 11. Discusses the military–industry complex as public–private collaborations with the US military forming “America’s powerful science and engineering networks” that is defined by Stewart W. Leslie as “military-industrial-academic complex.”
76 This period saw many significant and influential publications that informed the relationship of the environment and control including Jane Jacob’s The Death and Life of Great American Cities (1961), Paul Ehrlich’s Population Bomb (1968), and the Meadows’ Limits of Growth (1972).
77 Anker, “The Closed World of Ecological Architecture,” 528.
78 Chermayeff and Alexander, Community and Privacy.
79 Anker, “The Closed World of Ecological Architecture,” 528.
80 Ibid., 529.
81 Krausse and Lichtenstein. Your Private Sky, 33. Already since 1951, Fuller would use the term “Spaceship Earth” to communicate his understanding of the planet as an enclosed spaceship.
82 Anker, “The Closed World of Ecological Architecture,” 528.
83 Brown, “Regenerative Systems,” 83.
84 Scott, “Lesser Worlds.”
85 Ibid.
86 Ibid.
87 Myers, “Introductory Remarks,” 409–11.
88 Canguilhem, Knowledge of Life, 117.
89 Scott, “Lesser Worlds.”
90 Canguilhem, The Normal and the Pathological, 130.
91 Canguilhem, Knowledge of Life, 113.
92 Kallipoliti, “Closed Worlds,” 74.
93 Merchant, “The Death of Nature,” 38.
94 Agamben, Homo Sacer, 4.
95 Ibid., 8.
96 Foucault, Society Must be Defended, 245.
97 Ibid., 247.
98 Fuller, Operating Manual for Spaceship Earth.
99 Wigley, Buckminster Fuller Inc., 92.
100 Fuller, “Earth Inc.,” 145–56.
101 The United States Antarctic Program. U.S. Antarctic Program Participant Guide, 2016–2018; Chapter 2: Before You Leave Home. The guide outlines rigorous medical and dental examinations before going to the Antarctic. https://www.usap.gov/USAPgov/travelAndDeployment/documents/ParticipantGuide-Chapter2.pdf (accessed on 20 June 2017).
102 National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Astronaut Selection and Training.
103 Legler, On the Ice, 105.
104 The United States Antarctic Program. Famous Firsts.
105 NASA, Behavioral, Psychiatric, and Sociological Problems of Long-Duration Space Missions.
106 Shaw and Humm. Radical Space, 183.
107 Jerri Nielsen, Ice Bound. Medical doctor Jerri Nielsen wintered at the South Pole in 1999. After a self-administered biopsy she was diagnosed with breast cancer. Chemotherapy medication was airdropped by an emergency flight and Nielsen was airlifted from the South Pole weeks before official flight schedule reopened.
108 Nielsen, Ice Bound, 49.
109 Curtis, “South Pole Dome” 16.
110 For a detailed summary of NASA’s Environmental Control and Life Support System (ECLSS) and its functioning aboard the ISS; https://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/104840main_eclss.pdf (accessed on 26 June 2017).
111 Jones, “The Life Cycle Cost (LCC) of Life Support Recycling and Resupply.”
112 Law et al. “Relationship Between Carbon Dioxide Levels and Reported Headaches on the International Space Station.”
113 Kallipoliti, “Closed Worlds,” 79.
114 Fuller, Operating Manual for Spaceship Earth.
115 There has been contemporary usage of the geodesic dome depicting for habitats in National Geographic’s 2016 Mars television series and as agricultural production facilities in the science fiction television series The Expanse, though these can be understood as recycled ideas with their roots in the 1960s and 1970s.
116 Frampton, Modern Architecture, 9.
117 There has been a resurgence in realising a human presence in space with the Chinese planning to develop a station on the Moon and Mars now a destination for NASA and SpaceX. David, “China's Moon-Sampling Mission Targeted for November.” Korosec, “SpaceX and NASA Are Looking for Places to Land on Mars.”
118 Spiller, “Scientific Exploration in Antarctica as an Analogy for American Spaceflight,” 190.
119 Jencks, The Language of Postmodern Architecture, 9. The destruction of a large-scale social housing project, the Pruitt-Igoe building (1972), became emblematic for the failure of modern architecture to exert as a “social condenser”, control over the population.