A golden, three-winged timber research station is nearing completion on King George Island, Antarctica — 14,000 kilometres from Poland, on the frozen shore of Admiralty Bay.

The Henryk Arctowski Polish Antarctic Station, designed by Warsaw-based architecture studio Kuryłowicz + Architects, is being built to replace the country's outdated existing station on the island. Its structural assembly is now finished, according to a June 2026 report, and the project has a planned opening date of February 2027 (Architektura i Biznes; Whitemad).

The building spreads 1,513 square metres across three wings that radiate from a central communal hub. That hub is a double-height, top-lit space containing a library, a gym and a sauna — amenities built for isolation, where 28 researchers will live and work through the Antarctic field seasons (Dezeen).

The structure is prefabricated from mass timber — large engineered-wood panels and beams fabricated off-site and snapped together on location. Steel stilts lift the whole building off the ground, keeping it clear of drifting snow and freezing meltwater. A golden-coloured metal skin wraps the exterior, packed with insulation to hold heat against temperatures that can plunge far below zero. Inside, the timber was sourced from Polish forests (Dezeen).

Building in Antarctica means working against a brutal clock. The entire station was designed to arrive in 113 shipping containers and be assembled within a three-month construction window — the narrow stretch of austral summer when the ground is accessible and daylight holds long enough to pour concrete, crane steel and fix cladding. Engineering firm Buro Happold is involved in the project for the Polish Academy of Sciences (Dezeen; Buro Happold).

Funding was secured by the Polish Ministry of Science and Higher Education. The design won a Silver Medal in the "Future Education Projects" category at the World Architecture News Award 2019, back when it existed only as drawings and renders (APAKA; APAKA).

The station sits roughly 120 kilometres from the Antarctic coast, on the southern part of King George Island — one of the South Shetland Islands and home to research bases operated by several nations. Poland's original Arctowski station has operated there since 1977.

For the scientists who will eventually move in, the new building doubles the comfort of the old one. For everyone else, it is a reminder that some of the most ambitious architecture on Earth is being built at the ends of it.