Arctic Exploration & Research Archives

Fabric Structures Dining Facility Cafeteria

Rethinking Dining Facilities – Alternative Solutions With Fabric Building Systems

When designing buildings for your mining or research sites, it’s important to include a building for dining. Workers need a place, protected from the elements, to eat and relax while they work long hours. Fabric buildings are a great option when designing mess halls for your staff. Workers will be safe in a fabric building from Alaska Structures, because they receive testing to ensure they are durable. They can withstand extreme weather like traditional buildings, but require less time and labor, making them cheaper to set up. There are other benefits to using a fabric structure besides cost and easy setup. Learn more about how to use fabric structures for cost effective dining space for your workers.

Rotomold molded plastic shipping containers and cases.

Portable Fabric Buildings

Alaska Structures® products are designed for long-lasting, rugged durability — we create high-quality fabric buildings that utilize compact-packing methods, reducing the overall logistical burden and cost for shipping a prefabricated building solution to remote locations. We can achieve this since we engineer our fabric buildings…

Mineral exploration drilling cores strage in fabric structure.

The Benefits of Engineered Fabric Structures for Extreme Weather Research Facilities

Researchers often work in the harshest climates and conditions to help us better understand the world around us. As they find solutions to our worldly issues, they need the support of strong research facilities to do their work. With new technology, fabric buildings are stronger and more durable than in the past, with comparable strength to brick-and-mortar buildings. Two major benefits of using fabric structures are that they are very fast and easy to setup, and are portable. There are of course other benefits of fabric structures, including tested strength in harsh climates. Whether research operations are in the middle of the jungle or Antarctica, Alaska Structures fabric buildings can support the operation.

SQX-series Quonset Hut Fabric Shelter Camp.

Engineered Fabric Building Applications: How to Use Fabric Buildings

One of the major benefits of fabric buildings is that they are so versatile; fabric buildings are useful in many different situations. From government agencies to private businesses, many trust Alaska Structures’ fabric buildings to carry out their work operations. These fabric buildings can withstand harsh conditions and undergo careful testing from third-party engineers to ensure the products quality. Fabric buildings can be useful in any one of these situations: polar camps, aircraft hangars, oil and gas operations, mining, emergency housing systems, and recreational buildings. These buildings can work for more industries and operations than ones previously mentioned and their applications are nearly endless.

Guide to Workforce Accommodations in Remote Locations

Work sites in the mining, mineral exploration, oil and gas, construction, natural resources, and research industries are often located in remote areas that tend to have harsh climates and less than optimum conditions. Such work sites tend to be geographically isolated, and not easily accessed…

Sustainability in Polar Research

Designing facilities to accommodate personnel for research and lodging in the brutal conditions of the Arctic and Antarctic presents some unique challenges. Frigid cold, ever-piling snow drifts, and violently powerful winds are just a few of the more obvious obstacles. These challenges, however, must be…

Fabric structures at arctic research camp.

The Not So Pristine State of McMurdo Research Station in Antarctica

Many aren’t familiar with the McMurdo Research Station or the work scientists do there. Founded in 1956, McMurdo Station is the leading data center in Antarctica. However, recently the focus on McMurdo is on it’s deteriorating condition. There is a plan to update the entire station, however construction will affect the scientists’ ability to work. While buildings get updates, scientists will be left with no place to carry out their research, thus delaying their work. Planners must find solutions to update the buildings while allowing the scientists to do their research. One possible solution is to use fabric structures as temporary research facilities.

Benefits and Applications of the Quonset Hut Design

Quonset Huts got their first use in navy operations during World War II. Named for the Naval Air Station where the hut first appeared, it can serve a variety of purposes today. These hooped buildings serve housing needs, workshops, mining operations and research camps, and more. There is a variety of benefits to using Quonset Huts in private and public business operations. These benefits include cost savings, flexible design, customization, durability, easy and fast set up, and effective use of space. In addition to operational benefits, these huts have less environmental impact than traditional buildings. Alaska Structures designs huts that will maximize energy efficiency and eliminate wastes.

Tension fabric buildings used at mining site.

Advantages of Fabric Buildings vs Traditional Construction Methods

If the children’s story The Three Little Pigs were written today, the smart pig would have made his home with a fabric building. He had to sacrifice time and fun to build a strong home that would protect him from the big bad wolf. His brothers however, unwilling to sacrifice fun or spend much on materials lost their homes to a huff and a buff. A fabric building would allow the smart pig (and site managers) to not compromise time for strength and vice versa. There are many advantages fabric buildings have over traditional buildings. In addition to faster setup, fabric buildings are more cost-effective, portable, low-maintenance, and easy to change. They also aren’t limited to one surface type and allow plenty of natural light. A fabric building surely, would outlast a huff and a puff with all these benefits.

XPL-series Quick Erect Fabric Shelter Frame.

New Portable Survival Structures for the 21st Century

Our way of life was made possible through exploration, travelling to new sites and settling there. The pioneers of this country had to survive through tough conditions, with shelters inferior to what we have today. Fabric building systems can now offer more protection and rival standard structures when it comes to cost and convenience. These structures are faster and easier to setup without compromising strength and durability. Alaska Structures designs fabric buildings that can withstand very harsh conditions, such as the extreme climates or arctic and desert regions. Third-party engineers test the fabric buildings to ensure their lasting power, which is vital in survival situations.

Industrial warehouse fabric building in the arctic.

Fabric Buildings & Energy Efficiency

You may have your operations housed in an old building, wasting energy and driving up costs due to poor insulation, etc. Before you begin upgrades, it’s important to explore all your options for repairing an old structure or building a new one. Sometimes repairing an old structure can be just as expensive as building a new one, and both take a lot of time. Another option is to use a fabric building to support your operations, as they are fast and easy to setup. In addition, they are typically less costly than upgrades or a building a brick-and-mortar structure. Alaska Structures designs fabric structures with a host of benefits and ways to save and increase energy efficiency.

GBX gable buildings temporarily used for housing in remote camp in Alaska.

Fabric Buildings vs. ISO Containers

ISO shipping containers provide a way for intermodal transport, shipping items from the ship to the rails and then to trucks. This versatility doesn’t translate to housing and camping, however some commercial and governmental operations use them for this purpose. Imagine trying to sleep or work inside a metal crate with no windows or insulation. Those aren’t optimal conditions to live or work in. A better option for a camp system would be a fabric structure, designed to house people and equipment. Factors that make fabric structures a better option are safety, shipping costs, portability, construction costs, versatility, and energy efficiency.