Antarctica is architecture’s last frontier. One man is designing more of it than anyone else | CNN

Few living architects can claim, in good faith, to have shaped the character of a whole neighborhood, let alone a city or country. Yet, on a landmass around 40% larger than Europe, one man has exerted an outsize influence on the architecture of an entire continent. Antarctica is home to over 70 permanent research stations — and 61-year-old Hugh Broughton has worked on more of them than anyone else. His eponymous firm has designed scientific facilities for the UK and Spain, developed proposals for South Korea, India and Brazil, and worked with Australia and New Zealand to redevelop their polar bases. His distinctly space-age aesthetic, born of necessity in one of the world’s most unforgiving environments, is now arguably the continent’s prevailing architectural style. “I think our coverage of Antarctica is pretty good — certainly more than anyone else in the world,” said Broughton in his 16-person London office, almost 10,000 miles from the South Pole, before modestly caveating the claim: “You could call us the continent’s most prolific architects. But I don’t think it would make my head swell too much, because there’s probably only two or three others in the gam

May 25, 2026 → May 25, 2026