The sub-Antarctic Island of South Georgia sits in one of the most inhospitable areas of the world, surrounded by raging seas. It is ice bound for much of the year and battered by ferocious winds. With a history of exploitation through whaling and sealing leading to decimation of the wildlife populations and near extinctions, conservation of the flora, fauna and historic buildings is now an essential and successful part of the island story.

The landscape and wildlife is recovering with support by a number of agencies working together. These include the Dundee-based South Georgian Heritage Trust (SGHT). SGHT and the Centre for Remote Environments (CRE) at The University of Dundee. Together we developed proposals for a Science and Arts Exhibition showcase in the former Whaling Store. This adds a layer of history to the former whaling station’s Main Store building to showcase:

• the change and successes of conservation work that has been undertaken so far,
• science and conservation projects that are ongoing by CRE, SGHT and The British Antarctic Survey (BAS) and
• a look at what the future holds

This was a particularly wonderful site to visit, and a demanding project – being fabulous to bring all the strong constraints together into a proposal. The weather is very harsh, energy generation opportunities are minimal, the historic building fabric of great value, but in poor condition and the installation requires particular atmospheric conditions. Creating a space that intertwines all of these was a special opportunity – not only because of the beauty of the site and brief, but also the strong historic links through whaling and polar research to our base, here in Dundee.