Priscila Lena Farias / Anna Calvera Marcos da Costa ... - Blucher

The use of ceramics within the signage project in hostile and environmental protected areas: the Keller Peninsula Case
on account of human traffic flow and to grant more safety to users
of the EACF. The project begins by molding a prototype with
ceramics which is to be installed near to the EACF. The prototype
creation takes high wind speeds, low temperatures and maintenance
challenges into account.
The Antarctic continent is known as the superlative territory
(ALVAREZ 1995) because it is considered the most hostile, dried
out and sterile region on surface of the planet.
Aiming at the protection of the Admiralty Bay’s environment, localization
of the Keller Peninsula, a management plan has been
conceived which categorizes the defined place as an Antarctic
special managed area (AAEG). The purpose of such plan is to
minimize and even to avoid environmental impacts, strengthen
support and cooperation amongst nations that operate actively
at the bay and to spare important and historical characteristics
of the original landscape. An AAEG ensures the planning and the
coordination of activities in a specific area, keeping to the lowest
potential interferences and encouraging cooperation amongst
the Antarctic Treaty parties, aiming to minimize environmental
impact above all (ALVAREZ, 2006). The management plan along
with the Antarctic Treaty – most important legal instrument which
regulates every event in that particular region (SCHUCH, 1994)
– and the Madrid Protocol – the set of principals under which
environmental protection in Antarctica is to be regulated – are
clear evidences for the concern of protecting the Antarctic environment,
which should be made an obligation to every project
representing an interference into the environment at any level.
Regarding weather conditions, all research material sources
make exclusive reference to only two different seasons – summer
and winter – inferring that there are no intermediate phases,
as commonly adopted in Brazil and many other countries. According
to Setzer and Romão (2008) air streams that reach the
EACF have different geographic origins, resulting in periods of
higher and lower wind incidence, and a variation of warmer and
colder periods in the year. For instance, the number of events a
year with wind speed higher than 110 km/h dropped from 50
registered cases in 2004 to 17 in 2007; and the annual average
temperature ranged from -0.8°C to -3.5°C in the transition to
2006, which was one of the warmest, to 2007, one of the coldest
years already registered since the EACF.
Based on these data it is possible to comprehend the properties
a material must have to endure the extreme features of
the Antarctic environment. Amongst the properties, some are
highlighted: resistance to corrosion (due to salt air); non-toxic
(in case a signage component loosens up from the ground, it
is not a hazard to the environment), durability and resistance
(minor maintenance cares), flexibility for the shaping of prototypes
(aerodynamic forms to resist the pressure by high wind
speeds) and resistance to drastic temperature changes.
Ceramics has been chosen as the prototypes’ manufacturing
material due to its high degree of elasticity (approx. 45.500kgf/
mm²), property which grants the easy shaping of the prototype,
doing away with industrial production dependency. Further, according
to Ljungberg (2005), ceramics are adequate due to the
fact that it is non-toxic, durable and resistant to corrosion. Anyhow
it is fragile, its manufacturing demands high levels of electricity
consumption and it has low resistance against impact.
3. Goal
The research’s main goal is to verify the ceramics degree of adequacy
as the basic material for the development of tracks and
routes signage project in the Keller Peninsula, Antarctica.
4. Methodology
The methodology of tests management and suitability proofing
of ceramics to the harsh Antarctic landscape conditions are split
into four stages, bearing in mind that this study beholds the results
of the stages I and II.
• Stage I: identification of the ceramics properties in regard to its
resistance, review of literature resources on the Antarctic environment’s
specificities and identification of logistic specificities
concerning the Antarctic Brazilian Program (PROANTAR);
• Stage II: information management (feasibility, environmental
impact, maintenance, and suitability of logistics); Clay
choice, project launching, prototype drafts, clay baking and
finally manufacturing of the first prototype;
• Stage III: technical instructions, pieces manufacturing, assembling
(tests and adjusts), disassembling, technical
changes, strategy of logistics, impacts caused by the assembling
of the pieces, human resources, availability of time and
final results;
• Stage IV: final results evaluation.
5. Prototype manufacturing
5.1. Material
Three distinct types of clay were used within the prototypes’
manufacturing process (fig. 2), being two of them from a local
manual production. They are extracted from the Mulembá Valley
in Vitória (ES), known as Clay Z and Clay S. The codes have been
assigned because these clay types were extracted and cleaned
by two people, named respectively, Zezinho and Sidina. The third
clay type is terracotta with chamote, from the Pascoal company,
produced in São Paulo (SP).
The two native clay types are baked up to1200°C and present
greater flexibility, making the shaping easier. Terracota is different
from types previously mentioned because its material is
Design Frontiers: Territiories, Concepts, Technologies 364