The Arctic Analyzation Center - Research & Residence in the Arctic

Hello everybody, my name is Lorik Asani. My experience regarding CAD and the Autodesk platform happened very recently, only starting this year as I took a mandatory Computer Aided Design class. Ever since then however, I have fell in love with the craft, freedom to create and challenges along with it. I started like how everybody in my class does, by learning Autodesk AutoCad. This was a fun introduction into what CAD would be like, and I quickly developed a lot of works and became AutoCad certified. Once everything to learn within AutoCad was taught, we then had the option to choose between one of three 3D modeling softwares, Revit, Inventor or Blender. I was pivoting between these choices for many days, but eventually decided to stay within the Autodesk software family, dedicating myself to learn Inventor. I started with simpler projects, such as toys (Fidget Spinners) and simple furniture (Chairs and whatnot). Once I felt more confident in my abilities however, I picked up my most challenging project up until then, a biomedical heart valve. I worked countless hours trying to develop my mechanics and brainstorm about the design, and became very happy with all the progress within my CAD career, highlighted in a portfolio of work.

When trying to decide my next order of work, I was introduced to this competition from my CAD teacher, who told us about the details and benefits of the contest. He mentioned not only the things we could win, but also the real-world application of the creation of a habitat, and it immediately struck my attention. As the school year would come to an end, I decided to dedicate myself to solely trying to make the best possible habitat I could, and this is the process and culmination of it all. I hope you enjoy!

To make this habitat you need a computer and 4 softwares:

• AutoDesk Inventor (For Part Creation)
• AutoDesk Fusion 360 (For Total Assembly)
• AutoDesk TinkerCad (For Initial Visualization)
• PhotoShop (For photo/graphic creation & editing)

*All students get these 4 softwares for free, so anyone can feel free to create their own work*

There are already various shelters, hotels, hostels and more across the world, all designed to house people in different circumstances. I very well could have made a huge extravagant building equipped with a ton of entertainment and more, but instead chose to do another approach. I wanted to create something that not only could house people, but can be used as a vessel to learn more about our world, and study some issues that may affect us in the future. I was in between an underwater station, desert habitat or an Arctic center. I eventually settled on the latter as climate change and its effect on ocean level, the atmosphere and more is all so important to us now and later on in life, for generations to come. I took inspiration from geodesic centers across the globe, as after some research, found out that they are a lot more energy and space efficient, which is a must in this environment. A center that exhibits some of my ideas is the U.S. South Pole Station. Unlike this station however, which is burrowed underground, I intended to make it above ground, utilizing both the unique environment and access to resources for some interesting purposes, which will be expanded upon later.

But what will separate this center from the thousands upon thousands of existing ones, and hundreds upon hundreds of those that are geodesic as well? This center, which is appropriately named the Arctic Analyzation Center, will incorporate the surroundings only found in the unique climate of the Arctic to support itself and discover more about the this area of the planet. Being in the Arctic is a very special place to hold a center, for a few reasons. 1, the flatness lends itself to a very windy area, meaning wind power could be utilized extremely effectively. 2, water is close and plentiful, meaning that if a way of making the water safe for use was created, it could be harvested for many purposes.

Why does this all matter? The reason it does is because the goal of this center is to be long lasting with the intention of allowing a prolonged period of study, and to comfortably hold human life. If this is to be done, the center has to be self-sustaining, and the access this location has to the things around it will allow for just that. This isn’t just a temporary standing dome that will get packed up in 2 months time, however, this is a long-lasting hub designed to keep people comfortable, and allow them to learn more about our planet. On that note, the AAC (Arctic Analyzation Center) in addition to supporting itself will feature separate residential and research domes as well!

Before my actual construction begins however, I decided to visualize how I wanted the final product to look in TinkerCad. Here you can see the 3 separate domes I planned to make, and how I planned to connect all of them. The first picture is what I would want the final result to be based off, and the 3 supporting photos are the Self-Sustainability, Residential and Research subareas respectively.

• The Self-Sustainability Center (SSC) is the most prevalent of all of the domes, so I placed some extra emphasis on it. If you look at it's corresponding photo, you can see the 2 subdivided rooms, one that is going to house the Desalination (Water Cleansing) System, and the other to keep wind turbines secure with the goal to channel a sustainable energy form that way. The detailing of the boxes and "star-poles" are very minimal, but it showcases the desired organization of the whole thing.

• The second individual dome is the living center of the AAC. The 3 different shapes present in it are meant to represent 3 essential things needed to comfortably live, a bedroom, living room and kitchen. This can be seen by the large rectangle, smaller rectangle and house like structure. In a similar light to the SSC, the details here are small as its purpose is to merely show off the broad features of the dome.

• The third and final dome is the Research Facility. Here, there is a large state of the art television screen perfect for looking at and utilizing data. Also present are a few computer stations on the side, which will be used for personal work and projects alike.

Every single one of these domes will be interconnected with one another via the pipe-like entrance on the side. The AAC is meant to be a modular habitat that relies on every single dome to work, so making sure I successfully visualize the schematics and look of it is crucial. By taking the time to make this step, future processes will be made a lot more manageable as I'll have a sort of "blueprint" to base future decisions on.

Actual Dome Construction:

The absolute very beginning of the actual 3D modeling aspect of this habitat would be the actual construction of the modular domes. The making of it was pretty simple, just simple revolving, extruding and constraining, but it is the basis for all future creation within the habitat. To make it, I started out with a simple 50 foot radius circle, meaning that when fully constructed the diameter would be 100 feet. From there, I split the circle a 1/4 of its original size, and here’s why: The dome was meant to be a semi circle (as seen above), meaning I had to cut half of it off. Then, being as I planned to revolve this shape around a line, I had to then cut that 1/2 into a 1/4, so when fully revolved around a tangent line 360 degrees it perfectly created a 3 dimensional semi-circle. There's one little step in between that revolution however. I intended for this dome to be hollow (As it has to be able to fit equipment and people; not just be a solid figure of glass), so before it was time to revolve, I just offset the whole shape by a foot (Standard width of a wall made of Sheetrock), meaning that when it came time to revolve I revolved the thickness of the outside of the dome rather than the whole dome shape itself. This would lead to a nice hollow dome with a big shape, perfect for habitual living and study.

Doorways For the Domes:

Now that I had I had the domes made, I needed to find a way to connect all of them. If you refer to above, my original idea was to have the domes assembled in a triangle, but I instead decided to switch into a line-like arrangement. I did this mostly so that when you are on the outside, it would be easy to tell which dome you were looking at and know where to go if you needed to be somewhere else. To actually make these holes in the dome, I started by offsetting a plane just tangent on the outside of the domes. I created an arc approximately ~9 feet tall and ~12 feet long, meaning there would be no issue getting in or out of the domes (Even if you were the tallest man alive). Once I had my general shape, I cut these shapes into the outside of my dome, and the result was the 5th picture you can see. This would be great for the first and last dome in the line, but the middle would need two holes on either side so that you can access both rooms next to it. This was an easy fix however, as I just saved another copy of the domes with one hole, and repeated the process I just talked about once more to create the double sided home. Now, all I needed was a means of connection

Tunnel Connection:

The last step needed was a tunnel or tube connecting these open holes on each dome. To do this, I went into the side view of the dome and sketched out the side frame of the open path. Once I had this shape, I drew a little hallway coming out from the inclined sketch you can see in the last photo. I felt 15 feet was a good length for this. Lastly, I mirrored the original sketch I had regarding the end-side of the tube to the other side, so I had my final silhouette. I did the same offset technique as earlier to make the tunnel hollow, extruding it the width of the doorway and constrained it to fit all holes. The domes were complete.

Planning out Dimensions + Utility:

• To start making this piece, I got familiar with the look and purpose of the desalinization systems currently out in the market. Keep in mind that this piece is going to be a lot larger than most, as it will need to harness water to satiation and food sustainability, so most dimensions will be fairly big.

Constructing the Base:

• The first step is to create a base, which you can see in the 2nd image. I made a roughly 55 x 35 rectangle and extruded it up just a big, so that its off the floor. In the name of saving space and materials however, especially heavy metals like this machine is made of, I then drew an array of smaller square within that base and extruded them back down (cut-mechanic) leaving me with a nice frame to build off of.

Capacity Units of the Machine:

• Next up was the processing/capacity units of the machine itself. This includes the cylinder that holds the water, the pipe containment bars and the board to start the process (The upright square). To make these I would sketch my desired shape and size on the main-frame and extrude it, making it look initially very blocky. Once the main shape of each part was created, I more closely molded it to how it should be in actuality. The processing unit was fine being left as a square/rectangle, but the cylinder required to offset a work plane tangent with the rounded edge of the cylinder, and drew/cut a round top onto the tube. Lastly I had to finish the containment system for the 4 main pipes, which again required offsetting and drawing on a plane, but instead of cutting, I just extruded its top onto itself.

Making the Pipes:

• Following that, it was time to make the pipes. This part was rather easy, as all I had to do was sketch circles on a surface (flat or tangent plane) where I would want the pipes to go, and extruded those as far as they needed to to connect with the required objects.

Coloring:

• Lastly, I just colored the system to make it look aesthetic yet professional. The industry standard, as evident by the picture, is a blue base. I kept that same idea here, but got creative with the rest of the colors. The final product is both beautiful and effective at its task.

Trouble Shooting Concerns:

• The second piece of equipment I felt would be beneficial to create was a wind turbine, as a way of collecting renewable energy. To do this would be a lot more challenging than the desalinization system, as I would have to work around issues. 1) The turbine can’t be inside the dome, because there’s no wind. 2) The turbine itself cannot be huge, as I was trying to dedicate only a very relatively area of land to this habitat, and a large design of the turbine would mean I couldn't achieve this. To work around these setbacks, I came up with the idea that the turbine head would stick out of the dome, and that the wings would draw inspiration from the last picture as included above; Using smaller wings with ridges/dips in them to collect air, similar to an H-Rotor Wind Turbine. This solved both issues I had.

Making the Frame:

• In terms of actual construction, I began with sketching a circle and extruding it up a few feet to create the base on the bottom. On that resulting cylinder, I sketched a smaller circle but this time extruded it up a lot further to make the body of the turbine. Lastly on this step, I drew one more circle the same dimensions as the base and extruded it 5x height of it, creating the head of the turbine. The frame was now completed.

Making the Wings:

• To start making the wings, I sketched and extruded another circle, which had less width than any cylinder I previously made. On top of that thinner cylinder, I sketched out a large square with chamfered corners and extruded it up only by a few inches (Look at the second picture for reference). Going back to the start of the head, I offset two work planes to become tangent to the cylinder (Perpendicular to each other), drew rectangles and cut them into and out of that cylinder, resulting in 4 holes 90 degrees from one another (Look for reference). Then, I drew 4 more rectangles from the BOTTOM of the square I extruded previously, and now extruded those new shapes down until they were level with the holes I just cut. From there, I did one more round of sketching and extruding, this time on the back end of my 4 poles FACING IN towards the holes, and extruded them back giving me my 4 wind blades (Minus the actual blades).

Making the Blades:

• When it comes to blades however, it starts now. On the sides of 2 of the wings (To save space once they inevitably start spinning), I extruded out rectangles once again (The white things hanging out of the 4 black poles). One these two wind catching devices, I sketched out the polygon you can see engraved within it and cut into the blade itself, which would be where the wind would be caught. This however is expectedly pretty blocky, meaning the wind wouldn't spin the turbine head as fast as we would like (Which is the whole point of the turbine). To mitigate this was easy however, as AutoDesk softwares feature a fillet command, rounding out any edges that you would like to smoothen. I did this to both the outside edges of the blade and the inside extrusion/cut too, meaning that when a big wind picks up, it will be able to harness it extremely effectively (This marks the end of the construction).

PS: Wind doesn't always travel in one direction, meaning if all my turbines had wings facing the same direction, they'd be rather obsolete if the wind isn't in their favor. That is why I created another set of turbines that look exactly the same, just with extrusions on the other side of the blades to be able to spin well if another direction of wind is blown.

Implementation:

I was thinking about potential beneficial things to add to my habitat, and the idea of having a place for potential supply drop off and movement of people felt really necessary to me. In a deserted area like the Arctic, a vessel for safe movement of things would be a very nice thing to include. The dimensions of the helipad are huge, taking up the horizontal space of 1.5 times a dome, and a height of 1.75 a dome.

The Frame:

The frame is a simple thing to make. To start, I sketched out a circle of the desired size that I wanted, and on the top-most, left-most, right-most and bottom-most part of that circle drew 4 rectangles, which I would then extrude up to use as the bars for the helipad. From there, I offset a plane from the top of these bars and put it down to the halfway point of the bars height. Next, I sketched a circle with the same size as before, but this time actually extruded it to create the first platform as can be seen in the pictures above. I did the same on the top as well. With these 4 bars and these 2 platforms done, the base frame of the helipad was completed.

Stairs:

What good is the thing though if someone can’t go up and down it, am I right? I knew that stairs had to be made, and to do that, I opened up with looking at the helipad through a cross-sectional view. This effectively cut the whole thing in half, allowing me to work from the middle of it. With this, I sketched out a simple stair design going up a standard 7 inches per step. I then went horizontally 1 foot, giving more than enough room for a comfortable step. Once I had this sketch, it was a matter of just copying and pasting that design onto the next steps bottom corner, until I had a staircase sketch that went up the entirety of the help-pad. I connected this open sketch from the bottom and side to close it up and have 1 whole sketch of a staircase. I extruded this from both sides 1.5 ft each (so 3 feet in total of width) and the staircase was complete. Following this, I just made a simple handrail by extruded out a rectangle from the bottom and top of the staircase and extruded down a circle at an angle (on both side of course), and the whole thing was totally done.

Detailing:

The final step to completing this creation was the finer details, and they go as followed;

• I sketched and extruded a big “H” down from the top of the the helipad and then in that crevice, sketched and extruded a whole new “H”, making it a separate object and colored it yellow, making a cool logo.

• I cut out a little hole at the top of the platform where the stairs end, so that someone can walk to the top.

• I made a circular bar on the very top of the whole helipad, to prevent people from accidentally falling off or objects from doing so either. To do this, I made 4 little rectangles on the top of the platform (in the same spots as the frame), and from that drew 1 circle perpendicular to it and revolved it around the center axis, and the result was a perfectly cylindrical outer most railing on the top of the helipad

• While the helipad is just that, a pad for helicopter, the use of drones would also be a really cool to implement. Fun Fact: Many helicopters are being de-commissioned in favor of versatile drones that carry many things (including people). To represent this, I imported a free and publicly-usable drone from TinkerCad (Another Autodesk Software) to act as if it’s making a delivery. The helipad was now completed.

Of course, when in the Arctic you might get a little bored just researching and sleeping over and over again every day until it’s time to leave. To solve this issue , I implemented a running track around the whole habitat, because when one is not gathering data about the Arctic Terrain, what better to do then train to become the next Olympic Champion.

The process to make the track was extremely straight forward, as you might expect. Simply put, I just sketched an oval shape and offset that shape 5 other times to create a total of 6 lanes. Then I just extruded each lane one at a time and colored it either a light blue or white, as it fits with the frosty theme of terrain we’re in. The measurements are 4 inches thick (Standard Track) and 350 Meters from the outside most lane (A standard track has 400 Meters), as to try to encapsulate all the buildings in this habitat well without too much extra space. That’s pretty much it for this part of the habitat, and while it’s simple, I truly feel it is a cool and unique inclusion that might prove to benefit some people (Although I may be a little biased, as I do track and field myself).

PS: World Champion Karsten Warholm would love this track, just look at the picture above!!

Purpose and Accomplishment:

In such a flat and honestly barren area such as the Arctic, it would make sense to have a protected area dedicated to just letting people look out over the habitat and the land. If you’re thinking that the HeliPad could be used for this, as it’s rather tall as well, I would disagree as it’s openly exposed to the elements and wouldn’t be a good location if let’s say there was a lot of hail, sleet and whatnot. By creating a closed deck purely dedicated to observation, we can have a building in the habitat that looks great in the scheme of everything and helps people learn more about the environment itself.

Overall Shape:

To make the overall silhouette of the deck, I drew inspiration from existing observation decks (I attached the exact one I chose to play off of). I initially was going to draw a 2D replication of the deck and extrude out, followed by a lot of cuts to mold it how I would've liked. This wouldn't work however, as the amount of cuts to take it from blocky to round would be insane. To get around this, I decided to sketch out HALF of the silhouette and the revolve that 360 Degrees around the center axis of the deck. In doing this, I was able to get a perfectly symmetrical and round deck on the outside. This includes only the top shaft, rounded head and neck/body of the deck. All of the finer details (Support Beams, Railings, Etc.) were added later on.

Finer Details:

And now getting into those finer details, this is the process of how I made them -

• For the red beam going around the deck, I flipped the deck upside down and drew 4 rectangles at every 90 degree interval of the circle (Meaning the leftmost, rightmost, topmost and bottommost location). I then extruded these down a foot. From there I was able to draw and revolve another line but this time around the center of the whole deck, effectively adding a big ring to those four beams. A little touch I added after this, just for aesthetics, was to sketch out smaller circles on the railing and extrude those once again, making it look like there are a whole lot of bars that support the big red railing.

• The 2 semi-cylinders attached to the body of the deck was made by first offsetting a plane from the center of the deck until it was just tangent with the curve of it. On that plane, I sketched out 2 rectangles at 45 degrees on each side and cut them into the body, leaving 2 holes on the body that faced upwards at an angle to the railing. From there, I was now able to sketch on those cuts as it was a flat surface, so I drew out the semi-circle shape and extruded them all the way up to the railing. For the little ring around those beams, yes you guessed it, I drew a simple curved line and revolved it around.

• Last and not least was the elevator. If you look at the bottom of the deck on the pictures, you can see 2 little doors that are meant to signify an elevator. This was just a matter of offsetting a plane, drawing 2 rectangles and cutting into the deck by only 2 inches. This gives the look of an entrance to the deck. As for actual mechanics of the elevator, I'm sorry but I don't know how they work, so I just left you to imagine it functioning (Best believe if you give me an expert to tell me their secrets, I get it work)

Coloring and Appearance:

Since the very start of creating the deck, I thought a silver, black and red color would look sick. To do this, I just started putting those colors on random parts of the deck and played around with it, until I settled on what it is now; Which arguably is really really cool. The only thing that HAD to be present was a glass viewing window on top (To actually look through), and a chrome upper deck (To give off that powerful and premium feel). After this the deck was stylish and ready to use!

Reasoning and Rationale:

If I intend for someone to live in this, I felt it would be extremely needed for there to be a place where one could grow their own plants and crops, as to support themselves if shipments can't come in. Because of that I decided to create a greenhouse that utilizes the self-harvested energy and clean water from my other creations, and apply it to a food producing and green-positive center; Hence the creation of the greenhouse.

Actual Assembly:

Compared to all the other structures I made for this habitat, the greenhouse was the easiest to create. If you look at any greenhouse near your house or even on the internet, you can see that they are basically glorified boxes that you can grow stuff in. To make the greenhouse I just started a new sketch on a plane, drew out a rectangle with a trapezoid roof on top, and extruded out 35 feet. To some this may seem big, but there was a lot of space to fill within the habitat and this was a good thing to dedicate it to, as people will always need food. It may sound really trivial, but that is the whole process to create the main frame of the greenhouse. The nature of a green-HOUSE is a really blocky and geometric shape, so to recreate that took very little complicated action, just sketch and extrude.

Bars, Doors & Outside Detail:

If you look at the attached images of the greenhouse above, you can see that there are black, almost pipe-looking structures on the outside of the building. In actuality, these are supposed to be plastic frames are used to support glass greenhouses even in the real world, so I decided to follow suit and make some. This process was also rather easy, just a matter of selecting to sketch on the walls, drawing some bars on each surface (That connect with one another) and finally extruding them out only 3 inches, as there’s no need to make them super wide. The door was again a really easy thing to make and follows the steps of most other things on the greenhouse, sketch and extrude. On the two doors I then made handles by, once again, drawing 2 squares on each door, extruding them out and finally making one more bar go across those two protruding extruded squares. Lastly, I made a large brick-bed run across the whole bottom of the greenhouse with a technique never before heard - Sketching & Extruding.

Texturing and Materials:

The whole premise of the greenhouse is to promote plants to grow, so as you may expect I made the whole structure (Except the bars and brick-bed) glass as to allow light to enter the structure. Then the only things that didn’t have a glass texture were again, the bars and brick-bed (The doors I made a tinted glass). For the brick-bed, I was able to find an appropriate brick texture that I threw onto it which looks really cool and realistic. As for the bars, I just found a black plastic texture that I then applied to them (I also added this texture to my filleted edges of the roof, just so the whole building looks more uniform). Once these few things were done, the greenhouse was finished!

While it is very unlikely that anyone would try to break into or cause something within the habitat (Because it is located in the Arctic of course), it definitely would not hurt to have a security system in place to have control over what may happen in it. To do this I went to back to TinkerCad and utilized the “Circuits” option that is featured. Here, you can play around with not only electrical circuits like the name says, but also play around with sensors of sorts, from visual to sound to temperature and more.

To begin creating my security system, I first had to attach the grounded wire and 5V wire to the respective ports between the Arduino chip (Which controls the actual processes in the circuit) and the Ultra Sonic Distance Sensor (Which is used to sense distance, as you may be able to tell from the name). Next up, I just connected the D7 Port of the chip to the signal port of the sensor, effectively adding the providing an outlet for the processes to unfold. Once I had this I created a simple RGB light fixture on the circuit board by attaching 3 Digital Pins (D Ports as I call them) to 3 of the 4 “legs” in the RGB bulb, and attached another grounded wire to the 4th leg. With the simple setup done, I was now ready to code the system to act more like a security system.

It was at this step that I taught myself basic Arduino coding so that I could tell the system what to do and when. My idea to simulate a security system here was for the RGB bulbs to change color depending on how close or far an object is within the sensors. This would sort of act like a Ring camera in the sense that if an object is a certain distance away from the Ring, the security system doesn’t activate but as soon as said object comes within a set parameter of distance, the system turns on and sends you a notification. If you watch the video, you’ll see the following parameters:

>60 Inches Away → Blue Light; The Object is far away and doesn’t require further inspection

>30 & <60 Inches → Green Light; The Object is coming into close proximity with the habitat; pay attention

<30 Inches → Red Light; The Object is extremely close to the habitat, requires immediate examination

Of course, it goes without saying that both the colors and distances can be changed whenever wanted to fit someone’s desires, but the demonstration is merely meant to show off the capabilities of the security system. Being as there’s people literally living in the habitat and constantly moving around in it, most alarms will probably be due to the people already in the habitat, meaning no threat actually occurred. However, it is always better to be safe than sorry, meaning that if the system is used to prevent possible danger even once, or even just provide peace of mind to residents, then it is a great addition to the habitat.

A little detail I felt would be nice to include were some letters marking off every dome from the outside. Although the inside of each dome differs, from a far glance it might be a little confusing to distinguish which is which. This is an easy fix however, as I just created 3 separate "signs" with the initials of each respective dome telling someone which one they are in/near. For a quick reminder, the abbreviations are as followed:

LC → Living Center

SSC → Self Sustainability Center

RC → Research Center

Actually making the letters was very simple too. I just drew out the shape of every letter I needed (Not typed, but actually sketched) and when I had the look that I wanted, I extruded them out a foot. Now I had a big LC, SSC and RC with sharp corners, but to round off these edges I filleted every edge of every letter until they were a little smoother, and finally I just colored every letter black to make SURE someone knows exactly were they are at any time.

**THIS IS THE LAST ACTUAL BUILDING/PART OF THE HABITAT COMPLETE!**

To simulate the feeling of being in the Arctic, a little touch I thought to add was an iceberg/snow like bottom of the whole habitat. My idea was to place all my buildings and creations on top of this iceberg to give the whole place a more authentic feel; Like it actually is in the Arctic! Of course, icebergs are usually cone like and sharp in shape, so for the purposes of having things on top of it, this one will be flat.

I started by just sketching out a big flat rectangle, one that extends 50 inches past every side of the entire habitat (To prevent a cluttered look; You'll see in a bit). Once I had this huge rectangle, I decided to add some edges and imperfections to the sides of the iceberg, because you will never ever see a straight lined iceberg with perfect sides, there will always be some variance. To replicate this, I just drew random shapes (squares, triangles, circles, arcs) all around the perimeter of the iceberg, and then trimmed the overlapping lines to create one cohesive shape. Once I got a nice jagged look around the sides, I extruded up only 2 inches, because after all this is just supposed to be the "floor" of the whole habitat. In real life, icebergs can be literal miles deep, but here they’re only 2 inches. Nevertheless, with the environment that I wanted to place the habitat on created, I was done.

**ALL STEPS HERE ON OUT ARE DONE IN FUSION 360**

Although all 3D modeling steps prior to this were done so in Inventor as that is what I was taught in school and familiar with, I decided to self teach myself Fusion 360 to make use of its capabilities, including rendering and the unique spatial properties involved.

Once all the individual aspects of the habitat were complete, I had to shift focus on detailing the main part of the habitat (The 3 dome system) with appropriate furniture and things. Up until this point, the 3 domes that I crafted way earlier in this whole process were completely empty, as I put aside furnishing them until I was done with actually making everything I needed. Now that everything was made however, I repositioned myself from creating things to importing and fixing them up. In short, importing is taking an existing file of work with permission to do so; They allow anyone to use it for free. I imported a lot of furniture from an online website called GrabCad, and I rigged out each dome as so:

• For the first dome pictured, we can see the Self Sustainability Center. For this dome I didn’t actually import anything, as I used the machinery I created earlier in the project only. To refresh your memory, that includes a heavy-duty water desalinization machine and 4 mini wind turbines (Whose heads stick above the dome to allow for wind to actually hit them. Because of the calculations I did, both the desalinization machine and turbines were able to fit extremely well, and it marks the first dome done.

• The second dome would be the Residential/Living Center. The furniture that I thought to include were beds w/ frames, various different drawers, multiple personal televisions, a large coach, a few loveseats, tables, a beautiful carpet and a light source hanging off the top of the ceiling. The goal was to make a modern looking monochromatic room that has a nice combination of leisure and function, which you can see with both the bedroom like half and the living room like half. I had to play around with the sizing of a few of these pieces to make sure there was a cohesive fit and no one item outshined any other in stature (Except the carpet, because it is clearly the star piece of the set). With comfortable and stylish furniture, any person staying in the here can be sure to feel like they’re back home.

• The last dome is the Research Center, purely dedicated to hosting equipment and an environment perfect for conducting and analyzing experiments. The main attention grabber of this room is the big dual sided television screen plastered on the big wall (Not the carpet this time, although it is beautiful once again). Whether the researchers in the dome have to look at a chart, organize their findings or are on a video chat with somebody, this screen will be the perfect basis for it all. Also present here are an assortment of personal computers. Of course just having one central TV is not enough to efficiently conduct research, so the 2 rows of PC’s will be great in allowing for personal projects to ensue. All in all, the industrial yet cozy feel of the Research Center will ensure a hardworking and positive research culture for anyone present in the AAC (Arctic Analyzation Center). There are also 4 lamps in the corners of the dome too!

In a multi-purpose dwelling like the 3 domes, the actual things within the domes have to reflect that as well. All the systems and furniture included in the domes were hand crafted and picked to accomplish the 3 goals I had at the start of the whole project, a place to research, a place to live and a place to sustainably run everything. As we all know, the interior of something is just as important as the exterior, and here is no different!

In the culmination of everything, with the domes furnished and everything crafted, the moment to assemble everything finally arrived. In a brand new clean and fresh Fusion360 file, I uploaded EVERY SINGLE PART and began to create the final product. I started by importing the furnished domes, as it is the center piece of the whole habitat and everything revolves around it. From there I loaded the Helipad into the project, and played around with it until I decided to keep it right behind the middle dome, as it would give the whole habitat some symmetry having the huge HeliPad right in the middle. Next up came the track. I landed on putting this in next as it would let me see how much remaining space would be left for the greenhouse and observation deck. I made the track come around the domes and helipad as such, leaving 2 corners for the greenhouse and observation deck accordingly.

When I then brought those two buildings in, I realized that they were a tad too big to fit in the allotted space in the corners of the habitat. To fix this, I scaled down the two buildings by a factor of 0.75, meaning that the new greenhouse and observation deck were 3/4 as big as before, and this small change allowed both structures to fit right in comfortably into their designated areas. Lastly I needed to place the whole habitat on top of the iceberg. This was a simple matter however, as in my assembly process I raised everything off the floor by 2 inches, meaning I could just slide the iceberg under the whole habitat. And with that step done, the assembly of the Arctic Analyzation Center is OFFICIALLY DONE.

In life, first impressions are everything, and it is no different here. When presenting the Arctic Analyzation Center, I want to present something that looks clean and polished. To achieve this, I took the whole habitat and rendered it using the RENDER options Fusion360 provides. Rendering the habitat achieves two things, and I'll break them down for you:

• Texture: If you applied any kind of texture or material to any parts of your habitat (Like I did), rendering the habitat will allow the look of said materials to be accentuated. For example, the glass in the greenhouse and observation deck became clearer, the Powdered Glass I used on the domes became more fine, the rock texture on the outside of my greenhouse got shaded to appear like multiple rocks and the metal on my observation deck became shinier. These details, while small, add a more realistic look to the aspects in my habitat, and the whole project presents better because of that.

• Background: You have the option in Fusion360 rendering to apply either a colored background or a scenic background. I originally was just going to use a solid colored light blue background to fit with the cold tundra feel, but after checking out some of the offered backgrounds, found a snow background that really makes it look like you're in the Arctic. I applied this immediately and it really gives off the impression that the habitat is truly in a cold, snowy environment.

With the final rendering of the Arctic Analyzation Center done, I am plleased to say that the Habitat, and all the steps to make it, are finished!!!!

The goal of this habitat was to combine the worlds of futuristic creation and tangible projects. Throughout the whole process of making the Arctic Analyzation Center, I kept thinking about each and every detail I was adding and seeing if I could imagine it being used in real life, each with a clear purpose and desire behind it. I only included parts that I felt would leave a positive impact on somebody staying within the habitat, and from there tried to get as creative and unique as I could with it. With each new sketch and command used, I visualized people literally sleeping and staying in my habitat, and how the experience would be for them living in the Arctic inside the confides of my habitat. In every engineering, architectural and design choice, I hoped for my vision to shine through and catch the eyes of someone. In the habitat itself, my overarching aim was to produce something with personality and functionality, and after all the hours put into making the Arctic Analyzation Center, I can say I truly took my best stab at it.

This project goes so much further than just making a habitat someone can live in however. Even deeper than that, the task of challenging myself to commit to something and work everyday in a field that I find so interesting is perhaps the greatest thing I can take away from the competition. In the weeks and weeks I spent on this one project, I have gained so much experience and insight into what it takes to make a civil project, and that very facet of my work is invaluable. Whether it be making a skyscraper, park scene, bridge or a habitat like we see here, the very discipline that I adopted to complete a large project like this, in a field like this, is the biggest and best outcome I could have ever asked for.

I am truly grateful for the opportunity to compete in a fun and fulfilling challenge like the one here. The final Instructable that I present here is the pinnacle of literal months of work, and I hope the effort radiates through. To anyone reading this, I want to extend a large thank you for allowing me to demonstrate my ideas and innovation, and it is something that I will continue to hold with me for a very long time!

-‎ Lorik Asani