Scott Base: A Short Room Analysis

The Scott Base had two sleeping blocks, C-hut 38 x 20 feet and D-hut 28 x 20 feet. Initially, the larger of the two, C-hut, had fourteen single rooms while D-hut had six rooms and a two-bed medical suite, providing sleeping accommodation or 22.

Up to the second base extensions in the summer of 1962/63, the single rooms had a bed, five drawers, and a writing desk. These rooms built on an 8 x 9-feet module had a two bunk set in the centre dividing the space into two rooms. Plywood closed the space between the top bunk and ceiling on the first side providing a top bunk for the other room. This room had plywood closing the space between the two bunks providing a lower bunk room on the first side. The rooms had 3 x 8-feet floor space and a small

Whether it worked, I do not know as I never found the need to use it. Also, we had several thick white blankets with green trim. These were blankets made at the Petone Woollen Mill, less than a mile from my home in Nelson Street.

These small compact rooms were used for the first six years and provided enough room for sleeping, the storage of one's belongings and space to do private reading and writing–as long as you kept everything tidy.

The sleeping huts had a ducted hot air Waterbury heater with fuel tanks installed in the cold-porches. (see fig 5.3) With a stand-alone radiant oil heater installed inside the hut for use in emergencies such as the failure of the Waterbury heater or prolonged power failure. Thankful no such emergency happen in either of my

Besides the ducted heating, each hut had two manually adjusted ventilation fans to help preserve a comfortable atmosphere. Despite this ventilation and the ducted heating, the huts had a large temperature gradient between the ceiling and floor. A can of beer left on the floor would freeze overnight, and occasionally you needed to crack your frozen boots from the floor in the morning. Then there was the low humidity.* You woke each morning with a dry mouth and for smokers, their cigarettes dried out overnight such that when they grabbed for a cigarette in the morning, the tobacco fell out leaving them holding an empty paper