BUILDING PERFORMANCE EVALUATION OF THE EMERGENCY ANTARCTIC MODULES OF BRAZIL BASED ON THE SATISFACTION OF ITS USERS

The Emergency Antarctic Modules (MAE) were installed in the area of the Comandante Ferraz Antarctic Station (EACF) in early 2013 to support the removal of the debris from the fire occurred in 2012 and for the continuation of the scientific activities undertaken at the site. The relevance of this work, further to generating key information for the technological improvement of Antarctic buildings, has contributed to the development of the building maintenance plan, which must ensure its best performance in the coming years. The method consisted in: I. Site visit and review of literature and documents; II. Definition of the aspects to be considered and the evaluation procedures to be adopted; III. Elaboration of a questionnaire applied to the current users; IV. Data collection and tabulation; V. Analysis of information and obtainment of results. The main results indicated that the MAE complex complies with its intended function and the overall performance is categorized as good and close to excellent. A few minor problems mainly related to tightness, thermal and acoustic comfort, equipment and privacy were identified. So it was concluded that due mainly to the speed with which the modules had to be installed, it was not possible to meet all the expectations, when compared with permanent buildings. However, as a temporary base – i.e. an advanced base camp – the MAE has qualities that allow people to stay in Antarctica with comfort and safety.