Transport Design for Extreme Environment: Methodological Exploration (With Reference to Polar Regions)

Extreme environment or extreme case is an aggregate of circumstances which exceed the limits of the common and create serious difficulties for vital activities or render them impossible [12]. The key features of the extreme environment are the lack of alternatives, absolute maximum of tension, synergy in the cooperation of negative factors, etc. In this case, all antagonisms related to the ‘tangible world’ (‘world of artefacts’, i.e. material environment) become especially apparent. Moreover, the extreme conditions are a specific (and the most objective) filter which lets through only things irreproachable in the performance of their functions . Here is a typical example – a war where everything is absolutely functional: machinery, equipment and, of course, user behaviour. In everyday life, we can find a similar situation in the work of rescuers. Where technical characteristics are of decisive importance, where a man’s life depends on computational accuracy – is there a place for the lyricism of the image provided by design? Do we really need a special ‘design for extreme environment’? The answer (and, simultaneously, the basic prerequisite of the research) is affirmative: undoubtedly, we need it because it is exactly in extreme conditions that the image transforms from an aesthetical category (optional) into a functional one (mandatory).