News: a design team led by London firm Grimshaw has revealed plans for a new six-runway airport in Istanbul capable of accommodating up to 150 million passengers a year.
The Grimshaw-led team, which also includes Norwegian firm Nordic Office of Architecture and London studio Haptic, says the Istanbul New Airport Terminal One will become the “world’s largest airport terminal under one roof”, covering a site of nearly 100 hectares.
Described by the designers as “modern and highly functional, with a unique sense of place”, the terminal will feature a vaulted canopy dotted with skylights. These will focus daylight onto key sections of the interior, including check-in desks, passport control and shops.
The airport will be located 20 miles outside the city on the Black Sea coast. It will be built in four phases, with the first expected to open in 2018 and serve up to 90 million passengers a year.
A large plaza and transport hub will be built at the entrance, allowing the airport to integrate with existing rail, metro and bus routes.
Grimshaw recently completed an airport in St Petersburg with golden ceilings, designed to reference the gilded spires of the Russian city’s churches. But partner Andrew Thomas says this new project will aim to capture “design worthy of the world city of Istanbul”.
“The Istanbul airport attempts to reconcile the requirements for a top modern, functional airport with something that is rooted in local identity,” added Haptic director Tomas Stokke.
“We were inspired by the local use of colours and patterns, the quality of light and how it penetrates buildings, as well as by traditional architecture such as the Süleymaniye Mosque.”
The low-rise building was dug into the landscape and features full-height glazing that wraps around the end of the building facing the runway. Tourists will be taking off from Foster’s spaceport terminal later this year.
2: London Britania Airport by Gensler
As the UK government continues to look at ways to increase airport capacity in southeast England, various conceptual proposals have been unveiled – including a floating airport.
Architecture firm Gensler’s proposal included four floating runways that would be tethered to the seabed.
Departure concourses would lead to underwater rail tunnels, which would connect to central London as well as European rail networks.
3: Thames Hub by Foster + Partners
Foster + Partners also unveiled a proposal for an airport and transport hub on the Thames Estuary in southeast England.
The Thames Hub would include a four-runway airport, a freight port and an Orbital Rail link around London connected to the north of Britain and Europe. The architects claim it would cost £50 billion to implement and would generate £150 billion in economic benefits.
One corner of the airport is coloured bright red to aid passenger orientation.
Inside the terminal, a large structure covered in a web of wooden beams descends from the ceiling and creates a central hub around which passengers circulate.
The structure comprises two branches that curve up towards the sky and serves the local ski resort. Both terminals were built as part of a major regeneration project in Georgia, which is investing in architecture to rebrand itself.
7: Queen Alia International Airport by Foster + Partners
The concrete canopy spanning the terminal is supported by 30 tapered columns that are punctured with recesses, creating a decorative pattern of openings that are infilled with coloured glazing to allow light to filter through the space.
Shimmering golden panels clad the folded ceilings inside the terminal, which is expected to bring 12 million passengers in and out of the Russian city each year.
Shimmering golden panels clad the monumental folded ceilings of this new airport terminal in St Petersburg designed by London studio Grimshaw (+ slideshow).
Grimshaw collaborated with engineering firm Ramboll and delivery architect Pascall+Watson to complete the first terminal of Pulkovo International Airport, which is expected to bring 12 millions passengers in and out of the Russian city each year.
The architects gave the airport a large flat roof so that it will be able to cope with heavy snowfall. This allowed the underside to be expressed as a series of folded surfaces, which help to distribute weight to different parts of the structure.
“We used this language of folding to take weight away from the mid-span and then to create more space and height for the passengers in the key spaces,” explained Grimshaw associate Ed Ross.
Tessellating metal panels give these folded surfaces their golden colour, intended as a reference to the gilded spires of churches around St Petersburg. Lighting fixtures run along the folds, while voids between surfaces reveal skylights that help passengers to navigate the terminal.
“This building represents a point of departure for Grimshaw,” said Grimshaw partner Mark Middeton. “We are known for our expressive structures and attention to detail. We wanted to keep all of those elements – the practicality and the buildability, and our interest in sustainability – but also try to make this building more about form and space.”
The layout of the terminal is divided into two parts; the first accommodates check-in and security, while the second contains the departure lounge. According to Middleton, this arrangement was designed to reflect the islands that make up the landscape of the city.
“We did this for several reasons,” said the architect. “Firstly to reflect St Petersburg as a city of islands and bridges, and secondly to celebrate arrival by providing a void over the baggage reclaim area, to allow arriving passengers to experience the terminal.”
Large windows spans the front and rear facades of the building, and were engineered to maintain indoor temperatures and to reduce glare from low sun.
The design team are now working on the second and final phase of the project, which will increase capacity up to 17 million passengers. Construction is set to complete in 2015.
Scroll down from more information from Grimshaw:
Grimshaw’s first project in Russia opens to the public
Grimshaw’s new terminal at Pulkovo International Airport is now officially open to the public. Grimshaw has worked in a team with Ramboll and Pascall + Watson to design the airport, based in St Petersburg, Russia.
The opening of the new terminal marks the completion of phase one of a staged sustainable masterplan for the airport, and is predicted to transfer 12 million passengers per year. Grimshaw won the project in 2007 in an international competition against a shortlist of world leading architecture practices. Working towards a completion date of 2015 for phases one and two, the finished airport will cater for 17 million passengers annually.
Pulkovo Airport, the third largest airport in the country, will act as a gateway to St Petersburg and Russia, while reflecting the city it serves. The internal layout of the new terminal consists of distinct zones connected, designed to echo the external layout of islands and bridges that make up the city. These open rooms are comparable to the many civic spaces found in St Petersburg, emphasising the airport’s role as the first and last great public space of the region for air travellers.
The masterplan of the airport represents and responds to the climate and heritage of St Petersburg. The striking new terminal roof and envelope are designed to accommodate the extremes of climate experienced by the city, including the characteristically heavy snowfalls of winter.
Funding for the airport scheme comes via a €1bn public-private partnership development programme – the first of its kind in Russia. The Northern Capital Gateway Consortium (NCG) was awarded the 30-year concession and appointed Ramboll as the lead design consultant in 2008. Grimshaw has been retained on the project as concept guardians, while Pascal + Watson were appointed as executive architects.
The concrete cells of the canopy spanning this new airport terminal in Mumbai was designed by American firm SOM to reference both the open-air pavilions of traditional Indian architecture and the arrangement of feathers in a peacock’s tail (+ slideshow).
The new 40-hectare terminal at the Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport will accommodate 40 million passengers a year for both international and domestic flights, and was designed by SOM to adopt the styles and motifs of the regional vernacular.
“We designed an airport that is intimately connected to its surroundings,” said SOM partner Roger Duffy. “By subtly incorporating regional patterns and textures at all scales, Terminal 2 resonates with a sense of place and serves as a spectacular symbol for India and Mumbai.”
The check-in hall is located on the upper level of the four-storey terminal, directly beneath the perforated concrete ceiling. This canopy is supported by 30 tapered columns that are punctured with similar recesses, creating a decorative pattern of openings that are infilled with coloured glazing to allow light to filter through the space.
“The monumental spaces created beneath the 30 mushrooming columns call to mind the airy pavilions and interior courtyards of traditional regional architecture,” said the design team.
“The constellation of colours makes reference to the peacock, the national bird of India, and the symbol of the airport,” they added.
A 900-metre long glass wall with a gridded cable frame provides the hall’s facade. The decorative canopy extends beyond the walls to offer protection from both intense heat and monsoons, but also creates an area where Indian departure ceremonies can take place.
The rest of the terminal is laid out with an X-shaped plan, where modular concourses radiate outwards from the central core to minimise walking distances to boarding gates.
Floor-to-ceiling glazing offer passengers the opportunity to watch planes arriving and departing, while patterned jali screens help light to filter gently through the spaces.
Photography is by Robert Polidori, apart from where otherwise stated.
Here’s a project description from SOM:
Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport Terminal 2
Ten years ago, Mumbai’s Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport welcomed six million passengers per year through its gates; today it serves nearly five times that number. With the city’s emergence as India’s financial capital and the country’s rapidly expanding and economically mobile middle class, the existing airport infrastructure proved unable to support the growing volume of domestic and global traffic, resulting in frequent delays. By orchestrating the complex web of passengers and planes into a design that feels intuitive and responds to the region’s rocketing growth, the new Terminal 2 asserts the airport’s place as a preeminent gateway to India.
Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport Terminal 2 adds 4.4 million square feet of new space to accommodate 40 million passengers per year, operating 24 hours a day. The terminal combines international and domestic passenger services under one roof, optimizing terminal operations and reducing passenger walking distances. Inspired by the form of traditional Indian pavilions, the new four-story terminal stacks a grand “headhouse”, or central processing podium, on top of highly adaptable and modular concourses below. Rather than compartmentalising terminal functions, all concourses radiate outwards from a central processing core and are therefore easily reconfigured to “swing” between serving domestic flights or international flights.
But just as the terminal celebrates a new global, high-tech identity for Mumbai, the structure is imbued with responses to the local setting, history, and culture. Gracious curbside drop-off zones designed for large parties of accompanying well-wishers accommodate traditional Indian arrival and departure ceremonies. Regional patterns and textures are subtly integrated into the terminal’s architecture at all scales. From the articulated coffered treatment on the headhouse columns and roof surfaces to the intricate jali window screens that filter dappled light into the concourses, Terminal 2 demonstrates the potential for a modern airport to view tradition anew.
A Gateway to India
All international and domestic passengers enter the terminal headhouse on the fourth floor, accessed from a sweeping elevated road. At the entrance, the lanes split, making room for wide drop-off curbs with ample space for traditional Indian departure ceremonies. From the moment of arrival, the terminal embraces travellers. Above, the headhouse roof extends to cover the entire arrivals roadway, protecting passengers and their guests from Mumbai’s heat and unpredictable monsoon weather. A 50-foot-tall glass cable-stayed wall – the longest in the world – opens to the soaring space of the check-in hall. The transparent facade also allows accompanying well-wishers, who must remain outside of the terminal due to Indian aviation regulations, to watch as their friends and family depart.
Once inside, travellers enter a warm, light-filled chamber, sheltered underneath a long-span roof supported by an array of multi-storey columns. The monumental spaces created beneath the thirty mushrooming columns call to mind the airy pavilions and interior courtyards of traditional regional architecture. Small disks of colourful glass recessed within the canopy’s coffers speckle the hall below with light. The constellation of colours makes reference to the peacock, the national bird of India, and the symbol of the airport.
The check-in hall leads to a retail hub – a common space that allows passengers to shop, eat, and watch planes take off though expansive, floor-to-ceiling windows. Centrally located at the junction of the concourses and the terminal core, these commercial plazas provide a focal point of activity in close proximity to the gates. Within these spaces and throughout the concourses, culturally referential fixtures and details, such as custom chandeliers inspired by the lotus flower and traditional mirror mosaic work created by local artists, ground the traveler to a community and culture beyond the airport. Regional artwork and artifacts are displayed on a central, multi-storey Art Wall, illuminated by skylights above. The prevalence of local art and culture, coupled with the use of warm colours and elegant accents, elevates the ambience of terminal beyond the typical, often unimaginative airport experience.
Although the terminal is four storeys, interconnecting light slots and multi-storey light wells ensure that light penetrates into the lower floors of the building, acting as a constant reminder of the surrounding city and landscape. At dusk, illuminated from within, the terminal glows like a sculpted chandelier.
The construction site of the new terminal building was located in close proximity to the existing terminal which had to remain fully operational during construction. This site requirement inspired the elongated X-shaped plan of the terminal, which could both mould around existing structures and incorporate modular designs to accommodate rapid and phased construction. This innovative form also allows for the consolidation of important passenger processing, baggage handling, and retail/dining functions at the centre of the terminal. On each floor, radiating piers permit the shortest possible walking distances from the centre of the terminal to boarding areas, while also maximising the terminal’s perimeter for aircraft gates.
The terminal’s roof – one of the largest in the world without an expansion joint – ensures further terminal flexibility. The long-span capabilities of the steel truss structure allow for the spacing of the thirty 130-foot columns to be far enough apart to not only give a feeling of openness to the large processing areas below but also to allow for maximum flexibility in the arrangement of ticket counters and other necessary processing facilities.
Terminal 2 uses a high-performance glazing system with a custom frit pattern to achieve optimal thermal performance and mitigate glare. Perforated metal panels on the terminal’s curtain wall filter the low western and eastern sun angles, creating a comfortable day-lit space for waiting passengers, and responsive daylight controls balance outdoor and indoor light levels for optimal energy savings. Strategically-placed skylights throughout the check-in hall will reduce the terminal’s energy usage by 23%.
At Terminal 2, modern materials and technologies are used to powerful effect. But while cutting-edge strategies set a new standard for sustainable, modern airport design, the terminal is as much a showpiece of the history and traditions of India and Mumbai as it is an unprecedented structural and technological achievement. Rising from the Mumbai cityscape, Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport celebrates both India’s rich cultural heritage and the country’s increasingly global future.
Thousands of hexagonal skylights bring natural light into this new terminal that Italian architects Massimiliano and Doriana Fuksas have completed at Shenzhen Bao’an International Airport in China (+ slideshow).
Terminal 3 more than doubles the capacity of the existing airport, which is located 32 kilometres north-west of Shenzhen’s city centre. It is set to open later this week and will facilitate up to 45 million passengers per year.
Studio Fuksas looked at the shapes of various living creatures when planning the layout of the complex. “The concept of the plan for Terminal 3 of Shenzen Bao’an international airport evokes the image of a manta ray, a fish that breathes and changes its own shape, undergoes variations, [and] turns into a bird to celebrate the emotion and fantasy of a flight,” said the architects.
A curving roof canopy constructed from steel and glass wraps around the airport, accommodating spans of up to 80 metres. Hexagonal skylights perforate the surface of this roof, allowing natural light to filter through the entire terminal.
This pattern, which the architects describe as a honeycomb, is reflected in the polished tile floor, as well as on the stainless steel check-in desks and gates designed especially for the airport by Studio Fuksas.
“The interiors have a sober profile and a stainless steel finish that reflects and multiplies the honeycomb motif of the internal skin,” said the architects.
The concourse is divided across three levels, allowing separate floors for arrivals, departures and servicing, and voids in the floor-plates create a series of double- and triple-height spaces.
Cylindrical white columns are positioned at intervals to support the arching roof and sit alongside air-conditioning vents designed to look like chunky trees.
Read on for more information from the design team:
Shenzhen Bao’an International Airport, Terminal 3
The highly anticipated new terminal at Shenzhen Bao’an International Airport, Guangdong, China, will be operational from the 28 November, 2013.
The first airport by acclaimed architects Massimiliano and Doriana Fuksas it is set to become an iconic landmark that will boost the economic development of Shenzhen – one of the fastest-growing cities in the world.
Won by international competition, it has undergone a remarkably rapid process of design and construction, completing within 3 years.
The client, Shenzhen Airport (Group) Co., is so pleased with the striking design that it is taking the unusual step of trying to copyright it.
The terminal – the largest single public building to be built to date in Shenzhen – encompasses 63 contact gates, with a further 15 remote gates and significant retail space. It will increase the capacity of the airport by 58%, allowing the airport to handle up to 45 million passengers per year.
The sculptural 500,000 sq.m. / 5,381,955 sq.ft (approx) terminal, evokes the image of a manta ray and features a striking internal and external double ‘skin’ honeycomb motif that wraps the structure. At 1.5 km long, with roof spans of up to 80m, honeycomb shaped metal and glass panels punctuate the façade of the terminal allowing natural light to filter through. On the interior, the terminal is characterised by distinctive white conical supporting columns that rise to touch the roof at a cathedral-like scale.
The focal point of the design is the concourse located at the intersection of the building. Consisting of three levels – departure, arrivals and services – they vertically connect to create full height voids, allowing natural light to filter from the highest level down to the lowest.
Studio Fuksas has created an interior, as striking and elegant as the exterior. The spatial concept is one of fluidity and combines two different ideas: the idea of movement and the idea of pause. Carefully considering the human experience of such environments, Studio Fuksas focused on processing times, walking distances, ease of orientation, crowding, and availability of desired amenities.
Stand-out features of the interior design include stylised white ‘trees’ that serve as air conditioning vents, and check-in ‘islands’, gates and passport-check areas with a stainless steel finish that beautifully reflect the honeycomb patterns from above.
The honeycomb motif translates through into many aspects of the interior and at different scales – from the larger retail boxes to smaller 3D imprints in the wall cover.
The Studio Fuksas designed Terminal 3 is of critical importance to the future of Shenzhen as a booming business and tourist destination, and will bring benefits to the region as a whole.
Studio Fuksas are engaged on two further phases of the airport extension, scheduled to complete in 2025 and 2035 respectively.
One corner of this airport terminal in Kutaisi, Georgia, by Dutch firm UNStudio is coloured bright red to aid orientation (+ slideshow).
UNStudio designed the terminal with a large span to create uninterrupted views that aid navigation, and the red corner detail acting as “a crossing-point and point of recognition.”
“The design for the new airport embraces the traveller by embodying the circumstance of the site,” said architect Ben van Berkel. “Moments of both leaving and returning are celebrated by the large span, open spaces and high ceiling of the terminal structure – reflecting the ways in which such gestures were employed in the great railway stations of the past.”
Inside the terminal, a large structure covered in a web of wooden beams descends from the ceiling and creates a central hub around which passengers circulate.
At the centre of this structure is an exterior patio enclosed in glass that allows for continuous views across the terminal.
The building is wrapped in full-height glazing that creates a light-filled interior with views of the Caucasus Mountains.
UNStudio was also responsible for the design of other buildings on the site including a meteorological station and air traffic control tower, as well as masterplanning the surrounding landscaping.
The concrete core of the air traffic control tower is clad in a perforated skin that draws in air for ventilation and allows lighting behind it to illuminate the tower at night.
Photography is by Nakaniamasakhlisi.
Here’s some more information from UNStudio:
Ben van Berkel / UNStudio’s Kutaisi International Airport in Georgia completed
UNStudio’s recently completed Kutaisi International Airport serves domestic and international flights for use by tourists, national politicians and international diplomats. The airport is destined to become a central hub, with up to one million travellers targeted in 2014-2015. Current figures for the airport show 30 flights per week, with an increase to 40 expected in Spring 2014, by which time direct flights from Western Europe to Kutaisi will also be possible.
UNStudio’s design comprises the full airport development, including a revision of the runway, the master plan for the landscape and planned future development thereof, the terminal building, offices, a meteorological station and the air traffic control tower.
The architecture of the terminal refers to a gateway, in which a clear structural layout creates an all-encompassing and protective volume. Both the exterior corner detail – which functions as a crossing-point and point of recognition – and the so called ‘umbrella’ structure within the terminal building – which operates as a roundabout for passenger flows – operate as the two main architectural details around which all of the airport functions are organised.
The umbrella further guarantees views from the terminal plaza to the apron and to the Caucasus on the horizon and vice versa. The central point in the umbrella is an exterior patio which is used for departing passengers. The transparent space around this central area is designed to ensure that flows of passengers are smooth and that departure and arrival flows do not coincide.
Ben van Berkel: “The design for the new airport embraces the traveller by embodying the circumstance of the site. Moments of both leaving and returning are celebrated by the large span, open spaces and high ceiling of the terminal structure – reflecting the ways in which such gestures were employed in the great railway stations of the past.”
Organisational diagram
The design organises the logistical processes, provides optimal security and ensures that the traveller has sufficient space to circulate comfortably. Serving as a lobby to Georgia, the terminal will in addition operate as a café and art gallery, displaying works by young Georgian artists and thereby presenting a further identifier of contemporary Georgian culture.
The 55m high Air Traffic Control Tower and its supporting office/operational building is designed to complement the design of the terminal. The tower’s strong appearance makes it a beacon of the airport and surrounding area. The traffic control cabin on the top level forms the focal point of the tower, with a 360 degrees view on the surrounding landscape. A spacious and comfortable interior ensures a workspace for 4-8 operators with optimal concentration. The exterior of the tower is clad with a perforated skin on a concrete core to use wind for ventilation purposes. LED Light in-between the skin and the core enhance the beacon effect of the tower at dusk and dawn by changing colour whenever there is a fluctuation in wind speed.
The design for the new airport incorporates numerous sustainable elements. A large onsite underground source of natural water provides the basis for the reduction of energy consumption through concrete core activation and use for sprinkler basins. The floors of both the terminal and the traffic control tower will utilise this water for maintaining a regulated temperature in the two volumes. In the terminal building cantilevered roofs provide sun shading on south and southwest zones. A hybrid low pressure ventilation system is integrated into the terminal’s main structure and there is a grey water collection system in the floor underneath the terminal building. A future aim is to present Kutaisi airport as Georgia’s first airport to incorporate a strict segregation of waste and establish a recycling system which could be further implemented into new and existing projects in Georgia.
The project was designed and constructed in two years, under lead consultancy of UNStudio, with the airport already having begun operations by September 2012. Both design and construction saw the involvement of numerous local and international companies, with openness and knowledge sharing proving to be essential to fulfilling the tight schedule. The steel structure of the terminal – produced and shipped from Hungary – recently won a European Steel Prize award.
Main image and above: Kim Jong-un is said to have been impressed by PTA’s proposal for Wonsan airport
“We were approached by a potential investor who is very close to the North Korean government,” Otto Cheng Ping-lun of PLT Planning and Architecture told the Chinese newspaper.
The architect, whose firm specialises in large commercial and infrastructure projects, said the Korean leader saw his firm’s drum-inspired designs for the conversion of an abandoned military airport in Wonsan, a city of North Korean’s eastern coast.
“We were told that Kim [Jong-un] was happy with our design. However, Kim said the airport in the capital should not look worse than the one in the economic zone. That’s why we were also asked to upgrade the airport in Pyongyang.”
The Wonsan designs feature glazed facades with branching columns and central courtyards
Plans for the airport conversion in Wonsan, revealed in North Korea News last month, show two 3345 square-metre donut-shaped terminals – one international and one domestic.
PLT Planning and Architecture says the shape of the buildings was based on drums used in traditional Korean dances, with glazed facades criss-crossed by branching columns and courtyard gardens at their centres.
Wonsan proposal: first floor/departures
Each will be able to accommodate six planes and the designs also propose a 3500-metre civilian runway, a kilometre longer than the existing army airforce landing strip.
The $200m international airport is designed to cater for around a million passengers every year and will serve the Kangwon Province near Mount Kamgang Tourism Zone, where South Korean tourists have been able to visit since 2002.
News: London architects Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners (RSHP) have been appointed to design a new terminal at Lyon-Saint Exupéry Airport at Lyon in France.
The terminal will double the size of the airport, which is one of two that serve France’s second-biggest city, and increase capacity from 10 to 15 million passengers per year by 2020.
RSHP were asked to design a terminal that “didn’t detract from” Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava’s TGV station, which is next to the airport. Their circular design features shops and gardens at its centre.
Lyon airport commissions Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners, architects of Heathrow Terminal 5 and Barajas Airport, for their new European gateway
Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners (RSHP) are pleased to announce their appointment to design the Future Terminal 1 project at Lyon-Saint Exupéry Airport. The new terminal will cover roughly the same area (70,000m2) as all of the existing buildings combined and will enable the airport to welcome an extra 5 million passengers by 2020 (taking the total from 10 to 15 million).
The brief for the project was challenging: to create a new identity for the site that remained in keeping with the high-calibre existing campus and didn’t detract from the distinctive TGV train station, designed by Santiago Calatrava. RSHP’s solution is a circular building made up of bold, simple and elegant structural elements. The terminal will offer a spacious and clearly defined entrance, a hanging garden and large shopping area at the centre, which will enrich the travelling experience for passengers.
Graham Stirk, senior partner at Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners, designer of the project said:
“We are very pleased to be involved in the new terminal for Lyon Airport. The existing airport campus has a very distinctive structural and architectural language in both form and colour. This ‘DNA’ determines the character of the new proposal. We look forward to working with GFC Construction and Aéroports de Lyon to create a new European gateway to the city and its region.”
by LinYee Yuan Taxiing planes and a buzz of runway activity at John F. Kennedy International Airport’s new Terminal 4 serve as a dramatic backdrop for interior designer Thom Filicia and );…
We fly far and often, and because of this we’ve become quite particular in our ways, spending a lot of time sorting out which airlines, planes, routes, seats and amenities are going to provide the best case scenario for painless travel. Promising…
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