The Airports Council International forecasts that 7 billion passengers will use the world’s airports by 2020. However at the current pace of construction and considering all airports in the pipeline, they will only be able to process 6 billion. China responded by announcing that it will construct 48 new airports in addition to Beijing (ready for soft opening in March 2008).
There are new airports and terminals being built at a frantic pace around the world and each one seems to get more and more interesting in terms of its design.
Some of the most interesting to achieve notice lately include:
Madrid Barajas, Terminal Four
This terminal opened in 2006 and provided a much needed expansion for an over-stretched airport. What was most interesting about it though was that the designers (Richard Rogers Partnership) used a modular design programme based on a 18m x 9m structural grid, which allows for later expansion fairly inexpensively. At a more mundane level, another innovation at the airport was the colour-coding of gates for easy navigation – from deep blue in the North through to deep red for farthest south.
Images: Poldava on Flickr
JFK, Terminal Five
This terminal will be used by low-cost carrier JetBlue and its main focus has been the speed of people movement. Its due to open late 2008 and is planned to process 20 million passengers a year . Some of its speed innovations include the airside design which gives planes an additional 4ft of space meaning that planes won’t need wing walkers to guide them into the stand. But perhaps the most interesting aspect is the fact that the concourse layout is being done by Rockwell in conjunction with a choreographer Jerry Mitchell (from Hairspray fame).
The pair have previously worked together on sets for Broadway and are now teaming up to direct the footwork of this airport. A leisurely departures area, wide staircases for lounging and spectating and a “straight to the point” arrivals route, are all being promised.
The whole experience of the area is being designed “as a dance” which elicits different emotions arriving and departing. Great care is being taken to establish a pattern and rhythm through the space. It starts with two large bleacherlike seating areas which rise up like icebergs after the security checkpoints, which subtly lead outbound travelers toward the periphery of the space – the longer, more circular route – while inbound passengers are directed straight between then, down a level and swiftly out. The periphery walls are curved like the paths at Union Square to slow down the outbound experience and increase the likelihood of lingering over retail.
The bleacher-like seating area, improving on the usual pods of small chairs and tables at floor level, encourage people to get above the action and what the shapes of the promenade that they were recently a part of. Its a way of creating a “public theatre” feel which creates a sense of excitement with the variation between being a spectator and being part of the show.
Its a fascinating concept having passenger flow directed by a choreographer but it makes perfect sense. One of the great challenges of airport retail is to get people in the right mindspace to shop and most definately thats heavily influenced by the rhythm of movement.
Beijing
The new Terminal, due for soft opening in March 2008 but essentially ready now, is touted as the world’s most technologically advanced in terms of passenger experience, operational efficiency and sustainability.
One of its innovations was the use of southeast-oriented skylights to maximize heat from early sunshine, and the integrated environment-control system that uses minimal energy.
What makes it impressive? Well its size for a start – claiming to be the world’s largest airport building at more than 1 million square meters. Yet innovative design has managed to keep walking distances relatively short. Retail wise there isn’t much innovation planned, not on a world scale anyway. Aside from reducing prices to city levels and the possibility of leasing out space rather than the airport operating shops itself, there doesn’t sound like there will be much different. But it is stunning……
Ben Gurion, Israel
Touted as the most security conscious airport in the world. Its only relatively small (6-10 million pax pa), making it perhaps easier to approach security in this way, the airport made a conscious decision to develop its security systems more based on human judgement than technological wizardry. This reliance on human judgement has served the airport well but it also caused bottlenecks during peak traffic times. To deal with this the airport implemented biometric systems for frequent fliers (roughly 23% of the traffic).
The core of Ben Gurion’s success is twofold. Firstly it doesn’t just focus on the terminal itself. Secondly, it focusses on people not on weapons – adopting the philosophy that weapons aren’t necessary but people are and hence if you stop the person you stop the attack. Therefore they operate on behaviour pattern recognition and look at how people might react and what might happen rather than what has happened in the past.
Is it popular with passengers, no, international passengers in particular tend to be thrown by the intrusive nature of the security. Retail sales also suggest that it doesn’t do much for spending either – with many stores being empty with no applications when expressions of interest are requested. But in an area like Israel and an airport which has been threatened so many times by terrorist attacks, its probably a necessary tradeoff to remain free of any successful terrorist attack in 30 years.
