Sordo Madaleno Arquitectos and Pascall+Watson has shared with us their proposal for the New Mexico City International Airport (often referred to as the NAICM for its initials in Spanish: Nuevo Aeropuerto Internacional de la Ciudad de México).
We have already presented you with the NAICM’s winning proposal, though Sordo Madaleno and Pascall+Watson were one of seven participating teams in the invited competition. The team sought to redefine the concept of aviation architecture by centering their idea around passenger experience and business efficiency. See what they came up with, after the break.
From the architects: The design proposed by Sordo Madaleno, together with Pascall+Watson reflects a sustainable future, with an innovative architectural solution, sensitive to the needs of current society, with economic efficiency and a clear Mexican identity.
An airport is one of the most complex buildings, since it is replete with criteria, variables and norms. However, Sordo Madaleno’s proposal succeeds in having each design element respond to a specific form and function, thus achieving a unified architecture with economic viability.
The key concept around this consortium proposal is the passenger’s experience, while commercial effectiveness is one of the starting points to develop its design. The passenger’s terminal retakes historically proven commercial strategies, but revitalized under a fresh focus.
This is accomplished creating an active commercial space (located along the building’s central spine) that accompanies passengers in a commercial promenade with generous spaces showered with natural light, lush vegetation, height and scenery.
Airport City (Ciudad Aeroportuaria) is organized along a great central axis that directly guides the user to the airport through a way-promenade with ample dimensions, a contemporary topper to the grand quality of our Paseo de la Reforma.
The airport’s functional design seeks to reduce capital investment attaining the highest flow potential with minimum infrastructure, without compromising the spaces’ flexibility and versatility for future configurations. The architectural program will include a terminal building, multimodal parking, control tower and operations control center.
Final typology is the result of a rigorous research, backed by decades of experience designing airport terminals. The adopted solution poses a response to the aeronautical concerns stated in Arup’s MasterPlan, seeking to improve the passenger’s conditions and space efficiency. This is achieved with a large capacity terminal (until 2028), which can be walked in its entirety (implementation of APM is not required), and with a radical reduction of level changes in the trajectories of both passengers and technical staff.
A constant quest for simplicity directed flow design to achieve that it be intuitive, include the minimum amount of level changes, offering the shortest connection times and wide flows, to avoid crossovers, to require the smallest amount of directional decisions and offer comfort for elderly passengers or those with reduced mobility.
Sustainability is an integral part of the NAICM design. The central focus is low carbon emissions and principles of passive design, such as optimal orientation, high-efficiency building shells, natural lighting, water saving, ventilation by displacement and use of alternative energies. NAICM is projected to be one of the world’s prime energy and resource effective airports, setting forth a new world baseline in sustainability and environmental performance.
During the design process, some situations that are constant in current airports in the world were studied, which this proposal seeks to improve; the first is the airports’ trend to prioritize departures’ trajectories over arrivals. This airport proposes an arrival trajectory with the same spatial quality as that of departures, and with a high level of services, both in its course as in the arrival lobby.
The second is the customary lack of vegetation or any connection with the natural world. This proposal includes a green axis –projected as spinal part of the commercial zone and generative of new experiences- in which passengers remain in constant contact with gardens that provide a sense of warmth, softness and tranquility throughout most of their stay at the Terminal.
The third situation arises from the general passenger behavior, regarding their dislike to repeat the same course. In this proposal, the concept of commercial space with boarding gates on both sides helps to solve this problem, allowing crossing through central garden/commercial areas that enables passengers to create their own circuit without having to repeat the track over his/her own steps.
Architects
Location
Texcoco, State of Mexico, MexicoArchitecture and Design
Sordo MadalenoAirport Design
Pascall + WatsonCosts and Sustainability)
EC HarrisAirport Masterplan
AertecInterior Design
Sordo Madaleno ArquitectosSMA Interior Team
Nadia Borrás (Director), Enrique Ralph, Fernanda Patiño, Andoni Barcon, Maite Sanchez Navarro, Fernanda Sotomayor, Zgregorz Leiner, Pilar Ocejo, Edgardo PerezSMA Architectural Team
Boris Pena (Leader), Rodrigo Flores (Manager), Marcos Hernandez (Engineering Coordination), Rosalba Rojas (Media and Marketing), Ma. Luisa Guzmán (Media and Marketing), Fernando Sordo Madaleno, Andres Harfuch, Andres Muñoz, Iovani Fuentes, Cándido Hernández, Luis A. Pucheta, Alejandro Espejel, Abraham García, Miguel Baranda, David PazosP&W Team
Martin Neilan (Lead Planner & P+W Project Director), Hendrik Orsinger (Terminal Technical Lead), Nuno Patricio (Architect, Stand Planning), Uzma Waheed, Samantha BrewerStructural Engineering
Grupo RIOBOO JorodElectrical Engineering
ETRA, S.A. de C.V.Hydrosanitary and Gas Engineering
R+O Consultores S.A. DE C.VAir Conditioning Engineering
De Buen & AsociadosSystems and Special Engineering
Innovative Designs S. de R.L. DE C.V.Transport Consultant
LogplanLighting Consultant
DadaAcoustic Consultant
USTD & JGH ARDABUTLandscape Consultant
Gabayet PaisajistasWayfinding Consultant
TriagonalModel
Roberto MontalvoGraphic Design
ES-QArea
471800.0 sqmProject Year
2014Photographs
Sordo Madaleno, render by MIR, Sordo Madaleno, render by Glessner Group, Pascall + Watson, Sordo Madaleno / Pascall + Watson, Sordo Madaleno, Sordo Madaleno, model by Roberto MontalvoLocation
Texcoco, State of Mexico, MexicoCosts
EC HarrisSustainability
EC HarrisProject Year
2014Photographs
Sordo Madaleno, render by MIR, Sordo Madaleno, render by Glessner Group, Pascall + Watson, Sordo Madaleno / Pascall + Watson, Sordo Madaleno, Sordo Madaleno, model by Roberto MontalvoArea
471800.0 m2
