Airports: The Latest Architecture and News

According to Norman Foster, "as an architect you design for the present, with an awareness of the past." In this sense, present-day architecture, interiors, and furniture have undergone a radical evolution in recent years, driven by a paradigm shift in the conception of space and our interaction with it. This contemporary approach has steered us towards less constrained, more collaborative, and multi-purpose spaces, which can also provide privacy and functionality. In addition, they must serve as temporary workspaces in specific contexts, adapting to the dynamism of contemporary needs and activities.

From this new approach, architects and designers are reshaping interior environments to accommodate new behaviors, facilitating the discovery of renewed ergonomics in human activities. Today, architectural thinking is merging to create spaces that enable conducting our lives in motion, a trend particularly evident in dynamic environments such as airports, encompassing intimate and social moments with people on the move. Consequently, a new kind of furniture has re-emerged, becoming commonplace in airport settings and other shared spaces: the booth.

The 24 shortlisted international projects for airports, university campuses, stations, and sports facilities competing for the Prix Versailles 2022 Awards have been announced. The global finalists in the Shops, Shopping Centres, Hotels, and Restaurants category will also be announced shortly.

Dock A, the largest dock of the Zurich Airport, was the subject of international competition. BIG forms the winning team as design lead with HOK as aviation architect, 10:8 architects, engineer Buro Happold, timber experts Pirmin Jung, and aviation consultant NACO. Their design proposal centers on passenger experience and movement through the airport. A pared-back material palette reveals the loadbearing system of the building: V-shaped timber columns provide both a structural function and a distinctive identity true to its place and era, according to the jury.

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After the announcement of the selected projects in the categories of Airports, Campus, Railway Stations and Sports, followed by the announcement of the 70 Continental Winning Projects of the Prix Versailles 2021 in the categories of Shops, Shopping Centres, Hotels and Restaurants, there turned out to be a total of 94 new projects competing in the 2021 Prix Versailles World Final.

New York Governor Kathy Hochul announced last week that the current and former sites of Terminals 1, 2, and 3 on the south side of John F. Kennedy International Airport in Queens will be redeveloped to make way for a $9.5 billion international terminal that will be built out in phases beginning next year. With the first of its 23 gates anticipated to go live in 2026, the 2.4-million-square-foot new Terminal One will rank as the largest at JFK and, per a news release from the Governor’s Office, “aspires to be among the top-rated airport terminals in the world.”

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Architectural photographer Paul Clemence has released a new photoseries of Riken Yamamoto's The Circle project, a mixed use development at the Zurich Airport. The design was a competition entry that asked architects to create a program that offers visitors: Swissness, Surprise, and Connections to the World. Yamamoto's winning design, with its inclined facade and combination of linear and curved outlines, linked the airport to the park physically and visually, creating an architecture that highlights the Swiss identity.

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ZGF Architects has shared new visuals showcasing the main terminal of the Portland International Airport (PDX) in Oregon. Inspired by the forest landscapes of the Pacific Northwest, the terminal renovation and expansion emphasizes openness, light and connection to the region’s materials. The structure features a series of skylights and an expansive timber roof made from sustainably sourced regional wood.

The annual Prix Versailles awards, created in 2015 to promote a better interaction between the cultural and the economic, announced the 2021 World Selections celebrating 24 projects in the categories of Airports, Campuses, Passenger Stations and Sports.

In a competition organized by Shenzhen Airport, Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners (RSHP) and China Northeast Architectural Design & Research Institute (CNADRI) have won a competition to design the Terminal 4 Bao’an International Airport in Shenzhen, China. The winning design offers a new 400,000 sqm building with connections to existing and new transport infrastructure, as well as a space that promotes passenger interaction and wellbeing, all while maintaining a safe post-pandemic environment.

A multidisciplinary design team led by global architecture firm Grimshaw was selected as the winner of an international competition to design the Shenzhen Airport East Integrated Transport Hub. The winning design, which was inspired by the Mangrove tree, will provide travelers effortless transfers between high speed rail and other public transportation means in a new green and interactive way.

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This article was originally published on Common Edge.

Pretty much everyone hates waiting rooms. Here are four statistics about them from a survey administered by Software Advice, an Austin, Texas-based consultation group: 80% of respondents said being told the accurate wait time would either completely or somewhat minimize their frustration; 40% said they would be willing to see another physician if it meant a shorter waiting time; 20% would be willing to pay an extra fee for quicker service; and 97%—virtually all of us!—are frustrated by wait times. And now, waiting rooms, in addition to being some of the dreariest places on earth, have become one of the easiest places in the world to get sick.

Zurich Airport International, the developer of the Delhi Noida International Airport (DNIA), has selected a consortium consisting of the Nordic Office of Architecture, Grimshaw, Haptic, and STUP to design the passenger terminal. Imagining “India’s greenest airport”, the winning team took the commission after a three-phase, design competition between June and August 2020. Other shortlisted teams include Gensler / Arup and SOM / Mott McDonalds.

Snøhetta has revealed its first built project in Hong Kong, Airside, a 176,000 square meters mixed-use building. Located in the center of the former Kai Tak airport, the project commissioned by Nan Fung Group comprises a 200-meter tower merged seamlessly with its base.

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The team of von Gerkan, Marg and Partners Architects (gmp) has created a new vision for the Berlin-Tegel Airport in Germany. As of May 2021, the site will be developed into a research and industrial park for urban technologies. Dubbed the Berlin TXL–Urban Tech Republic, the project will transform existing buildings to house new functions, and include the addition of a new start-up and innovation center in the central terminal building.