Michael Wyetzner of Michielli + Wyetzner Architects returns to AD to break down the secret to good airport design. Most people don’t want to spend more time in an airport than they have to but the time spent there should be pleasant and comfortable. Join Michael as he breaks down how some of the world’s most famous architects, like Zaha Hadid, have balanced efficiency and aesthetics when designing the perfect airport.
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00:00Most people don't want to spend more time in an airport than they have to.
00:02That makes efficiency the number one job for airport design.
00:06But for the time you do spend there, you want it to be pleasant,
00:09comfortable, and maybe even beautiful.
00:12Hi, I'm Michael Weitzner, and I've been an architect for over 35 years.
00:15And today we're going to be talking about the secret to good airport design
00:19and why it's so important to balance the expediency
00:22and experience of your time in the airport.
00:26First of all, airports originally were designed primarily just for function.
00:30They started as military and government facilities,
00:32which were just hangars and sheds and dirt landing strips in a field.
00:37As flight became more accessible and more people traveled by plane,
00:40airports needed to be much larger to accommodate the demands
00:43for all these new passenger flights.
00:45They now needed to include spaces for check-in,
00:47baggage claim, gates for waiting at, and food service and other retail.
00:52I mean, the idea of a large airport was a totally new typology.
00:55They could have made them look like train stations, but they didn't.
00:58They were searching for a new language for their design.
01:00They maintained some of that utilitarian feel
01:02because efficiency and cost were still factors.
01:05But at this point, most of them just ended up looking like office buildings.
01:09At that point, efficiency became even more important than before.
01:12Airports needed to accommodate, and still do, three modes of traffic.
01:15People, bags, and flights.
01:18And the way they did this was to separate the passenger traffic
01:21vertically, based on whether you were arriving or departing.
01:24So typically, airports are designed on two levels.
01:27One level is for bags, one level is for people.
01:30Airplanes are very tall.
01:31So typically, when you enter the airport for your departing flight,
01:34you're entering on the upper level because that's where you enter the plane at.
01:38And when you arrive at your destination, typically, you were on the ground level
01:43because that is the level in the airplane that the bags are located in.
01:48And so those bags come in directly,
01:50and you grab your bag and go out to the street level to get your taxi, your Uber, or your Lyft.
01:56As airports continued to grow, they became more complex.
01:59Not only in their configurations, but in the variety of spaces that they offered.
02:03Airport security began to take up a much larger footprint,
02:06and over the years, food service and retail became a massive part of the floor plan.
02:10Travel efficiency and retail economics were the main factors in airport design for many years.
02:16But the aesthetic aspect of their design didn't progress beyond imitations of office buildings,
02:23until one specific terminal significantly changed the dynamics of airport design,
02:28driven more by aesthetic and the experience of visiting the airport itself,
02:32rather than treating it just as a transitional space between a car and an airplane.
02:36And the turning point in this aesthetic evolution
02:39can be traced back to a single terminal that was completed in 1962
02:43at what was then called Idlewild Airport and is now called John F. Kennedy International.
02:47This is the TWA Flight Center, designed by Eero Saarinen.
02:51So Saarinen had just completed the General Motors headquarters in Michigan,
02:54which had gotten a lot of acclaim and a lot of attention.
02:56He designed a lot of very unique buildings, all different from one another,
02:59including the hockey rink at Yale University.
03:02So Saarinen was chosen for this project because he was known as a visionary.
03:05No two buildings he did were ever the same.
03:08And he was actually designing another very famous airport called Dulles Airport
03:12outside of Washington at the very same time.
03:14And for this project, he wanted to design a building
03:17that evoked the excitement of air travel.
03:20So what Saarinen did to evoke this idea of flight
03:23was he created these swooping grand curves and lifted them up,
03:28almost like wings would lift up above this portion of the building.
03:31And he almost created what appears to be like the beak of a giant bird.
03:36And to some, that was a little too picturesque,
03:39and he was actually criticized for it.
03:41But there's no denying that this building itself,
03:43the interior as well as the exterior,
03:45evokes the idea of taking off and flying through the air.
03:50And what's most remarkable about this is this was done in an era before computers.
03:54So all this was designed, as it were, by hand.
03:58The building has these multiple compound and complex curves.
04:02And in fact, he couldn't even draw it.
04:03They basically just kept building model after model after model,
04:07and then they drew that.
04:09So let's take a look at the interior of the building,
04:11which in many ways is even more exciting than the exterior.
04:14I mean, it's incredible, actually.
04:16He creates these extremely dynamic, swirling forms on the interior.
04:24And then the roof of this building, which comes down and forms the walls
04:28and the entire enclosure for the interior,
04:31is actually made of four separate folded shells.
04:34And he separated each of these shells with this linear skylight.
04:39And for me, this sort of represents the pinnacle of the glamour of air travel
04:43in the early 1960s, the era of President John F. Kennedy,
04:47the space race, the innocence before Vietnam,
04:50still basking in the victory of World War II.
04:53And I think this building by Saarinen contributed more to that feeling
04:57than any other building of the era,
04:58in that it's the expression of flight
05:00and the sense of discovery that comes with air travel.
05:04So the way Saarinen designed this airport was there's this great terminal,
05:08but then you've got to go through these long tubes to get to these gates
05:11where the planes are to board your flight.
05:13You could see the tubes clearly here and through this window here.
05:17So when you get off your flight, after coming out of this tube of an airplane,
05:22he brings you into this other tube, this really evocative,
05:26almost like the esophagus of a giant animal,
05:29that you walk through and then you emerge from this tight, dark space
05:34into this bright and luminous airport terminal.
05:38Saarinen created this place that you weren't meant just to walk through,
05:41but you were actually meant to linger and enjoy
05:44and get a sense of the excitement of air travel.
05:47Typically, when you arrive at an airport,
05:49the last thing you want to do is linger.
05:51I mean, it's been hours since you got in the car
05:54or the train that brought you to the airport
05:57until you waited, until you got on your flight,
05:59until your flight finally landed.
06:01So the first thing you want to do
06:02is get to the baggage carousel as quickly as possible,
06:05collect your belongings and be on your way.
06:07You don't linger to look at the architecture,
06:09but occasionally one is struck by something amazing
06:12and that's what happens at TWA.
06:14You come out of your plane into this long tube,
06:16which brings you into this amazing space below
06:19and it gives you a sense of what a great airport can be.
06:22Suddenly you realize you're in a new and exciting place
06:24and that's what a great airport can give.
06:26Some other airports that have also created this feeling are
06:30Barajas in Spain by Richard Rodgers,
06:33Kansai in Japan by Renzo Piano,
06:35the Jeddah Airport in Saudi Arabia by SOM
06:38and Dulles Airport, of course,
06:40outside of Washington DC, also by Sarn.
06:42The thing about air travel today is it's extremely safe
06:45and extremely affordable.
06:46So because of all this,
06:47people are spending more and more time at the airport.
06:50And so one would like them to be as beautiful as possible.
06:55So now let's take a look at an airport
06:57that takes that idea even further.
06:59Daxing International Airport in Beijing, China.
07:02So this is the largest airport building in the world,
07:04it was designed by Zaha Hadid architects.
07:06Here's everything that jumps out at me.
07:08First off, it's the massive scale of this building.
07:11The building footprint is so large
07:13that the runways almost look diminutive in comparison.
07:17And it obviously takes a lot of cues
07:19from what Sarn did at TWA
07:22in terms of its plastic curves and organic shapes.
07:25It almost looks like some sort of living marine creature.
07:28In fact, it's nicknamed the starfish.
07:30The other way in that it relates to TWA
07:33is that it also has these linear skylights,
07:36the separation of the shelves.
07:38So in a way, it's this series of boomerang shapes,
07:42these parabolas that all sort of meet
07:46to form this radial construction.
07:48And in the center, there is this lattice work
07:51of this amazing skylight,
07:53which we'll show you from within.
07:54And speaking of skylights,
07:56each one of these little domes are actually skylights.
08:01And in fact, if you look at it from the roadway,
08:03it looks very reminiscent of the TWA terminal at JFK.
08:06And you can see it with this large overhang
08:08and the way the form lifts up
08:11and it's filled in with glass below
08:13is very reminiscent of what Sarn did at TWA.
08:16But it's not just beautiful on the outside.
08:18This building is really quite incredible from the interior.
08:22So these two photos give you a great view of the interior
08:25and the skylights that flood it with natural light.
08:27And I mentioned the vortex at the center of this form,
08:32that lattice skylight.
08:33Well, this is it from the interior.
08:34And you could see the linear skylights
08:37that separate each one of those parabolic boomerang-like shapes
08:41from one another.
08:42And this is one of those small,
08:44almost elliptical-shaped skylights
08:47that you saw from the roof.
08:48And it just gives you an idea
08:50of the massive scale of this building,
08:52that that tiny little oval that we saw on the roof
08:57is actually, compared to a person, is an enormous size.
09:01And you could see the excitement on the interior.
09:03I mean, this actually, you know you're at an airport.
09:05Here's the check-in counters.
09:07Here's baggage.
09:08And then here you see all these amazing shapes.
09:12And I love that she did this suspended arch,
09:15which looks like it's just floating in midair.
09:17And then she suspends the bridge from it.
09:19It's this dynamic, amazing environment
09:22that totally envelops you,
09:24where it's hard to distinguish
09:25between floor, wall, and ceiling.
09:27One thing grows out of the other.
09:29So clearly the experience of being here
09:32was forefront in the designers' minds.
09:34The idea was, let's create an amazing place to be.
09:38Okay, so let's talk about Zaha Hadid,
09:40truly one of the great architects
09:42of the late 20th and early 21st century.
09:44She was hugely influenced by a group of artists
09:47known as the supremacists,
09:49who were Kazimir Malevich, El Lissitzky,
09:53and Leobov Popova.
09:54They were called that because they were interested
09:56in the supremacy of pure artistic feeling,
09:58as opposed to just the visual depiction of objects.
10:01And Zaha was also a painter.
10:03Through her paintings, she explores spaces
10:05that architecture hasn't considered before.
10:07So these paintings foreshadow her early built work,
10:10such as the Vitra Fire Station in Switzerland
10:12and the Rosenthal Center for Contemporary Art in Cincinnati,
10:16which are all very hard-edged and rectilinear
10:19and don't employ those soft curves yet.
10:22At the Maxim Museum in Rome,
10:23she starts to soften her form
10:25and creates these more curvilinear shapes,
10:27which over the years leads to the astonishing forms
10:30that she employs at Daxing.
10:31Sadly, she died in 2016 before its completion,
10:35but her stamp is all over it.
10:37And truly, she's one of the great architects
10:38of the 21st century.
10:40But Daxing is not just beautiful,
10:42it's also extremely efficient.
10:44So this aerial view really shows the efficiency
10:48of this radial hub-and-spoke concept
10:50of which this airport is designed.
10:52So basically, what this hub-and-spoke concept means
10:54is that no gate is too far away from the center.
10:57In fact, it's only an eight-minute walk
10:58to the farthest end of each one of these piers.
11:01So this concept is incredibly pedestrian-friendly
11:04because it means you don't have to walk
11:05all these great distances like you do at other airports.
11:08For instance, at Dallas-Fort Worth,
11:10it's over two miles to the furthest gate,
11:12which is 40 minutes of walking time.
11:14So this radial concept also means
11:16you don't need other forms of transportation
11:18to get around the airport.
11:20You don't require buses, shuttles, or trains.
11:23Of course, this shape, which is so efficient for passengers,
11:26is actually a somewhat common arrangement for terminals.
11:29So Daxing, although it's radial,
11:31is actually based on the pier concept.
11:33And the pier concept, when arranging an airport terminal,
11:37is basically just a linear pier
11:40like you would find at a marina with boats.
11:43But in this case, it contains planes,
11:46and the planes just all, you know, sit here like this.
11:48So at one end is the terminal,
11:50and a string of gates come off it along this pier concept.
11:54And then the jetway goes to each one.
11:56So what happens at Daxing, they take this pier concept,
12:00and they just do five of them coming off the same terminal,
12:03which again makes this extremely efficient
12:06for people inside the airport to get to where they're going.
12:09Of course, there are other common configurations,
12:11and probably the earliest configuration
12:13was just the linear concept,
12:15where you have an airport, and here's your terminal,
12:17and then your gates are here.
12:19And then you have a plane here, and a plane here,
12:22and a plane here,
12:24and they're all just arranged in one linear row.
12:26Then, of course, there's another configuration,
12:28which is known as the satellite configuration.
12:31And the satellite configuration
12:32is essentially a total separation from the terminal.
12:35So you have your terminal here,
12:37and then you have your gates out here.
12:40So the advantage of the satellite configuration
12:42is that the tarmac is uninterrupted,
12:44and the planes are closer to the taxiways and the runways.
12:48The other advantage of it is it's more efficient,
12:51and you can get more planes
12:52along the perimeter of the building.
12:54So while it's more efficient for the airplanes,
12:57it's less efficient for the passengers.
13:01And actually, the next airport we're gonna look at
13:02combines two of these ideas
13:04to really maximize the efficiency for the planes.
13:07This is Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport
13:10in Atlanta, Georgia,
13:11and it's actually the busiest airport in the world.
13:14In fact, it's the only airport that has ever served
13:17over 100 million passengers in one year.
13:20One of the reasons why this is the busiest airport
13:22in the world is that 80% of the U.S. population
13:25lives within a two-hour flight of this airport.
13:27And if designing an airport is a series of decisions
13:30between aesthetics and efficiency,
13:32every decision they made here at Hartsfield
13:35is the complete opposite of what they did at Da Jing.
13:37At ATL, efficiency for flights beats everything else.
13:41So this is what makes it so efficient for flights.
13:43They combine two of the configurations
13:46that we just looked at.
13:47You get planes on either side of this linear form,
13:50and they use them as satellites
13:54so that they can get as many as they can,
13:56and the tarmac is uninterrupted.
13:58What that means is that any of these planes
14:00can reach any of the five runways
14:03in a very short amount of time.
14:04But the trade-off here is that unlike Da Jing,
14:06which has a short walk to any gate,
14:08here the connections between terminals are underground
14:11and require passengers to take elevators
14:13or escalators down, board a train,
14:15and then take an escalator or elevator back up
14:17to the level of their flight.
14:19It's a clever solution, separating the traffic vertically
14:21to allow maximum flexibility for flights,
14:24but it also adds multiple modes of travel
14:26within the airport itself.
14:27You take three or four different types of transportation,
14:30just to get to your fifth airplane.
14:32So the sacrifice here is that you're hopefully
14:34spending less time in the airport overall,
14:36thanks to its efficiency,
14:37which should mean fewer delays
14:40and shorter waits for flights.
14:41But the time you do spend here
14:43is not visually inspiring in the same way
14:45that it is at TWA or Da Jing.
14:48So while it is maximizing efficiency for flights,
14:50there is a trade-off with the experience
14:53of actually being in the airport.
14:55So let's take a closer look at the terminals.
14:58So this design really harkens back
14:59to the original ideas of airports,
15:01when they were just these very efficient utilitarian spaces
15:06made to get people on and off their airplanes.
15:09And you could actually see the planes,
15:11the jetways, and the actual terminal building right here.
15:15And that terminal building is here in this photograph.
15:18And you can see there's really not much to it.
15:20It's just basically an aluminum box
15:23with corrugated metal along the outside,
15:25the occasional window, and that's it.
15:29There's very little natural light.
15:31It couldn't be more mundane if it tried.
15:34And the interiors are exactly the same way.
15:37So what I love about this is the terminal looks
15:40like the warehouse buildings
15:42that you see surrounding airports,
15:44in that they're built for completely utilitarian
15:47and efficient reasons and nothing else.
15:49This airport is built entirely for function.
15:52And that function is getting airplanes in
15:55and getting airplanes out.
15:56Unfortunately, one pays an aesthetic price
15:59for that efficiency.
16:00So what is the secret to good airport design?
16:02I think it's about striking a balance
16:04between efficiency and an aesthetic experience.
16:08The reality is the nature of air travel now
16:10means that you're gonna spend more time in the airport
16:13than you really want to.
16:14So you might as well be in as nice a building
16:16as you can be in.
16:17But no matter how nice that building is,
16:19you still want the airport to run efficiently.
16:22And you don't wanna spend more time there
16:24than you have to.
16:24So there has to be a sweet spot between the two.
16:27And that is the nature of good airport design today.
16:29So what's your favorite airport
16:31and your least favorite airport?
16:32Let us know in the comments below.