WORLD'S 10 MOST BEAUTIFUL AIRPORT
TERMINALS
MARCH
27, 2012 (PHNO FEATURE) Uplifting Arrivals By Sascha Segan
- Airport terminals aren't generally viewed as architectural wonders. The
concrete boxes of the 1960s and '70s generally gave way to glass boxes in the
'90s and '00s, with the best terminals making a vague stab at incorporating
ideas of "light" and "air" -- or at least offering decent food that isn't a
mile's walk from the gates.
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, of course, and one person's perfect
terminal is another's endless walkway of sorrows.
Luckily, these ten airport terminals combine personality, functionality, and
uniqueness to offer a great travel experience that starts the moment you get off
the plane.
SINGAPORE TERMINALS
Right Photo Caption: Terminal 3 in Changi International Airport, famous for
its uniquely-designed roof. Photo by xcode/Flickr.com
Left Photo Caption: Terminal 3 in Changi International Airport, Singapore.
Photo by Steel Wool/Flickr.com
This is the airport as amusement park. Singapore's three terminals are widely
considered to be the most fun you can have in an airport, and each one has its
attractions. Terminal 3 gets the nod, though, as it's the newest, with "an
automatic light modulation system" to give the whole place a soothing, even,
slightly unearthly glow.
Terminal 3 is home to Changi's butterfly garden, an 18-foot waterfall, a huge
indoor playground, a movie theater, TV lounges and the "Slide@T3," a four-story
spiral slide that's a lot more fun than taking the elevator. The other terminals
join in the theme of combining indoor and outdoor spaces, with more gardens and
even an outdoor swimming pool available to the public.
Jeddah Hajj Terminal, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
One of the world's most radical airport terminals is one most Americans are
unlikely to ever travel through. The Jeddah Hajj Terminal is unique: it's only
active during the "hajj," a religiously mandated pilgrimage to Mecca for
Muslims. During that six-week period, it's one of the busiest airport terminals
in the world.
The Hajj Terminal received the American Institute of Architects' 25-year
award as a design that's stood the test of time: it's made of 210 open-air,
white fiberglass tents which create a "chimney effect" that can cool the hot
desert air by 50 degrees without expensive, hard-to-maintain air conditioning,
according to a profile in the Architectural Record. The tents can contain 80,000
people, with flexible spaces devoted to very unusual activities for an airport
terminal, such as changing clothes and ritual foot-washing.
The terminal gets some knocks online for being, as one Skytrax reviewer says,
"chaotic and basic." But no other airline terminal has its unique challenges:
being literally the gateway to heaven for tens of thousands of people a day,
many of whom are making this a once-in-a-lifetime trip.
Photo Caption: Jeddah Hajj Terminal in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
Photo by IFC Infrastructure
Leif Eriksson Air Terminal, Keflavik, Iceland
Iceland's cozy little international airport looks like it arrived in a flat
pack from IKEA. It's all blond wood and volcanic-looking stone with big windows
looking out on the dramatic Icelandic landscape. There's a lot more wood in this
airport than you'll find in most terminals, and instead of being a design accent
near the ceiling (as in Madrid), it's on the floor, making the terminal feel
much more natural and less sterile than usual.
The best buildings capture a bit of the soul of a place, and the Keflavik
terminal does that perfectly: it's cozy (maybe a little too cozy in some of the
gate areas), made of local materials, relatively spare and utterly embedded in
the landscape. As a greeting to Iceland, it's perfect.
Photo Caption: Keflavík International Airport, Iceland.
Photo by jonathanpercy/Flickr.com
Seoul Incheon Airport, Incheon, South Korea
Never mind how it looks from the outside: Seoul's airport regularly gets
awards for how well-organized, efficient and relaxing it is on the inside. I've
been there several times, and Seoul's secret is to make sure that you're never
more than a few steps away from an entertaining, enlightening, or amusing bit of
Korean culture.
Scattered throughout the terminal like Easter eggs, you'll find hands-on
Korean craft workshops, a dress-up area where you can take photos in traditional
clothing, the best free Internet cafes you've ever seen (and yes, that's
absolutely a bit of Korean culture), a museum, and plenty of places to take a
comfortable nap. Want to try a traditional Korean bathhouse? Head to the
basement. Plants and flowers keep up the impression that you're in a showplace
for Korea's melding of history, art and technology, and not just a mere airport
terminal.
Photo Caption: Seoul Incheon Airport, South Korea.
Photo by DG Jones
Wellington Airport "Rock" Terminal, Wellington, New Zealand
Many people have called this the world's ugliest airport terminal. But
there's a reason the new international terminal in Wellington has won enough
awards to fill a jumbo jet. Like the Keflavik terminal above, it's an
intelligent response to New Zealand's identity and landscape and not just
another swooping glass box evoking "flight."
Opened last year, the Rock is a pair of egg-shaped buildings covered in
copper plating that's designed to turn blue-green in the sea air. Inside,
curving corners and geometric panels play peekaboo: the terminal packs double
the passenger capacity of the previous terminal into the same space without
feeling crowded. A plain box wouldn't have been able to do that.
The Rock looks rugged, unique, and as its architect said, "theatrical" -- all
parts of the Kiwi identity. It wouldn't be built anywhere else.
Photo Caption: Wellington Airport "Rock" Terminal, New Zealand.
Photo by 4nitsirk/Flickr.com
JFK Terminal 5, New York, NY
Airport terminals don't usually age well. JFK's Terminal 5 is the exception.
One of the greatest icons of the mid-20th Century Jet Age, Eero Saarinen's TWA
terminal has been intelligently swallowed by the grasping tendrils of JetBlue's
modern new terminal, which has by far the best airport food court in New York.
So you get the best of both worlds: an AirTrain ride up to the home of "Catch Me
If You Can" glamour followed by a smooth walk through a spacious, modern
terminal.
There's still one missing piece, of course: you can't actually walk into the
Saarinen terminal's main hall, as the epically incompetent New York Port
Authority has dragged its feet for years on finding a tenant for the space.
According to Curbed.com, the authority has been trying to interest boutique
hoteliers (the lack of a good airport hotel is another one of JFK's many flaws),
but the idea isn't even at the planning stage yet.
Photo Caption: Terminal 5 at JFK International Airport, New York.
Photo by Scott Beale/Laughing Squid/Flickr.com
Marrakech Menara Airport Terminal 1, Marrakech, Morocco
This one is another great example of culturally aware terminal design. The
new Terminal 1 at Marrakech's airport looks like a Moroccan palace
twenty-first-century style, with classic Islamic geometric and nature motifs
inscribed into a giant network of concrete diamonds. You could make a strong
argument that the whole thing is one giant artwork.
At night, colored lights dance along the front face of the building,
illuminating the desert plantings along the arrivals roadway. A lounge inside
evokes 19th-century Moroccan luxury, with rugs, chandeliers, and a wrought-metal
dome.
Photo Caption: Menara Airport, Marrakech.
Photo by Exile on James Street/Flickr.com
Madrid Barajas Terminal 4
Designed by "starchitect" Richard Rogers, Madrid's huge Terminal 4 tries to
break free of typical box-style construction by using a roof line of undulating
ribs, which helped it win the 2006 Stirling Prize for architecture.
Terminal 4 comes with a strike against it: it's so long (especially when you
include the integrated, but next-door Terminal 4S) that it can feel like it
takes forever to get from gate to gate. But this is an unusually intelligently
designed terminal: clear, color-coded signs group together directions for gates,
and multi-level walkways reduce traffic on each individual level. Even when the
terminal is full (and I've changed planes at peak times here), it never feels
oppressively crowded, and you never get frustratingly lost or stuck waiting for
buses the way you can in the design-before-function Charles de Gaulle airport
outside Paris.
Photo Caption: Terminal 4 of Madrid Barajas Airport.
Photo by Angela Radulescu/Flickr.com
Carrasco International Airport, Montevideo, Uruguay
Yes, someone's still building airports that evoke sweeping 1960s-era glamour.
That someone is Rafael Viñoly, and his airport is in the quiet, pleasant and
well-off South American country of Uruguay. Montevideo's airport terminal is a
smooth dome, looking from the front a bit like a whale's mouth; inside, lines
are smooth, clean and calm, with grand terraces overlooking the runways and
arrival areas.
This isn't a busy airport, but it's designed as if it was one: the terminal
is designed to handle 4.5 million passengers a year, according to one of the
companies which built it but its traffic has been stable for years at a bit over
a million. That means fewer crowds, and more appreciation of the elegant lines
here as you glide through the terminal.
Photo Caption: Carrasco International Airport, Montevideo.
Photo by Flodigrip's world/Flickr.com
Bilbao Airport Main Terminal SPAIN
I could have picked several terminals designed by big-name architects for
this final slot, including Beijing's new Terminal 3, Kansai and Lyon. So why
Bilbao? I have a soft spot for architect Santiago Calatrava and his obsession
with cable bridges, ships' sails and birds' wings; his designs often look like
they're the skeletons of some ancient whale or the prow of a spaceship about to
head to Alpha Centauri. Those references, it turns out, are as perfect for an
airport terminal.
Bilbao's terminal is known as "the dove," and it has Calatrava's signatures:
sharply-canted curves and lots of light streaming through, and bisected by, ribs
which resemble cables. A grand viewing gallery lets the families of arriving
passengers see their loved ones as they pick up their bags.
Photo Caption: Bilbao Airport, Spain.
Photo by reevery/Flickr.com
Read more: http://www.frommers.com/slideshow/index.cfm?group=785&p=11#ixzz1qDPfRskl
Chief News Editor: Sol Jose Vanzi
© Copyright, 2011 by PHILIPPINE
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