Airport design requires a holistic approach!

The design of an airport is not solely for aesthetic value! It influences everything from airport function to passenger experience. Ar. Amit Palia of SJ-SMEC elucidates how the architectural design of an airport impacts its passenger experience.

Airports are a mammoth subject, impossible to define in a single word. Awareness and curiosity about them are rising. Airport design is as fascinating as the sight of a plane entering the skies of a city just before landing or after taking off.

In common perception, an airport is just a terminal building. However, the design of an airport requires defining the built-up environment much before the terminal. It requires a high level of design thinking for all stakeholders, especially for the architect(s) designing the passenger terminal building.

Contrary to what people think, the primary customers of an airport are the airlines and not the passengers. A passenger would find it convenient to take a flight to travel to his/her desired destination. However, it is the Airlines that require the airport infrastructure to accommodate its processing areas in a safe and secure manner so that flights can land, board, deboard, and return safely using a runway of appropriate length.

Airports have long remained simple, functional buildings serving air transport. Over the last two decades, however, changes in pricing strategies and the addition of newer routes have significantly increased air traveller numbers.

Air transport can be a chaotic and anxiety-driven process for most travellers who are not frequent flyers, with chaos increasing with the rise in the number and category of travellers. This uncomfortable reality impacts the business, which eventually boils down to the terminal operators and developers and towards the subject of architectural design for enhancing the passenger experience.

During departure, a city-side Terminal Identification Signage assures the first-time traveller towards the correct destination of choice. The promise of the destination with that city-side signage is met when the passenger finds a substantially large Terminal Identification signage on the terminal building’s exterior façade facing the approach road. As the passenger comes closer to the drop-off area, the demarcation of traffic lanes for various categories of drop-offs like Specially Abled, Taxi, Bus, Private Car, VIP, and Emergency Lane helps passengers navigate conveniently to the terminal.

Most airports would require a spanning façade measuring hundreds of meters to receive and process thousands of passengers in the check-in hall. In such a scenario, a well-defined entry vestibule which juts out from the façade naturally becomes an identity; clubbed with entry signage, it helps confirm that as the terminal entrance. As passengers enter the Check-in Hall, the design of the processing areas, clubbed with a bunch of facilities, sets the tone for passenger comfort or anxiety. A well-lit check-in hall with bright, positive colours and minimum media branding is more likely to provide a comfortable feeling to the passengers. When followed by an artwork with some landscape, it goes a long way in making a passenger feel comfortable in the oversized built environment.