ABSTRACT
If one examines the plan and section of the airport the correspondence between form, function and meaning becomes evident. The design splits into four related parts, each subscribing to the same geometric and structural logic. The first, and most dominant, is the terminal itself; the second is the long airside boarding wing; the third is the railway station; and the fourth is the multi-storey car parks. The composition has a strict order – rationalism tempered by processional clarity, especially in the routes from car parks and station to terminal and thence to the boarding wing. The axis of movement, interrupted at various points by roads, concourses and a massive public canyon at the landside of the terminal, merely defines stages in the passengers’ journey. For a building of such dimensions and level of use (25 million passengers a year) there is a remarkable sense of direction. This derives in part from the orderly nature of the plan and the way in which different spaces have been fashioned in distinctive ways. For example, the public canyon is solid and earthy – its colours and monumentality refer to traditional loadbearing architecture – while the departures lounge and airside wing are lightweight and expressive of high technology with distinct aeronautical overtones.
