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CORE COMPETENCIES | CONSTRUCTION [AIRPORT DESIGN]
AIRPORT DESIGN & IMPLEMENTATION [TURN KEY]
"Incoming passengers should be able to enjoy moving through an airport as much as outgoing travelers."
One of our priorities is to try and get all the passengers, incoming and outgoing, some quality of experience. Up to 30% of travelers at large hub airports are simply connecting to another flight. With all the lessons learned from past projects, Synergia AG is well-positioned to comment on some of the biggest issues in airport design today, and he is unequivocal about what he feels should be an airport designers' prime consideration. We believe airports must make good use of emerging technology to be able to stay up-to-date. The most important point is flexibility for growth and change. Flexibility means users can react to new changes and evolutions of the market without having to change the building's structure substantially. "For example, the external shell at T5 UK can remain unchanged while you can completely reconfigure the inside to a new requirement from the airlines or from security or from the marketplace. The interior is a steel frame system, which means you can put in new escalators or make holes in the floors with relative ease. It's not easy to make changes in any airport, but it's easier to do if you've got the right sort of structure."Market changes aren't the only reason airports should be designed (or re-designed) with flexibility in mind. With the massive increase in security concerns since 9/11. Airports must make good use of emerging technology to be able to stay up-to-date. Full-body scanners and equivalent imaging devices are central to keeping airports secure whilst minimizing bottlenecks and passenger flow disruption, even suggesting that scanning devices could be integrated with standard corridors rather than security areas to simplify the passenger experience even further.
With different passengers requiring different levels of customs and immigration checks, airport designers were forced to include increasing numbers of passenger flows into their designs.
SYNERGIA AG APPROACH TO AIRPORT DESIGN
The best operator-designer relationship is balanced, he says. Neither party should overpower the other and all levels of involved personnel, from designers, operators and airlines, right down to the trolley team, have to be included in conversation. Airport design has become a highly collaborative process.Airport design is a million miles away from the idea of the lone architect imposing his vision onto a project. It has become a highly collaborative process, designers and operators working with a host of specialists to create a building that covers all the bases – attractive, practical, calming and seamless.
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ENGINEERING REFERENCE
An airport is a location where aircraft such as fixed-wing aircraft, helicopters, and blimps take off and land. Aircraft may be stored or maintained at an airport. An airport consists of at least one surface such as a runway for a plane to take off and land, a helipad, or water for takeoffs and landings, and often includes buildings such as control towers, hangars and terminal buildings. Larger airports may have fixed base operator services, seaplane docks and ramps, air traffic control, passenger facilities such as restaurants and lounges, and emergency services. A military airport is known as an airbase or air station. The terms aerodrome, airdrome, airfield, and airstrip may also be used to refer to airports, and the terms heliport, seaplane base, and STOLport refer to airports dedicated exclusively to helicopters, seaplanes, or short take-off and landing aircraft. In colloquial use, the terms airport and aerodrome are often interchanged. However, in general, the term airport may imply or confer a certain stature upon the aviation facility that an aerodrome proper may not have achieved. In some jurisdictions, airport is a legal term of art reserved exclusively for those aerodromes certified or licensed as airports by the relevant governing organization (e.g. the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), or Transport Canada) after meeting specified certification criteria or regulatory requirements. That is to say, in the purest sense, all airports are aerodromes, but not all aerodromes are airports. Other jurisdictions define an airport as one that is furnished with the customs offices expected of a port of entry, though the more general term for such aerodromes is airport of entry. In jurisdictions where there is no legal distinction between aerodrome and airport, the terms are often used according to the users' or managers' preference.Airports are divided into landside and airside areas. Landside areas include parking lots, public transportation train stations, tank farms and access roads. Airside areas include all areas accessible to aircraft, including runways, taxiways, ramps and tank farms. Access from landside areas to airside areas is tightly controlled at most airports. Passengers on commercial flights access airside areas through terminals, where they can purchase tickets, clear security check, or claim luggage and board aircraft through gates.
The waiting areas which provide passenger access to aircraft are typically called concourses, although this term is often used interchangeably with terminal. The area where aircraft park next to a terminal to load passengers and baggage is known as a ramp (or "the tarmac"). Parking areas for aircraft away from terminals are called aprons. Airports can be towered or non-towered, depending on air traffic density and available funds. Due to their high capacity and busy airspace, many international airports have air traffic control located on site. Airports with international flights have customs and immigration facilities. However, as some countries have agreements that allow travel between them without customs and immigrations, such facilities are not a definitive need for an international airport. International flights often require a higher level of physical security, Although in recent years, many countries have adopted the same level of security for international and domestic travel. Some airport structures include on-site hotels built within or attached to a terminal building. Airport hotels have grown popular due to their convenience for transient passengers and easy accessibility to the airport terminal. Many airport hotels also have agreements with airlines to provide overnight lodging for displaced passengers. "Floating airports" are being designed which could be located out at sea and which would use designs such as pneumatic stabilized platform technology.
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