Steel Wool
World'south 10 Most Cute Airport Terminals
Uplifting Arrivals
By Sascha Segan
Aerodrome terminals aren't generally viewed as architectural wonders. The concrete boxes of the 1960s and '70s generally gave mode to drinking glass boxes in the '90s and '00s, with the best terminals making a vague stab at incorporating ideas of "light" and "air" -- or at to the lowest degree offering decent food that isn't a mile'southward walk from the gates.
Beauty is in the center of the beholder, of course, and one person'due south perfect terminal is another's endless walkway of sorrows. Luckily, these ten airport terminals combine personality, functionality, and uniqueness to offer a corking travel experience that starts the moment you get off the plane.
Photo Explanation: Terminal 3 in Changi International Airport, Singapore.
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Jeddah Hajj Terminal, Jeddah, Saudi arabia
I of the world's most radical airport terminals is one most Americans are unlikely to ever travel through. The Jeddah Hajj Final is unique: it's just agile during the "hajj," a religiously mandated pilgrimage to Mecca for Muslims. During that six-week period, information technology'south one of the busiest airport terminals in the world.
The Hajj Terminal received the American Institute of Architects' 25-yr award equally a design that's stood the test of time: it'southward 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 contour in the Architectural Record. The tents tin can contain lxxx,000 people, with flexible spaces devoted to very unusual activities for an airdrome terminal, such every bit changing clothes and ritual foot-washing.
The terminal gets some knocks online for being, every bit i Skytrax reviewer says, "chaotic and basic." Just no other airline terminal has its unique challenges: being literally the gateway to sky for tens of thousands of people a solar day, many of whom are making this a once-in-a-lifetime trip.
Photo Caption: Jeddah Hajj Terminal in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
jonathanpercy
Leif Eriksson Air Terminal, Keflavik, Iceland
Iceland'south cozy lilliputian international aerodrome looks like information technology arrived in a flat pack from IKEA. It's all blond woods and volcanic-looking rock with big windows looking out on the dramatic Icelandic landscape. There'southward a lot more than 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'southward on the floor, making the final feel much more natural and less sterile than usual.
The all-time buildings capture a chip of the soul of a place, and the Keflavik terminal does that perfectly: it'southward cozy (maybe a little also cozy in some of the gate areas), fabricated of local materials, relatively spare and utterly embedded in the landscape. As a greeting to Republic of iceland, it's perfect.
Photo Caption: Keflavík International Airport, Iceland.
DG Jones
Seoul Incheon Airport, Incheon, Republic of 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 at that place several times, and Seoul'south surreptitious is to brand sure that you're never more than than a few steps away from an entertaining, enlightening, or agreeable bit of Korean culture.
Scattered throughout the last like Easter eggs, you'll discover easily-on Korean craft workshops, a clothes-up area where you can take photos in traditional article of 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. Desire to try a traditional Korean bathhouse? Head to the basement. Plants and flowers continue up the impression that you're in a showplace for Korea's melding of history, fine art and technology, and non only a mere airport last.
Photo Caption: Seoul Incheon Airport, Republic of korea.
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Wellington Airport "Stone" Terminal, Wellington, New Zealand
Many people have chosen this the world's ugliest airport last. But there'due south a reason the new international terminal in Wellington has won enough awards to make full a jumbo jet. Like the Keflavik terminal above, information technology'due south 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-greenish in the sea air. Inside, curving corners and geometric panels play peekaboo: the last packs double the passenger capacity of the previous terminal into the aforementioned space without feeling crowded. A apparently box wouldn't take been able to practise that.
The Rock looks rugged, unique, and as its architect said, "theatrical" -- all parts of the Kiwi identity. Information technology wouldn't exist built anywhere else.
Photograph Caption: Wellington Airport "Rock" Terminal, New Zealand.
Laughing Squid
JFK Terminal 5, New York, NY
Airport terminals don't unremarkably age well. JFK's Last 5 is the exception. 1 of the greatest icons of the mid-20th Century Jet Historic period, Eero Saarinen's TWA final has been intelligently swallowed by the grasping tendrils of JetBlue's modern new last, which has by far the best aerodrome nutrient court in New York. So you lot get the best of both worlds: an AirTrain ride up to the home of "Catch Me If Y'all Can" glamour followed by a smooth walk through a spacious, modern final.
At that place's still one missing piece, of grade: you can't actually walk into the Saarinen terminal's main hall, equally the epically incompetent New York Port Authority has dragged its anxiety for years on finding a tenant for the infinite. According to Curbed.com, the authority has been trying to interest bazaar hoteliers (the lack of a skilful airport hotel is another one of JFK's many flaws), but the thought isn't fifty-fifty at the planning stage yet.
Photo Caption: Terminal five at JFK International Airport, New York.
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Singapore Changi International Airport Terminal 3
This is the airport as entertainment park. Singapore's 3 terminals are widely considered to be the most fun you tin have in an airport, and each one has its attractions. Final 3 gets the nod, though, as it's the newest, with "an automatic light modulation system" to requite the whole identify a soothing, even, slightly unearthly glow.
Concluding 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'southward a lot more fun than taking the elevator. The other terminals bring together in the theme of combining indoor and outdoor spaces, with more gardens and even an outdoor pond pool available to the public.
Photo Caption: Terminal 3 in Changi International Airport, famous for its uniquely-designed roof.
Exile on James Street
Marrakech Menara Aerodrome Last 1, Marrakech, Kingdom of morocco
This one is another peachy instance of culturally aware concluding design. The new Terminal ane at Marrakech'south aerodrome looks like a Moroccan palace twenty-offset-century way, with classic Islamic geometric and nature motifs inscribed into a behemothic network of concrete diamonds. You lot could make a strong argument that the whole matter is ane giant artwork.
At night, colored lights dance along the forepart face up of the edifice, illuminating the desert plantings forth the arrivals roadway. A lounge inside evokes 19th-century Moroccan luxury, with rugs, chandeliers, and a wrought-metal dome.
Photograph Explanation: Menara Airport, Marrakech.
Angela Radulescu
Madrid Barajas Concluding four
Designed by "starchitect" Richard Rogers, Madrid'southward huge Terminal 4 tries to break gratis of typical box-fashion construction past using a roof line of undulating ribs, which helped information technology win the 2006 Stirling Prize for architecture.
Terminal 4 comes with a strike against it: it'due south so long (especially when y'all include the integrated, simply next-door Terminal 4S) that it tin 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 concluding is total (and I've changed planes at elevation times here), information technology never feels oppressively crowded, and you never go frustratingly lost or stuck waiting for buses the mode you can in the design-before-part Charles de Gaulle aerodrome outside Paris.
Photo Caption: Last iv of Madrid Barajas Airport.
Flodigrip's world
Carrasco International Airport, Montevideo, Uruguay
Yes, someone's notwithstanding building airports that evoke sweeping 1960s-era glamour. That someone is Rafael Viñoly, and his airport is in the tranquility, pleasant and well-off South American country of Uruguay. Montevideo'due south airdrome terminal is a shine dome, looking from the front a bit like a whale's mouth; inside, lines are smooth, clean and calm, with m terraces overlooking the runways and arrival areas.
This isn't a busy airdrome, but information technology'southward designed equally if it was 1: the last is designed to handle 4.5 million passengers a year, according to one of the companies which built information technology but its traffic has been stable for years at a bit over a million. That ways fewer crowds, and more appreciation of the elegant lines here as you glide through the terminal.
Photo Explanation: Carrasco International Airport, Montevideo.
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Bilbao Airdrome Main Terminal
I could have picked several terminals designed by large-name architects for this final slot, including Beijing'due south new Last 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 expect like they're the skeletons of some ancient whale or the prow of a spaceship well-nigh to caput to Alpha Centauri. Those references, it turns out, are as perfect for an airport last.
Bilbao's terminal is known as "the dove," and information technology has Calatrava's signatures: sharply-canted curves and lots of light streaming through, and bisected by, ribs which resemble cables. A g viewing gallery lets the families of arriving passengers see their loved ones as they pick upwardly their bags.
Photo Explanation: Bilbao Airdrome, Kingdom of spain.
New Zealand, Kingdom of saudi arabia, Bilbao, Marrakech, Wellington, Madrid International Airdrome Barajas, Singapore - Changi Airdrome, Las Vegas - McCarran International Aerodrome, Incheon, Keflavik, East Iceland, John F. Kennedy International Drome
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