The Wall Street Journal just published a cool video interviewing an architect about how airports are designed. If you’re an aviation geek, or even just a frequent airport user, it’s worth a watch. I even learned a few things.
In this post:
Airports are fascinating, complex places
As much as people love to hate on airports, the reality is that we’re all reliant on them, and they’re incredibly complex businesses:
- In terms of monetization, airports don’t just make money from airlines and passenger fees, but they also make a lot of money from retailers; airports are essentially shopping malls that funnel a lot of air travelers through them every day
- Airports are under constant pressure to expand and accommodate as much capacity as possible, and it can be hard to balance the existing passenger experience with trying to improve; it’s why so many airports constantly feel like construction zones
- Actually making changes and improvements to an airport is challenging and costly, since there’s not much room to build new airports, and it’s not like airports can just be shut down while improvements are made
Architect breaks explains what goes into airport design
The Wall Street Journal recently released a roughly eight minute video, covering so many of the things that go into designing an airport. Odds are that most travelers have never consciously realized many of these things, but when they’re pointed out, it may suddenly click and seem obvious.
I don’t want to give away the entire video here, but it covers everything from why check-in desks are increasingly arranged perpendicular to the terminal entrance, to why airport ceilings are often slanted, to the logic for the ceiling around security typically being lower, to why people pass through retail areas in the airport, rather than next to them.
If you have the time, I’d highly recommend giving the video a watch.
Bottom line
There’s so much that goes into airport design that most travelers probably don’t even realize. It’s always cool to learn more from an expert, so I really enjoyed an architect’s take on how airports have evolved.
It’s funny, because many of the “improvements” we’ve seen to airports over the years don’t necessarily make the passenger experience better, but rather help airports become more profitable businesses (which is fair enough, I suppose).
Did anyone else enjoy this video about airport design?
In Brazil you have to negotiate a large duty free area after clearing customs on arrival. Exiting Rio De Janeiro/ Galeão Tom Jobim is like waking through the ground floor of a department store.
Excellent, excellent video. Thanks for sharing!
Speaking of airports turning into malls, I transited at IGIA (DEL) T3 recently and was forced to meander through extensive duty free shopping area between security and lounge/gate area.
It was like going through IKEA showroom maze - at least IKEA maze has shortcuts. Add to that, the same pushiness that you experience from street markets in India, the vendors spray perfume sample on you unsolicited or get in the way of your path...
Speaking of airports turning into malls, I transited at IGIA (DEL) T3 recently and was forced to meander through extensive duty free shopping area between security and lounge/gate area.
It was like going through IKEA showroom maze - at least IKEA maze has shortcuts. Add to that, the same pushiness that you experience from street markets in India, the vendors spray perfume sample on you unsolicited or get in the way of your path forcing you to walk around them.
While evolution of airport design has made passenger experience better due to increased efficiency, it still feels like using bloatware that bogs down your workstation - walking equivalent of 20 NYC blocks to reach the gate while circumventing shops that have no relevance to my needs, far from the model of clarity and purity of minimal distance from curbside to plane as seen in the designs of PanAm Worldport, Berlin TXL, and MCI’s original design. While I am fully aware that changes in threats and security, foremost to all, have made such designs obsolete but perhaps it is worth considering at least the clarity of that scheme and integrate it in the new airport design.
As noted by the architect, arrival experience at the airport needs to be improved,
particularly in the U.S., where most terminals make you walk through narrow windowless corridors that usually are dirty and smelly, a stark contrast especially flying in from Asian and Middle East airports. Instead of feeling relief upon coming home, I find myself tensing up.
Maybe I'm just weird, but these forced duty free shopping mazes after security just make me not buy anything at these airports ever because they so f***king annoy me. It's not like I would have bought much anyway, but even in case I really need something I forgot I will not do it at an airport that forces me through narrow lanes full of annoying perfume smell.
You and me both, Chris. However many people - including my wife - start twitching like crickets when they know they're about to walk through an airport duty-free zone.
I'm an architect (worked on DEN) and there's some things in this i didn't know, although I work on construction-phase of projects.
I have always enjoyed the visual connection from landside to airside, when available.
Passenger comfort and efficient movement is enhanced by good airport design.
Let's see more examples in future articles.
...and you *seriously* never realized this before?!?!?
It looks like the planned redesign of Newark (EWR) Terminal 2 is following these precepts in trying to create linear banks of aircraft instead of circles.
https://www.ewrredevelopment.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/EWRVisionPlanFinalDraft.pdf
I know why they ferry you through retail before you can get to where you actually need to go. I freaking hate it!
This was an interesting video. A very educational one. It made me realize that the new Istanbul airport hits all the points that the architect mentions in the video.
I feel like at IST the only thing getting you to even the right fork of the airport is signage, theres now intuitive flow to that part at least.
On an unrelated note, Lucky, you should give the latest review of 'The flip flop traveler' for a quick laugh (here:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V1V_GZDuhiA&ab_channel=TheFlipFlopTraveller). Spoiler alert: that might trigger some PTSD
Interesting that O'Hare is repeatedly shown (in pictures, not words) as an outmoded airport. I think it still works reasonably well as a mega-hub.
Also see this video on airport efficiency by https://youtu.be/XVK6urfqqsg by Architecture Digest
When the new wing at Bali airport opened 10+ years ago, the duty-free maze was annoying af. And still is.
Sydney's international terminal is just as awful until you figure out how to get around it.
The people this video should be directed at are probably airport designers in the UK, where it's incredibly obvious that the terminals are created for the sole purpose of selling crappy "duty free" merchandise in a central area, and the walkways to the gates are the most depressing, cheapest stripped-down construction they can manage without being accused of running a CIA detention site.
Without defending at all British airports (which are generally very crappy indeed), it’s not the architects so much as the airport owners & operators.
Architect Norman Foster was talking about the same principles of good airport design nearly half a century ago. His vision for Stansted, the first of the new generation of terminals, was to go back to the idea of a pioneering aviation passenger arriving at the airport — which consisted of a...
Without defending at all British airports (which are generally very crappy indeed), it’s not the architects so much as the airport owners & operators.
Architect Norman Foster was talking about the same principles of good airport design nearly half a century ago. His vision for Stansted, the first of the new generation of terminals, was to go back to the idea of a pioneering aviation passenger arriving at the airport — which consisted of a driveway to a marquee containing all the “facilities”, pitched next to the aerodrome landing strip on which could be seen the waiting plane. There was no visual separation between the passenger and their object, the plane. Orientation was always obvious. And no signage was needed.
Stansted’s new terminal was built like that, essentially a giant glass box. Owners BAA then filled all the open concourse with retail units, blocking the views through the terminal and destroying the sense of orientation.
Most signage is an admission of interface failure (in the 18th and 19th centuries, it was obvious as you approached a door whether you should push it or pull. Today, most doors need a written instruction: how is that an improvement rather than a disorientation?).
For decades BAA refused BA’s request for a short-cut entrance/ security to their LHR T5 first class lounge, because BAA wanted to make all passengers walk past shops. Endless shops. Financially speaking, BAA was a shopping centre landlord and an operator of vast car parks, with a couple of runways attached.
That sense of intuitive wayfinding is one of the reasons why I usually profoundly disagree with Ben’s idea of what are the world’s “best” airports. He seems to like vastness, endless walking, thousands of screaming retail units, and bizarre elements like waterfalls and giant teddy bears. For me, the smaller the airport the better. A place to get some coffee is nice. Somewhere to sit. Tranquility.
With the exception of Heathrow Terminal 2 and 5. Three and four aren’t so bad.
The original design for Stansted was open plan and I recall it being very pleasant. Now all the open space has been filled up with retail and dining.