London’s Heathrow Airport has selected four practices to develop bold ideas for creating a world-class, sustainable airport that will deliver innovations in passenger service, integrate local communities and showcase the best of British design. The proposed expansion of the UK’s most-traveled airport includes a new international terminal with a satellite concourse, the urban realm and transport interchange between the existing Terminal 5 and the New Terminal 6, a control tower, parking structures and extensive enhancements to the landscape on and around the airport campus.
“From welcoming Concorde to the landmark Terminals 2 and 5, Heathrow has always been at the heart of showcasing the best of British innovation and design,” said Barry Weekes, Heathrow’s head of design. “The visionary concepts are just the start of a dialogue which will fundamentally redefine what an airport is, how it looks and feels, how it interacts with its environment and an increasingly demanding generation of new passengers, and importantly enhancing how it connects with the communities around it. Our ambition for expansion is to transform Heathrow once again—building Britain a value for money global gateway at the forefront of sustainable development and innovative design.”
“The aspiration of our design for Heathrow’s expansion is to define an entirely new global benchmark for airport design in terms of design quality, the passenger experience, and environmental and social responsibility,” said Richard Gammon, HOK’s London-based director of Aviation + Transportation. The shortlist of architects includes HOK, Grimshaw, Zaha Hadid and Benoy. After continuing to test the teams’ creativity, Heathrow will select the winning design firm in July. Source and images Courtesy of HOK.