PH
The beauty and design ingenuity of airport terminals where travellers spend so much of their time are celebrated in a new photography book, The Art of the Airport
1. Adolfo Suárez Madrid–Barajas airport, Madrid
Photograph: Roland Halbe/Artur Images
Originally opened in 1931, this airport now specialises in travel to Latin America, with direct flights to Buenos Aires, Montevideo and Santiago de Chile. Architects Richard Rogers and Antonio Lamela designed the Terminal Four building – which opened in 2006 – with the unifying element being the use of bamboo, to create a sense of calm
2. Shenzhen Bao’an international airport, China
Photograph: Leonardo Finotti
The airport welcomes 32.3 million passengers a year, a number made possible by the sweeping design of the third terminal, opened in 2013. It has 63 fixed gates, 15 movable gates and a ceiling that is 79 metres high.
3. Wellington international airport, New Zealand
Photograph: Patrick Reynolds
High windows focus pools of light into the terminal and there’s an extensive use of wood and, where possible, ramps are used instead of steps and escalators (perhaps sea monsters had trouble with those).
4. Lleida-Alguaire airport, Lleida, Spain
Photograph: Óscar Laborda Sanchez
Conceived and created before the financial crisis of 2008, Lledia, in Catalonia, was designed to handle 400,000 passengers a year; it now welcomes fewer than 40,000 annually. It still offers direct flights to Spanish cities, as well as to the UK and Israel in the summer.
Photograph: Óscar Laborda Sanchez
The airport’s control tower is 41 metres high and is joined to the terminal building. The front of the terminal is clad with metal plates in shades of olive, green and brown.
5. King Abdulaziz international airport, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
Photograph: Jay Langlois/Owens Coming/courtesy of SOM
Beneath the airport’s ‘tents’ is an open space of almost 500,000 square metres, designed to accommodate 80,000 passengers at any one time. There is also a souk and a mosque.
6. Marrakech Menara airport, Morocco
Photograph: Benjamin Edwards/Flickr
-theguardian.com
