New airport, new design
That wouldn't suggest there's much work in that area for architects and contractors in the near future. And recent mooted developments in Poland: a new terminal at Balice International Airport in Kraków and a second airport for Warsaw, to be built either in Modlin or Mszczonów, (both approximately thirty kilometers from Warsaw) do provoke a number of queries as to the shape of things to come, and even if there's a point to them at all.
As far as Kraków is concerned, it's full speed ahead and the new terminal could well be ready within months. However, 2015 is the year we can expect to see any sign of Warsaw's second airport.
Polish architects with experience of designing airports are very thin on the ground but Mariusz Rutz of the international firm JKS Architekci is one such. His practice has been involved in some important airport projects in Germany, which include refurbishing a terminal at Düsseldorf and conceptually locating sites for new terminals at two of Berlin's airports. Whilst acknowledging the powerful influence of the budget airlines on the future of airport design, he is also keen to stress that cutting costs and eliminating the expensive features that characterize more traditional airports, are not the only preoccupations of the contemporary architect. For him, the modern airport "is a mix between a shopping mall and runway and the main question is how you manage the proportions between one and the other but there are also many special requirements in terms of security, especially now, and you cannot make financial cuts in this area." For Rutz, the main challenges when designing an airport are, "that you have to find the solution which guarantees the passenger the shortest route from city site to air site and find a system which allows for the transparency of the buildings, to allow for orientation around the terminal, which again must be very flexible to allow for changing security demands."
In the new era of air travel, the time between check in and take off is less and less about whiling away your time at no expense: "The orientation of retail is very important for the modern airport," says Rutz. "In the past, you had a terminal and then some retail but now we have huge shopping malls and then the airport's infrastructure. You make optimal use of the flow of passengers."
Whether this is all the shape of things to come at the proposed new airport for Warsaw, however, is another matter. Rutz, for one, is concerned that not enough thought has gone into the future project. "I don't think this airport has been defined at all clearly," he says "and I don't see how it can exist without the current Okęcie having to close." When working on the projects in Berlin, Rutz found that the process was a lot more well defined and that with each proposed new terminal, it was understood that the old airports would have to close. "If an airport is to be a hub," he continues, "it doesn't make a great deal of sense for passengers to have to travel for their connections to the other side of the city." Rutz imagines that Warsaw's new airport might be built for cargo, night or charter flights or perhaps for low budget airlines, though "at the moment there is a very exciting discussion about location but none about the program for the airport."
As far as Kraków is concerned, it's full speed ahead and the new terminal could well be ready within months. However, 2015 is the year we can expect to see any sign of Warsaw's second airport.
Polish architects with experience of designing airports are very thin on the ground but Mariusz Rutz of the international firm JKS Architekci is one such. His practice has been involved in some important airport projects in Germany, which include refurbishing a terminal at Düsseldorf and conceptually locating sites for new terminals at two of Berlin's airports. Whilst acknowledging the powerful influence of the budget airlines on the future of airport design, he is also keen to stress that cutting costs and eliminating the expensive features that characterize more traditional airports, are not the only preoccupations of the contemporary architect. For him, the modern airport "is a mix between a shopping mall and runway and the main question is how you manage the proportions between one and the other but there are also many special requirements in terms of security, especially now, and you cannot make financial cuts in this area." For Rutz, the main challenges when designing an airport are, "that you have to find the solution which guarantees the passenger the shortest route from city site to air site and find a system which allows for the transparency of the buildings, to allow for orientation around the terminal, which again must be very flexible to allow for changing security demands."
In the new era of air travel, the time between check in and take off is less and less about whiling away your time at no expense: "The orientation of retail is very important for the modern airport," says Rutz. "In the past, you had a terminal and then some retail but now we have huge shopping malls and then the airport's infrastructure. You make optimal use of the flow of passengers."
Whether this is all the shape of things to come at the proposed new airport for Warsaw, however, is another matter. Rutz, for one, is concerned that not enough thought has gone into the future project. "I don't think this airport has been defined at all clearly," he says "and I don't see how it can exist without the current Okęcie having to close." When working on the projects in Berlin, Rutz found that the process was a lot more well defined and that with each proposed new terminal, it was understood that the old airports would have to close. "If an airport is to be a hub," he continues, "it doesn't make a great deal of sense for passengers to have to travel for their connections to the other side of the city." Rutz imagines that Warsaw's new airport might be built for cargo, night or charter flights or perhaps for low budget airlines, though "at the moment there is a very exciting discussion about location but none about the program for the airport."
