our next installment 21st century architecture: 25 years 25 buildings Series Profile Terminal 4 at Madrid-Barajas Airport RSHP and Estudio Lamela, the pinnacle of the golden age of airport design.
awarded with RIBA Stirling Prize In 2006, the huge terminal – one of the largest terminals in Europe – represented a high point in airport design, during which the typology became synonymous with predominantly British style. high tech architecture,
with its wave, bamboo-With soaring ceilings, huge skylights and brightly colored columns, Madrid-Barajas Terminal 4 achieved the rare feat of humanizing an airport terminal, a space often associated with anonymity, uniformity and general unpleasantness.
As Guardian critic Oliver Wainwright saidMadrid-Barajas was “a place where you would really want to stay for a while rather than escape as quickly as possible”.
The high-tech revival of the airport terminal began in 1991 with revolutionary London Stansted Terminal by airplane enthusiast Norman FosterA close friend and former colleague of Rogers.
Stansted set a precedent for high-tech airport projects by both Forster and his high-tech compatriots, including Renzo Piano – Particularly notable for Kansai International Airport in 1994 – Nicholas Grimshaw, and Rogers.
The high-tech style proved that it was possible to blend the romantic era of the airport terminal with the decidedly unglamorous realities of a new era of climate-impacted budget flights. The “big shed” terminal, as it was often called, was here to stay.
Jonathan Glancy summarized it in 2006Writing that “it can be said that between them, Richard Rogers, Renzo Piano and Norman Foster, in collaboration with their finest engineers, have recreated the international airport terminal”.
But of all the examples from these two decades, Rogers’s work in Madrid-Barajas seems the most civic-minded and human-centered.
If, As Edwin Heathcote writes in The Architectural ReviewBig sheds of high-tech leaning more towards “agriculture”, Rodgers and Lamela seemed to appreciate that the thousands of new travelers they were about to welcome to Madrid did not need to feel like cattle.
“It’s all about color and light and space and transparency and it’s all about making people look like they’re important in that space,” Rogers told this to BBC after winning the Sterling Prize,
“They’re not crushed by low ceilings or dominated by retail and stores,” he said.
Amidst the revival of the airport’s terminal, a competition for a new terminal at Madrid-Barajas was launched in 1997, with the aim of bringing the airport on a par with other major international hubs in Europe.
RSHP – then known as the Richard Rogers Partnership – was awarded the project along with the Spanish practice studio lamella and engineering firms TPS and Initech.
The team’s approach was generally high-tech; The terminal’s spaces were to be loose-plan and flexible to enable future changes, and designed with what Rogers called “direct simplicity”, to maximize natural light and facilitate rapid construction. Was done.
A place where you’d actually want to stay for a while instead of running away as quickly as possible Oliver Wainwright – Patron
Rogers was well aware of the importance of speed. At the time of winning the competition, the firm was still operating heathrow terminal 5 – awarded to the firm in 1989 – which would take 19 years to complete after the longest public inquiry in British history.
But what was bad news for Heathrow provided valuable lessons that could be applied to Madrid-Barajas, which despite its enormous size was completed in only eight years.
The design of T4 has three main elements, the first is the main terminal for national and Schengen flights, which occupies an area of 500,000 square meters adjacent to a 310,000 square meter car park. Across the runway, about two kilometers away, a tunnel connects to the terminal’s satellite building, which serves international arrivals amounting to about 300,000 square metres.
Even by airport standards, this was a massive undertaking, requiring rerouting of the nearby Jarama River. Indeed, one of the Stirling Prize jury’s comments was simply to acknowledge “the sheer scale and complexity of what has been tackled and achieved”.
The main buildings appear relatively low in the landscape, due to a vast basement below, which has three levels in addition to three glazed floors above ground, both of which have large corrugated roofs.
“We felt that we needed to cover the building with a very light structure that would give the impression of grace and grandeur,” Carlos Lamela, founder of Estadio Lamela, told the Guardian.,
In section, this roof is a gull-wing shape, derived through a series of repeated sections formed by curved beams above and forking steel columns with concrete bases below.
Gull-wing shaped peaks divide the spaces below into three linear volumes, separated by rows of circular skylights – which Rogers described as “valleys” – which allow natural light down through the building. Pulls.
I usually get off flights anxious to stretch my legs. Only Madrid adds a spring to my step Michael Schapinker – Financial Times
Around the perimeter of the building, the roof extends outward, where an undulating canopy shelters outdoor walkways and drop-off spaces.
Perhaps the most striking gesture in the building is the distinctly non-high-tech choice of bamboo planks for lining the ceilings, which, combined with ample natural light, bring a feeling of warmth and openness to the interiors.
The steel structure of both buildings is painted in different bright colors, a Rogers signature that here serves as a way-finding tool to both specific terminals and cardinal points – blue for north, red for south and the central section Yellow for.
While bright colors may have the opposite effect on a soothing wooden ceiling for some people, they form an important part in the trinity of light, color and space that defines the scheme.
Any time spent in most airports today will demonstrate that Roger and Lamela’s approach to a place that prioritizes the people experience is rare, and Madrid-Barajas is one of the few examples that deserves attention.
As Michael Schapinker wrote in the Financial Times“I usually get off a flight feeling relieved to stretch my legs. Only Madrid adds a spring to my step.”
Did we get it right? Was Madrid-Barajas Terminal 4 The most important building was completed in 2006Let us know in the comments. After all 25 buildings are revealed we will run a poll to determine the most important building of the 21st century so far.
This article is part of Dezeen 21st century architecture: 25 years 25 buildings The series, which takes a look at the most significant architecture of the 21st century so far. For the series, we have selected the most influential people Built each of the first 25 years of the century.
illustration is by jack bedford and photography is by Manuel Renau unless stated.
21st century architecture: 25 years 25 buildings
2000: Tate Modern by Herzog and de Meuron
2001: Gando Primary School by Dibedo Francis Kéré
2002: Bergisel Ski Jump by Zaha Hadid
2003: Walt Disney Concert Hall by Frank Gehry
2004: Quinta Monroy by Elemental
2005: Moriyama House by Ryu Nishizawa
2006: Madrid-Barajas Airport by RSHP and Estudio Lamela
This list will be updated as the series progresses.
