Subject: Airport Passenger Terminal Design

From: [email-masked] (samson)
Date: 12 Sep 1996 20:27:06 GMT

Request for Information on Airport Passenger Terminal Design

I am studying Interior Architecture and Design at The Nottingham Trent University in
England. I have chosen to research and write about Airport Design for my final years'
14,000 word dissertation. It is impossible to fully research this subject solely through
books and journals. As an impoverished student(!) I cannot afford the expense of
travelling the world visiting airports so I am relying on various approaches including the
Internet to get help and information from anyone who is prepared to assist.

I am investigating communication methods and how people orientate themselves within
airport terminals. I have narrowed this down to four principal areas: Structure, Colour
and Light, Interior Design and Signage. I am now analysing these separately with the
aim of discovering what attributes each area can bring to aid passenger orientation and
communication.

Assistance is requested from anyone who has any experience, observations or opinions
about the following questions relating to airport design. If you can eMail me with with
your answers your response would be very much appreciated.

1. Can an Architect create a happy medium between those who see architecture from
the outside eg those arriving by aeroplane but also providing interesting, yet clear
interior spaces?

2. It has been said that airports lack "the structured and enjoyable experience that
catching a boat or plane once had." Is this true?

3. In today's airports retail is given a high priority. Would you like to see less emphasis
on retail and more emphasis on travel or are these areas to closely integrated to allow
separation?

4. "The route from surface to air travel was always conceived as linear and clear". Is this
the ultimate aim of an airport?

5. I believe that there are two schools of thought related to airport structure. a) The use
of simple forms unrelated to air travel eg Stansted, and b) Those who relate the building
to forms associated with air travel eg Kansai. Can both these ideas work equally as
well?

6. "If you put (people) in an environment as antiseptic as a supermarket and bombard
them with canned music and canned announcements they go into a stubborn zombie-like
trance". This is one view on the problems of some of the world's older airports. Do
new airports behave in this manner or not?

If you are prepared to leave your name, position, company/practice and country it would
be most helpful. Any of the above information given will be included in my dissertation
unless you say otherwise and then I will include only your country of residence and
position. Please eMail me on -                     [email-masked].

GENERAL INFORMATION REQUEST

-    Has anyone experience of working on any areas of design, furbishment or
refurbishment of any airport in the World and be prepared to answer some questions
about the airport.

-    Can anyone give me any names and contact numbers/addresses of anyone who
has worked on any of the terminals below (especially the name and address of the
architects' practice that designed them) or any other airport terminal. I would like to
contact them and ask them if they would answer some questions.

          Kansai
          Stuttgart
          Roissy I and II
          Schipol
          JFK
          Hamburg
          Graz

-    Lastly can anyone recommend any good books, magazine articles; can anyone
lend/give me any pictures or photos possible relevant to my dissertation or have any
other information or ideas that I could possibly use or follow up on?

Again my eMail address -                      [email-masked].

Thank you very much for reading this and I hope you will be able to help me as I would
like to include as much primary research as possible within my dissertation.

Carrie