On my way back to NYC I had a pleasant layover at the Madrid airport. The Barajas Airport ranks as 11th busiest international airport in the world and 4th busiest in Europe and was recently (2006-2010) renovated. As a former airport terminal architectural designer for the
NY JFK American Airlines terminal, I appreciated by the simple structural design of tree shaped steel columns supporting waveform trusses —waveforms and trees columns has been the main formal vocabulary for airport terminals worldwide. My criticism: the structure is unnecessarily, creating waste in energy consumption for heating and cooling, not to count materials and labor. But perhaps terminals are our time cathedrals, architecture connecting earth with sky, so scale is important. The color scheme consistency between paint structure and signage represent a good design and helpful for the passenger.
Excerpts from the multimedia project
“Axes Mundi: Perceptions and Understanding of Places as Intersections of Space, Time and Culture"
