24.07.2024
Our choice of travel has environmental implications. This is particularly true for aviation where contrails and direct carbon emissions from aircraft fuel are rising. Whilst the sector explores sustainable aviation fuels, hydrogen and electrification, the reality is that dramatic reductions from flying are not going to come in the immediate future. It is essential therefore that airport owners address all aspects of landside sustainability, considering a holistic approach to an airport’s operation.
Terminal A at Newark Liberty International Airport, completed by Grimshaw in 2023, has been named the ‘World’s Best New Airport Terminal’ by the Skytrax World Airport Awards and awarded the 2023 UNESCO Prix Versailles prize.
Our choice of travel has environmental implications. This is particularly true for aviation where contrails and direct carbon emissions from aircraft fuel are rising. Whilst the sector explores sustainable aviation fuels, hydrogen and electrification, the reality is that dramatic reductions from flying are not going to come in the immediate future. It is essential therefore that airport owners address all aspects of landside sustainability, considering a holistic approach to an airport’s operation.
We identify these broadly as: airports as inclusive community asset providing local services as well as employment; airports as enablers for low carbon air travel including landside arrival and departure airports that are truly circular in their operations; and climate smart and resilient airports that able to cope with future shocks and stresses.
London, United Kingdom
Grimshaw’s draft expansion master plan for London Heathrow Airport investigated the peripheral zones of the airport for opportunities to integrate with and enhance local communities. These plans capitalised on the airport’s function as a transit hub for rail travel as well as air travel, supporting a mode shift to public transport in excess of 50% by placing all of the terminal facilities on a central ‘public transport spine’.
Like all our built environment, we need maximise a building’s use and considering an airport as a multi-functional asset that benefits and supports communities can be part of this. An airport could look to providing immediate local benefits by incorporating facilities that support specific needs – shopping, daycare for onsite workers, healthcare facilities, or even schools – to create local social as well as economic opportunities.
Airports also have the opportunity to take advantage of their integrated public transport links, particularly when supporting major international events. This means creating the right types of public spaces that can be programmed to align to the programme of events and attract visitors to the airport environs as part of the experience. At Newark Liberty International Airport Terminal A, this sense of place and connection to context was part of the project from the start with the spaces designed to feel ‘distinctly New Jersey’ featuring work from local artists and nodding to the state’s storied past. And in the UK Manchester Airport has a unique wedding venue where you can hold a reception under the wings of a Concorde jet!
As part of the airport estate the external spaces can be equally considered for community integration – where outdoor amenities including access to natural areas and walking or cycling paths become spaces that were otherwise inaccessible, open to the local community. This requires a well-designed green infrastructure in and around the airport, including strategic cycling and walking routes that enhance and maintain neighbourhood and place connections.
Melbourne, Australia
Grimshaw’s design for Melbourne Airport’s forecourt positions the area as a genuine public realm, developing connections to rail and mixed modes of transit and giving over area from cars and buses to public amenities like retail, realising the cultural and civic value of the landside forecourt.
Airports are progressively supporting the aircraft industry delivery of net zero emissions by accelerating the provision of facilities for fueling and charging the next generation of aircraft powered by electricity or sustainable aviation fuels. Airport terminals and aprons being designed now will be future-proofed by adopting flexible and adaptable design and modification, allowing for simple modifications to accommodate various sizes of aircraft.
A sustainable airport needs to go even further though, tackling whole life carbon emissions resulting from its design, construction and operation of its whole estate as well as addressing emissions associated with traveling to and from the airport. A sustainable airport will have excellent connectivity and mobility, served by multi-transport nodes to rail, metro and other forms of mass transit.
As airports consume huge amounts of energy, moving fully to electric is a challenge, but it also means both energy efficiency and consumption reduction are critical. That starts at the master plan level. In addition, on demand technology is not only better for passengers and tenants. It can also help with energy efficiency so that buildings and systems respond to peaks in occupancy. Understanding these peaks could enable taxi and passenger car charging. Additionally, the great size of many airports gives them potential to act as thermal stores, releasing heat into water when required.
Shenzhen, China
The Grimshaw design for the Integrated Transit Hub at Shenzhen Airport East is super-connected to regional and local public transport modes, including high speed rail, intercity, metro and bus – all under one roof and completely accessible via active travel routes from the local area.
Design for disassembly and adaptive reuse and repurposing, in the context described above, is critical, creating the flexibility needed to accommodate the changes in airport provision to meet net zero targets. For example, airport aprons and their gates may need to change to accommodate different aircraft design and fueling requirements such as for smaller, electric short haul aircraft.
At scale however, if designed well, terminal buildings can be re-purposed. Such designs should favor modern methods of construction that further improve resource efficiency and allow for future flexibility. This enables product life extension, one of the principles of a circular economy.
The principles of the circular economy can also be applied to all the goods and services that flow in and out of the airport. Those goods that stay within the estate should be managed so that there is no waste.
Planning for resiliency is now innate across our cities and critical infrastructure creating day to day safety but also security in coping with a range of threats including extreme weather conditions like heat waves and heavy precipitation.
At Grimshaw this is a consideration early in the design process with focused resilience workshops and comprehensive, multi-hazard risk and resilience evaluations focused on climate change and extreme weather events. Applying this strategy over the life of a project enables a final assessment of both site-specific opportunities as well as vulnerabilities to shocks and stresses considering trends in climate and weather.
Outside of the airport terminals, green infrastructure and nature-based solutions should be considered for how they might support resilience. For example, vegetation might provide shade while also supporting native wildlife habitat, mindful of challenges when it comes to bird strikes and other dangers. Strategies for stormwater management might include on-site retention with grey infrastructure. These strategies are expansive, encompassing the entire airport campus.
Houston, USA
In Houston, Grimshaw, together with local architects Page, is adaptively reusing Terminal B as the new United Airlines terminal. In so doing we are reducing embodied carbon by as much as 40% compared to a newly constructed terminal. Our current estimate is that reusing the existing structure avoids 10,000 metric tons of CO2e emissions.
There is no doubt that the changes that must take place in the aviation industry to accelerate the reduction of its environmental impact are considerable but they are also wide reaching. Consideration of each of these aspects will enable us to bring to the fore inspirational future airports and help us all realize effective retrofitting of our existing airports. Inventive applications of these design approaches will yield an aviation industry that is considering its sustainable future – serving the traveling public and its locality, context and communities – connecting these streams of focus will help us more completely answer the questions – what is a sustainable airport and how do we achieve it?
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