2016 Past Winners

Urbanization of the Planet

With the rapid development and urbanization of the planet, reinforced concrete and other harsh materials are taking over our landscapes and devouring the green lifeline of cities the world over. Our design departs from the urban forest as the breakthrough point from which to design the airport with an environmental perspective.

Using the underground space to realize the function of the layered design, we introduce mechanical technologies such as aircraft elevators, mechanical tracks, and booster runways. We also design central lighting barrels to bring underground climatic elements and sunshine to improve the passenger experience.

Design Team

The winning team consists of three members: Xingqiao Li, 30 years old, who works at the Institute of Shanghai Architectural Design and Research; Fang Yu, 31 years old, and Que Wang, 30 years old, who work in the China Architectural Design group. They all graduated from Xi'an University of Architecture and Technology. As classmates and friends, they have a common faith and love for architectural design. The group’s experience spans work in drama performance, sports buildings, airport construction, research and practice in the parametric and non-linear technology, among other fields.

Life is motion

Transportation defines a city, its scale and structure, guides its inner rhythm as well as global economic prosperity. Today, our world faces dramatic transportation changes. New types of vehicles appear, introducing new approaches to delivering, travelling and commuting: quadrocopters, drones, hoverbikes, magnet levitation rails or hyperloops.

In order to organize an efficient transportation system in the perpetual motion age, a totally different, inside-out infrastructure must be built. It is aerocenosis - a hybrid, planned ecosystem of biotic and abiotic species coexisting in the sky. There is no particular airport, but rather ubiquitous transportation system, like “blood vessels”, which includes habitat, trading, production and recreation hubs. Citizens enjoy flat-to-flat flights and instant delivery services while mobile devices literally convert all infrastructures in a pocket. If such urban aerial infrastructure ever appears, it will occur in Hong Kong, a “city without ground” with its extreme population density and high-rise landscape, rich topography and giant tropical forests, technological innovations potential and total economic dependence on trade routes. Drone highway twists through Hong Kong from current Chek Lap Kok to former Kai Tak Airport, connecting its key points not only physically, but also symbolically.

Designer

Andronova graduated from Kazan State University of Architecture and Engineering in 2016, and is now a student of postgraduate Unit 10 in Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL. Her recent achievements include Second Prize in d3 Natural Systems Award, Rethinking the Future International Design Student Awards, Archiprix Russia Diploma, First prize in VIII International Architectural Drawing Competition, The International VELUX Award Regional Winner and First prize in Tamayouz Excellence Award. Her works have been published in the Drawing Futures book by UCL press (London), the Architectural Review Magazine (London) and Architecture & Culture Magazine (Seoul).

Merging Sea-and-Airport

Dubai's Caravanserai in the Arabian Gulf seeks to provide a major international transport hub connecting the region to the rest of the world. It builds on the prospects of a modern, internationally integrated country while diversifying the economic output of the region and promoting its long-term sustainable growth. Elaborating on its core concept of a merged sea-and-airport, Caravanserai provides a coherent and efficient convergence of both international and regional transport systems.

The massing's broad form follows the coastline and stretches out along the peninsula. Inside, the multi-nucleated terminal clusters reduce fatigue, via independent operation of all stages of passenger processing. Their layout is inspired by the architecture of the Middle Eastern ‘Caravanserai’, whose traditional form incorporated a courtyard space kept cool with a pool of water at its center, and tall walls around the perimeter to contain the heavier, cooler air.

Each terminal cluster features six windcatchers channeling warm dry air downwards over an underground network of canals, which provide a transport route through the building. The cooled and humidified air is delivered to the terminal clusters and the 'seawater greenhouses' that interconnect them - nurseries where date palms are nurtured before replanting to enrich and enhance the surrounding landscape.

Designer

Rafat Jahandideh was born in Iran and moved to the United Kingdom in 2007. She graduated with a BA(Hons) in architecture from the University for the Creative Arts in 2012, and started working at BDP in their Sheffield studio in the same year.

Rafat stayed at BDP while studying for her Masters of Architecture at the Manchester School of Architecture, and after graduating in 2016 took up a new role with SimpsonHaugh and Partners in Manchester. Rafat was shortlisted for the Manchester Architects Awards 2016 'Future Architect of the Year'. Rafat is interested in people and the environment, and she adores being out in nature.

Spine of the City

In the future, airports won’t just be an isolated area but, an Attraction, a destination and urban actor. Since they are entry points to a City or country, they have a solid energetical and social relation with their entourage. For sustainable, ecological and economic reasons, airports are more likely to be transformed, altered or extended. The solution lies in reinventing the philosophy of their spaces. From a reserved space to an open space; from a place detached form the city to a part of the city.

CDG is no different than contemporary airports: unoptimized, lacking links, human-based access procedures, high consumption equipment, and disconnection from the neighboring city. CDG is to be made a prototype for future airports by modifying the access logic, transforming the desolated spaces, and channeling energy and human flow toward and from the city and through terminals’ “spine”.

Design Team 

Michel Ghostine is a Lebanese architect. He graduated with a Bachelor of Architecture from the Université Saint-Esprit de Kaslik (USEK) in Jounieh, Lebanon in 2015. He has varied experience in architecture at firms including NMG Architects and Gebara CAD.

Christian Ghanem is a Lebanese architect trained at the Université Saint-Esprit de Kaslik (USEK) in Jounieh, Lebanon. Together with Michel Ghostine, their range of projects covers a wide spectrum, from the Warka Water initiative, a vertical structure designed to collect and harvest potable water from the air, to competition work including earning the Finalist spot at the Lamborghini Road Monument Competition in 2016.