Fact File
Typology: Terminal Building
Client: Beijing New Airport Headquarters (BNAH)
Size Airport Terminal: 700,000m2
Location: Daxing, Beijing, China
Ground Transportation Centre: 80,000m2
Capacity 72 million passengers per year by 2025
630,000 flights/year on 4 runways
Expanding to 100 million passengers annually
Status Under Construction
Architect/Joint Design Team: Zaha Hadid Architects (ZHA) & ADP Ingeniérie (ADPI)
Local Design Institute: BIAD (Beijing Institute of Architecture & Design) + CACC (China Airport Construction Company)
Renderings by Methanoia© Zaha Hadid Architects
The 700,000m² terminal building and 80,000m² ground transportation centre have been designed to be extremely user-focussed, efficient and adaptable for future growth; its 6-pier radial design gives exceptional convenience for passengers and flexibility in operations.
The terminal’s compact design minimises distances between check-in and gate, as well as minimises distances between gates for transferring passengers. Every aircraft pier radiates directly from the terminal’s main central court where all passenger services and amenities are located, enabling passengers to simply walk the short distances to everywhere they need to go.
Evolving from principles within traditional Chinese architecture that organise interconnected spaces around a central courtyard, the terminal’s design guides all passengers seamlessly through the departure, arrival or transfer zones towards the grand multi-layered meeting space at the very heart of the terminal.
Flowing parabolic folds within the terminal’s vaulted roof that reach to the ground to support the structure and bring natural light within. Housing many aircraft gates in one terminal with a single passenger handling centre – rather than many smaller terminals and continuous inter-terminal shuttle trains – significantly reduces the carbon footprint of the airport throughout its construction and operational lifetime; helping to achieve the airport’s very high targets of environmental management and sustainability.
Designed to adapt to operate in many different configurations dependant on varying aircraft and passenger traffic each day, the new airport will include an integrated transport centre offering direct links to Beijing city centre, local rail services and the national high-speed rail network, making the airport an important hub within Beijing’s growing transport network and a catalyst for economic development in Tianjin and Hebei Province.
Following the 2011 international competition, in October 2014 BNAH created a Joint Design Team bringing together ADP Ingeniérie (ADPI) and Zaha Hadid Architects to collaborate on the optimised concept design for the new terminal building. The project is led by the Local Design Institute under the leadership of BNAH.
