The geographical, geological, cultural, and historical nature of a country or a city can be engaged or disengaged to extract a narrative that combines the adventures of flight with the specifics of place. Removed from the city and to some degree its site the airport is on the border of place and imagination, often be regarded as non-places, abstracted by the excitement and anxiety of flight and travel, and by the limited amount of time spent in the airport itself. The idea of creating place here on the borders is about slowing that process down and embodying elements that speak to, of or about that place. In Niagara Falls, New York the form of the roof was generated from a series of vignette models of the falls, the movement and nature of water, and the act of bridging the falls and nations. The client team was clear on a ‘gateway’ vision based on the falls for the terminal. The design team initially looked for other ideas of regional inspiration; the two streams of thought converging in a building with its roots in the geology of the region. The stratification of rock under two flowing roofs express the basic condition of the Niagara river and gorge, the combination of which creates one of the seven wonders of the world. Interior architecture furthers the ideas expressed in the form and structure of the building, through a series design elements or focus areas. Departing and arrivals processes expose travellers to memorable spaces: in Vancouver the Haida Gwaii statue, in Ottawa the three-story water fall. It is through the expressive use of specific build- ing materials that the narrative of place is accentuated and reiterated. Though the boundaries of these airports are remote from the city, the edges of the two may eventually intertwine, as they do in larger metropolitan centers. Airports which encapsulate an idea of the city are subsumed by the city itself, becoming part of the lay- ered construction that constitutes the urban fabric. When this occurs additional pres- sures such as residential concerns, intermo- dal connections, and commercial interests increase and interact more fully with airport terminals. To abdicate place as an idea and experience altogether excludes airports from acting as a remote representative of the city it serves, and eventually to represent the city from within its borders.
Regina International Airport, rendering of sundial
Edmonton Inter - national Airport, structural derrick
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local architecture | in a global world
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