Take the first flight - Alternatives to Traditional Airports

Q: Who wrote "Take the first flight - Alternatives to Traditional Airports"?

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Q: What is "Take the first flight - Alternatives to Traditional Airports" about?

This article covers topics related to Transportation, Urban Design. First window - result story

First window - result story

5 min read·19 reads

UNI published Results under Transportation, Urban Design on Jun 6, 2020

Overview

Airports today are not only highly frequented transportation hubs, but they also serve as important places for work, commerce, and recreation. Globalization and unprecedented demand for travel have resulted in the proliferation of airports around the world. In a very short period, demand for them has increased and this new typology of buildings has thus emerged enormously.

Airport design involves a lot of technical complexity and functional design that often takes precedence over local and cultural context. On one hand, they use the latest technology for their design while many-a-times they are eventually disconnected from their context and cultural identity. For example, if we pick up any airport in isolation, one cannot judge its location based on its design. If Airports are the first place we see as we enter a new city/country, how can it provide a true window to what the city offers?

Additionally, how can we design for such a typology to provide more than its functional need?

Brief

Koh Phangan is a mountainous beach fringed island and a popular destination for Full Moon Party. The first Full Moon Party was held at Paradise Bungalows on the beach in Koh Phangan in 1983. It was organised for giving thanks to 20 - 30 travellers. It gained popularity by word of mouth and today the event hosts a crowd of about 5000-30000 people every Full Moon Night. In Spite of this large influx of tourists every month, the island lacks an airport. The airport was being built by a domestic Thai Airline in 2012. The construction had begun but due to various legal issues, it was stopped.

Hence, the design challenge was to propose a concept for the Airport Design of Koh Phangan island in Thailand.

(This was primarily a concept-design challenge only so the participants weren't required to give the technical details for it.)

The jury for the competition consisted of esteemed designers, professionals and academicians from around the world. The Lead Jurors for the competitions were as follows:

Branko Kincl, Chief Architect, KINCL Ltd, Croatia

Nick Foster, Principal, office of mcfarlane biggar architects + designers inc., Canada

Seyhan Ozdemir Sarper, Co-Founder / Head of Design, Autoban, Turkey

Some of the Best of competition projects are:

Winning Project: Koh Phangan Airport

By: Alexandr Stankevich

Description: Ko Pha-ngan is an island in the Gulf of Thailand in southeast Thailand in Surat Thani Province. The development of this project is due to the need to create an airport that can provide a tourist capacity of 600,000 people per year and will challenge traditional airports.

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Editor’s Choice: The Moon

By: Xinyu Li, Quanjiang Li, Shuran Qu & Nan Hu

Description: Moon is an inspiring intention through the whole design. We respect the complicated nature conditions and embrace the surrounding lush nature. The two airports (on land and water) will remodel and upgrade the tourism experience dramatically. The design also brings the capability to reconstruct the social-cultural impact as well as economic upgrading.

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Editor’s Choice: FULL MOON AIRPORT

By: Misak Terzibasiyan

Description: Koh Phangan Airport, Thailand: The main concept behind the airport is to capture the beauty of the island of Koh Phangan. To show this beauty in the best possible light, we positioned the airport in the form of a full circle between land and sea. As such, it encloses the water, forests, and beaches.

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Editor’s Choice: AIRPORT RE-IMAGINED - KOH PHANGAN

By: Joel Mbala-Nkanga

Description: The design draws on the excitement of traditional Thailand and Koh Phangan Architecture with a modern twist to play a balancing game between past, present, and future. The airport would be the first airport in the world with built-in Flexibility to grow and shrink as capacity is needed to account for busy times.

Discover the full results here:

Discover the design brief here: https://uni.xyz/competitions/first-window/info/about
Discover the full results here: https://uni.xyz/competitions/first-window/entries

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