Zürich Airport, Fifth Expansion
Zürich, Switzerland
Grimshaw

Elegant icon embodies airport’s growth

© Edmund Sumner

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Zürich Airport is fast becoming a major European hub. To accommodate increased passenger traffic, in 1996 the airport commissioned its fifth major expansion since the facility opened in 1949. Grimshaw worked as part of PGF, Planergemeinschaft Flughafenkopf, a joint venture between two British and two Swiss firms that was awarded the commission to design the Landside Center (C500) and the Airside Center (A500), two of three of major elements in the fifth expansion.

The Landside Center is situated above a rail hub that connects the airport to Zürich’s major public transport systems. In designing this building, the architects made ease of passenger movement their top priority. Escalators lead directly from the station platforms to a bank of 30 new check-in desks, which improves efficiency in the overall departures process. These escalators continue up to the airport “plaza,” which is an extended concourse containing retail shops and restaurants. A large elliptical glass lens skylight draws daylight down through a well into the check-in level below. The skylight’s form expresses the main circulation zone, adding coherency to this multilayered space.

The Airside Center creates a new icon for the airport and the city it serves. All passengers pass through it, whether they’re arriving or departing. Its main volume is a circulation hall that stretches the length of the building and overlooks the airfield. This longitudinal structure is graceful, yet monumental in scale. An aerodynamically curved steel roof, supported by steel A-frames, spans its 820-foot length. The roof’s geometry corresponds to a section of a gliding plane; its highest point faces the airside, while its lowest point faces the landside.

A glazed curtain wall fronts the Airside Center’s west façade, flooding the hall with natural light and allowing views of the surrounding countryside. In addition to enhancing the passenger experience, this visual contact with the outside world provides a means of orientation that airports often lack. Its glazing is suspended from the roof on a tubular steel frame and inclined inward by 12 degrees to minimize reflection. Encompassing 41,000 square feet, this glass expanse is comprised of roughly 400 rectilinear glass panels supported by fabricated steel bowstring mullions. A bespoke louvre screen system, which is fixed to the curtain wall and covers approximately three-quarters of the façade, helps regulate interior climate control.

Formal name of Project:
Zürich Airport, Fifth Expansion

Location:
Zürich, Switzerland

Gross square footage:
1,549,440 sq. ft.

Owner:
Unique, Flughafen Zürich AG

Architect:
Grimshaw
1 Conway Street
London W1T 6LR
www.grimshaw-architects.com

Photo © Robert Greshoff