The Mexican government recently announced that British architecture firm Foster + Partners, FR-EE (Fernando Romero Enterprise) and NACO (Netherlands Airport Consultants) had together won the bid to design Mexico City's Benito Juarez International Airport and the renderings of the upcoming project look stunning.
The Norman Foster-led firm won the competition after fighting off six other architecture giants like Zaha Hadid and Richard Rogers. The firms needed to envision a 5,000 hectare structure that has 70 gates and can accommodate 40 million passengers a year. They had to work their way around a master plan provided by Arup Group.
The Design
The designs of Norman Foster-designed airport look striking. The airport is poised to become the largest in Latin America spanning an area of 5.97 million square feet.
"The entire terminal is enclosed within a continuous lightweight gridshell, embracing walls and roof in a single, flowing form, evocative of flight," according to an official statement.
The airport has reportedly been planned on a new site and will initially have three runways which will later be expanded to six.
The maximum internal span of the airport is about 170 meters. The interiors will boast of vaulted high ceilings and a light-weight steel and glass façade completely.
The airport will completely be eco-friendly and will comply with all LEED-Platinum certifications.
Need for Bigger Airport
The Mexican government has been planning a new airport for more than two decades now. According to the Mex DF Magazine, officials have been toying with the idea since the 1960s. The magazine explains that over the years, the airport has served more than its time and has exceeded its threshold limit of catering to 30 million passengers on an annual basis.
After President Enrique Pena Nieto was elected president in 2012, he brought up the idea of an expansion in a meeting, asserting that a state-of the-art airport could give the economy a boost.
Economy Boost
As the plans have now been revealed, the Wall Street Journal is reporting that several big and small Mexican construction firms are teaming up to bid for a contract.
"An airport of this size is only built somewhere in the world every 10 years," Zárate Rocha, president of the Mexican Construction Industry Chamber, told the publication noting that the $9.2 billion project will generate at least 12,000 jobs. "This project is fundamental to push the economy."
Environment Friendly?
But a project of such grand scale isn't devoid of controversy. According to Fox Business, the proposed airport isn't as eco-friendly as it's claiming to be. The project reportedly threatens 120 species of the nearby lake with extinction.
"The Lake Texcoco area is a flood zone, making it less than ideal for an airport," Sen. Alejandro Encinas told Fox Business adding that the project would be "ecological suicide and a threat to urban development."
