"Airport Architecture: Wonder/ Stansted, Blunder/ Heathrow"

Monday, December 6, 2004

Wonder/ Stansted airport, London Blunder/ Heathrow airport, London
United Kingdom - The Guardian


Airports are full of drama. At airports, thousands of people say goodbye to
each other. "Departures" and "Arrivals" are great mythic doorways that frame
every life. They need to be handled with humanity.

Norman Foster lifted the roof of Stansted airport (opened in 1991) so
gigantic glass walls could interconnect each person and space, and flood
them with the same light. Its volume, grace and optimism encourages everyone
to breathe with the building. I normally fly in rather sad from Knock
airport, which floats on the vast Mayo bog in Ireland and has one of the
most beautiful sites in the world. But Stansted's human modernism encourages
me back to the metropolis.

An airport is only another theatre, and in the theatre height is always part
of the intimacy equation. Oddly, it is the very height of the Bouffes du
Nord in Paris that makes it so intimate. The energy lifts, instead of
shooting out sideways in aggression. We breathe more freely; we collide
less.

And then there is Heathrow. The approach could be worse - the model of
Concord and the tunnel beneath the runway give some sense of occasion. But
the buildings manage to be gigantic and claustrophobic at the same time,
because there is never enough height. You are compressed in low-ceilinged
corridors, disoriented and blinded by artificial light. You cannot find your
coordinates so the sense of being lost multiplies. Being cramped from above
makes you long for the relative peoplelessness of a business lounge. The
definition of a bad public building must be that it makes you want to be on
your own. A great public building makes you want to feel part of the group.


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