Airport of the Future Competition Winners Announced

The Fentress Global Challenge Airport of the Future design competition results have been released.  Sponsored by international design firm Fentress Architects, the prizes are awarded to Unfortunately the firm, has chosen not to display the winning concept boards at a legible resolution on their website, but from what can be gleaned, the ideas of both the winners and finalists are fascinating. Central to the issue of airports in the future is where best to locate them, and from the entrants in this competition, a number of clever solutions have been submitted.

Th First Prize winner Oliver Andrew's proposal is for a floating airport built from pre-fab artifical islands. To locate an airport in the Thames Estuary directly addresses the problem of overtaxed Heathrow being unable to expand due to limitations imposed by surrounding communities. And the water would serve a dual purpose as  Andrew's design calls for hydropowered electricity generation.

Second place winner Martin Sztyk's proposal is self-sustaining through the use of algae grown in nearby farms as a renewable resource. The architecture of the Airport of the Future is experiential as it intends to be a destination in itself. The future of airships and non-atmospheric flight intersects with runways, tarmacs, trains, highways and the conventional infrastructure of Los Angeles.

Third Prize winner Alexander Nevarez of Art Center suggests Pocket Airports, a network of micro airports that would be located within skyscrapers themselves. According to one juror, “This scheme resurrects the images of the era of airships with masts rising from the city mooring the great machines with all of the romance that travel should imply. The integration of travel into an urban grid is a concept with great appeal that recalls the arrival of the train into the core of the city,”

More of th concepts can be seen at the competition website, or you can wait to see their display in the "Now Boarding: Fentress Airports and The Architecture of Flight" exhibition, which opens this summer in the U.S. and will travel the world until 2015.

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