New images have been released of Turkey's planned Istanbul New Airport. The facility will replace the existing Ataturk Airport. In addition to being one of the busiest airports in the world, it will have the largest terminal under one roof of any airport, according to project architects Grimshaw.
Grimshaw has plenty of experience working on airports and, indeed, on transport developments in general. Only last week Gizmag featured its newly-opened Fulton Center transit hub in New York, with its spectacular kaleidoscopic skylight. Istanbul New Airport, however, will be more similar in scale and ambition to the planned Mexico City airport, which project architects Foster + Partners claims will be one of the biggest in the world.
To put into perspective how big the planned terminal at Istanbul New Airport will be, the designs for Foster + Partners' Mexico City airport come in at 555,000 sq m (5,975,000 sq ft) in total. Terminal 1 at Istanbul New Airport alone will be 1,000,000 sq m (10,764,000 sq ft).
The airport will be constructed in a number of stages. Following the construction of the first phase in 2019, Grimshaw says there will be capacity for 90 million passengers per year. This will rise to 150 million per year once the airport is complete. It will also have an initial three runways, rising to an eventual six.
Grimshaw is delivering the project with the Nordic Office of Architecture and Haptic Architects, as well as local partners GMW Mimarlik and Tekeli Sisa. Arup has developed the masterplan for the airport.