Norman Foster's studio turned the typical airport layout upside down with its 1991 Stansted Airport, which saw the high-tech architecture style applied to aviation for the first time.
The project saw Foster's studio turn the typical airport layout upside down by placing all of the services underground, instead of on the rooftop.
Beneath the roof, which is supported by structural trees, the airport's main concourse is a large, flexible, naturally-lit space. The layout places all the building services including the baggage and handling and a railway station, on the lowest floors.
Norman Foster's studio placed the building services underground so the roof could be opened up
All passenger services, such as check-in, security and departure, are arranged across the ground floor in a way that harks back to the simple, earlier terminal designs. "Stansted Airport challenged all the rules of airport terminal design," said Foster + Partners, which was known as Foster Associates when the building was completed. "It went back to the roots of modern air travel and literally stood conventional wisdom on its head."
"The earliest airport buildings were very simple: on one side there was a road and on the other a field where aircraft landed into the wind."
Stansted Airport has a lightweight lattice-domed roof, supported by tree-like columns. Photograph by Ken Kirkwood
Large expanses of glazing wrap the airport terminal to allow travellers to view planes ...