X MARKS THE SPOT

The world’s most sustainable airport is being planned for Mexico City by Foster + Partners, FR-EE (Fernando Romero Enterprise) and NACO (Netherlands Airport Consultants).

The Dhs3.67 billion project is vast; it covers an area of 4800 hectares and features a single 470,000-square metre ‘x’-shaped terminal building, complete with 95 departure gates, which will be designed to achieve Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Platinum Certification.

Officials say the entire building will be serviced from beneath, ensuring that the vaulted roof – with three times the span of a normal airport – is freed of ducts and pipes, allowing the creation of an ‘environmental skin’ that harnesses the power of the sun, collects rainwater, provides shading, directs daylight and allows views of planes circling the airport.

The dry temperate climate of the Mexican capital will assist the utilisation of displacement ventilation principles, ensuring comfortable temperatures can be maintained by almost 100 per cent outside air, with little or no additional heating or cooling required.

Lord Foster said the airport “pioneers a new concept for a large-span, single airport enclosure, which will achieve new levels of efficiency and flexibility – and it will be beautiful.

“The experience for passengers will be unique. Its design provides the most flexible enclosure possible to accommodate internal change and an increase in capacity.” The first three runways are due to be completed and fully operational by 2020, handling some 52 million passengers a year.

These tiles are 100% recyclable and are produced by a manufacturing process that emits no pollutants and generates no waste. They are also lighter and easier to transport than their conventional rivals.

The company, founded by Rafael Sorano and Miriam Braga, states that each square metre of tiles prevents the release of 3kg of CO2 into the atmosphere and removes 66 PET bottles from the environment. It eventually aims to recycle 6.6 million post-consumer PET bottles per month.

The tiles, which have a 0% water absorption rate, are easy to install and align, thanks to built-in lateral locators. And tile sheets have been designed to significantly reduce the amount or mortar and grout needed to fit them.

Any tiles left over after the completion of a project can be returned to Plaslatina to be recycled again.