Aviation Architecture in India
The upcoming domestic terminal in Leh is a fine example where the airport terminal keeps up with the philosophy of ancient Buddhist wisdom intertwined with modern ethos, the design closely incorporates Buddhist design elements in the structure
From being one of the world’s fastest growing economies to having one of the world’s fastest growing air traffic volumes, India has had its own challenges in the fascinating story of growth in aviation infrastructure in the country.
When we talk about aviation, what strikes our mind is the story of a flyer, the journey which begins right from the airport drop off, through the terminal building, through the glazed walls overlooking the aprons with a view of the fascinating aircrafts and the journey the skies safely landing into the point of destination. While this story is aloof from what exactly goes into the building of this entire story, there are many facets such as aeronautical and non- aeronautical which have been explored over time in India in line with the best practices around the world, which have enabled a sustainable growth of aviation architecture in India.
With a paradigm shift in how master planning for an airport complex started to be given more importance in the 21st century, the idea of an ‘ airport city’ gradually came into India with Mumbai and New Delhi airport leading the way and Bangalore, Hyderabad slowing following into their shoes. While public- private partnership definitely allowed for more ideas to pour in a constructive way, focus was also started to be given to non- aeronautical revenue generation, which lends an important part of the funding to any proposed aviation infrastructure. The story of MIHAN in Nagpur is a fine example of how maintenance, research and overhaul facility has been brought into the country to allow for giants like boeing and airbus to setup facilities within India that not only saves the aircraft from flying out to countries like Singapore and Indonesia for repairs but it also saves a huge percentage of money to then be infused in other aviation infrastructure facilities within India which act as a boon to the aviation business.
The Aerocity in New Delhi is a fine example of a hospitality district within the IGI Airport precinct that has brought to the capital city, world- class commercial and hospitality development and given confidence to the private investors to infuse more funds into the aviation precinct within the capital city.
While the progress in master planning has taken a strong pace of development, the story behind the terminal buildings has been slow and fast at the same time. While the Terminal- 2 in Mumbai was one of the first examples of airport modernisation in India, Terminal- 1D followed in closely with a close knit airport terminal where form truly followed function in the real sense and explored the large span steel structures to give a grand passenger experience right from the city side drop offs to the grand escalators going down towards the boarding gates. In fact, the sense of ‘ passenger movement’ has been well celebrated with the escalators freely allowing for vertical circulation across different levels with a view of the aesthetically pleasing modular roof structures which was first explored as a portal modular frame for the Stansted Airport by the much famed Lord Norman Foster, who has led the story of aviation architecture across the world. The giant roof of the Stansted Airport seems so lightweight, and the huge glass walls lend so much of natural daylight that there would be no requirement of electricity even on a grey day!
There has been a phase in the aviation architecture in India where the efforts to make the terminal buildings grand have led to the
terminal buildings overpowering the context which is a very important part of the urban fabric of any city it is situated in. With some of the terminal buildings imitating spaceships in recent times, completely ignoring the urban context, there has been a demand from the airport operators and various stakeholders including the Government of India to make the airport terminals more responsive to the context and this has led to really fine results in aviation architecture. We have some of the best world- class terminals upcoming in the country where the architects have pushed the limits in responding to the context and making the terminal in line with the culture of the place where the people can respond to the building and accept the terminal as it is their ‘ very own’ building in the city its situated in.
The upcoming domestic terminal in Leh is a fine example where the airport terminal keeps up with the philosophy of ancient Buddhist wisdom intertwined with modern ethos, the design closely incorporates Buddhist design elements in the structure. The airport terminal building in Ladakh, which is one of the most picturesque places in the world, is very close to our heart. Throughout the design process, we, as architects, kept into mind the place we were going to build in– the city of Leh, for its difficulties in terrain, for one of the most complex weather systems and wind directions which guide the aircraft movement and of course, the rich culture and heritage of the Ladakh region, which became our foremost point to respect. The sanctity of this winning design was to protect what Ladakh was all about ranging from the Stupas, to the prayer wheel, to using the skills of the local craftsmen in producing wonderful art works that depict Ladakh. The Ladakhi culture was made the forefront and rest everything followed on its own!
Designing for a building in a region like Ladakh is always a challenge with sub- zero
temperatures for most parts of the year. Apart from this, the terrain is a challenging aspect. For most of the airports we see around the world, we have a handful of examples in which the passengers descend down post the check in as in this case, the passenger enter the airport on top of a hillock and descend nearly 20m to reach the boarding point to the aircraft. The entire airport is upside down and the challenge was to make the airside visible right from the entrance to allow for views across to the beautiful rugged terrain of the Ladakh region. Successful amalgamation of the best engineering practices with the cautious yet striking design was a major success for our airport building at Leh.
With the focus shifting to the need for the terminal building to respond to the context its situated in, our current ongoing project at the Imphal International Airport takes inspiration from the famous Loktak Lake and the abundant fishing activity in the Manipur region.
The aviation architecture in India has grown in leaps and bounds over the past few decades pushing the architects and planners to the limit, drawing inspirations from the silver lining higher up in the skies to the primitive place where the buildings are being built in, thus responding to the context which forms the very basis of an architectural story uncovered by the terminal for its flyers giving them a world- class experience for their fascinating journey through the skies!