T2 Dublin Airport in Dublin, Ireland

October 22, 2010 Category: Airports, Urban Design

T2 Dublin Airport, was designed by Pascall+Watson architects, that located in Dublin, Ireland. The high level brief for the project was to design airport infrastructure including a new terminal building of 75,000 sq m, a new 25,000 sq m pier, forecourts, roads and energy centre. The site constraints presented considerable challenges and through a process of detailed analysis of the floor area requirements it was determined that the building would need to straddle the existing road with check-in and forecourts located on the north side and the main terminal processor on the south side.

The two parts of the terminal are joined by a bridge with a simple elegant roof which unifies the architectural form. The two curved planar forms placed back respond to the site allowing daylight in and views out through the north and south elevations and the flowing lines of the roof structure and metal skin make subtle reference to the dynamic shape of aircrafts.

The building has been designed to be flexible and adaptable over time, provide ‘future proofing’ for the ever changing requirements of the airport industry and to be easily expanded in future phases of development. An extension can be easily achieved by extruding the truncated volume of the main terminal processor and the façades have been designed to be easily removed and replaced also key facilities within the building are designed to accommodate growth.

The airport development has also been designed to minimize environmental impact and significantly reduce energy consumption for this building type. High level energy saving targets defined by the project have been achieved by installing gas CHP boilers, reducing cold air infiltration, specifying lighting and daylight control systems and high performance glazing with solar shading. The thermal envelope also exceeds current building regulations requirements this results in minimum energy input to heat or cool the building all of which has resulted in approximately 17% reduction in CO2 emissions.

As aviation sector design specialists, Pascall + Watson have undertaken passenger feedback studies which have demonstrated conclusively that daylight levels within the building greatly enhance the passenger experience. The design of T2 has responded to this with the use of glazed facades, roof-and lights which bring daylight deep into the plan form. Also linear roof-lights above the main departures and arrivals routes serve as ‘directional indicators’ to improve natural way-finding and provide passengers with a clear sense of direction.

T2 Dublin Airport Design Architechture Plan