Bangkok’s main airport is planning to add a $1.3 billion terminal
with extensive wooden cladding and a forested landscape, spurring
concern about fire risk. Its designer says there’s no need to worry.
Tropical forests inspired the blueprint for the building and the aim
is to give travelers a feeling of Thailand’s uniqueness, 52-year-old
architect Duangrit Bunnag said in an interview. He rejected concerns
from the Engineering Institute of Thailand that the structure could be a
fire hazard.
“Airports tend to have similar features -- they’re white, cold and
metallic,” Duangrit said. “I wanted a design that immediately gives
travelers the feeling they’ve arrived in Thailand. It will be a metal
structure covered with wood. Different treatments can be applied to the
timber to ensure fire resistance.”
Airports of Thailand Pcl, the biggest Asian airport operator by
market capitalization, announced last month that it was awarding the
design contract to a joint bid by Duangrit Bunnag Architect Ltd. and
Japan’s Nikken Sekkei Ltd.
.
FOR THE BEST GLOBAL HOTEL & FLIGHT BOOKINGS
.
The state-controlled firm expects to boost annual passenger capacity
by 30 million by building a second terminal at Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi
international airport. Construction is due to start next year and finish
by 2021.
A tourism boom is straining the country’s infrastructure, putting
pressure on officials to tackle bottlenecks. Foreign arrivals could hit
40 million next year -- equivalent to more than half the population.
Duangrit’s design features sweeping arches and giant columns clad in
wood. He also proposed an enclosed tropical-forest landscape spanning
about 16,000 square meters between two buildings of the terminal.
Passengers would be able to see but not to enter the landscape, a symbol
for ecological protection.
“The difficulty in designing the terminal is how to make it memorable
to travelers from around the world,” Duangrit said. “How do I make it
look different to all the other airports?”
Source - TheJakartaPost
