SPECIAL REPORT: PLANNING & DESIGN
The wait is nearly over! What can we expect from Berlin Brandenburg Airport when the long awaited new gateway opens to traffic later this year? Joe Bates investigates.
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here will be a mix of emotions when the German capital’s new €6 billion gateway, Berlin Brandenburg Airport (BER), opens for business on October 31 this year. Pride and relief will certainly be among them as the new state-of-the-art airport is expected to take travelling to Berlin to another level, albeit it nine-and-a-half years later than originally planned. However, some tears are likely to be shed, too, as Berlin Brandenburg’s opening will mean the closure of the city’s popular Tegel Airport (TXL), which is scheduled to shut its doors for the last time on November 8, and effectively Schönefeld (SXF) from Day 1 as the new airport has been built on its site and its passenger facilities will become BER’s Terminal 5. Without a doubt the new gateway will be a welcome addition to Germany’s airport network and finally provide Berlin with the single facility it needs to actively co-ordinate the development of its route network. Talking about the potential impact the new airport will have on the city, BER CEO, Engelbert Lütke Daldrup, says: “Once Berlin Brandenburg is in operation, the economic development in the capital region will accelerate enormously. “We expect the new airport and its surroundings to create around 20,000 new jobs in the coming years. Apartments, day-care centres and schools will be added, as well as catering and commercial businesses.”
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AIRPORT WORLD/ISSUE 4, 2020
In terms of facilities, Berlin Brandenburg will initially boast parallel North and South runways and three terminals – the brand new midfield terminals (Terminal 1 and Terminal 2) with three piers (Main, North and South) and SXF’s old facilities (Terminal 5). Operator, Flughafen Berlin Brandeburg (FBB), notes that the new main terminals – Terminal 1 is built and Terminal 2 is currently under construction – will have “structured façades and clear, geometric shapes that embrace architectural elements ranging from Schnikel to Bauhaus”. BER’s design team, which includes GMP’s Meinhard von Gerkan and Hubert Nienhoff, says: “The new Berlin Brandenburg Airport comprises the passenger terminal and Airport City in the centre of the parallel take-off and landing runway system. “It also includes waiting areas to the west and service and cargo areas to the east. All elements are arranged within the axial layout of the whole complex and form an architectural/functional unit. “The roof of the passenger terminal spans the different functional areas in a sweeping gesture from the roadside concourse to the piers, linking the land side with the air side. The objective of the design is to maximise the convergence of structure, spatial relationships, function and architectural identity. “The generosity and clarity of the terminal building is enhanced by the architectural motif of colonnades which form the transition between architecture and landscape, between buildings and
