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Innsbruck Airport Terminal
How does an airport become a communal center?
Designed as the world's first all timber airport, the building re-interprets its typology as open communal place in the middle of the Alps and in close proximity to the city of Innsbruck. The multifunctional building houses the not only the arrival and departure, but a multitude of retail, offices and amenity spaces as well as a marketplace and public promenade.
Beta Realities designed the new main terminal building of the Innsbruck Airport as transformative spatial system with a focus on sufficiency and circular material strategies.
Innsbruck Airport
Project Region
Europe
Project Period
2020
Location
Innsbruck, Austria
Team
Paul Clemens Bart, Marvin Bratke with Florian Michaelis, Leonie Kliemann
Status
Competition Completed
Programme
Mobility
Client
Tiroler Flughafen GmbH
Collaborators
graadwies, Urban Beta
Size
15.800 m2
Visualisation
imperfct
Innsbruck Airport
Predictive planning with a system approach.
The framework for the structure is highly flexible in use. To achieve a building that changes over time, we applied a kit of parts logic of reversible elements that allow different spatial scenarios over time.
Innsbruck Airport
An Airport as communal marketplace and mobility hub.
The design integrates urban life into travel infrastructure with a public promenade linking landside and airside, while a voxel-based strategy ensures flexible, post-pandemic adaptability. Built entirely from timber, it honors Tyrolean tradition while embracing modern technology. As a multi-modal hub, it seamlessly connects public transport, micro-mobility, and air travel.
Mobility hubs for multimodal transport.
The voxel-based spatial strategy enables dynamic space activation based on passenger needs. Schengen and non-Schengen areas can be adjusted seasonally, while gates expand via swing partitions. This flexibility allows the airport to efficiently handle varying travel capacities, ensuring smooth operations and an optimal experience for both short-term and long-term passengers.
Innsbruck Airport
Innsbruck Airport
Programmatic flexibility.
A flexible building model allows for spatial flexibility over the life of the airport, adopting to new considtions as safety regulations, potential expansions and post-pandemic air travel. Completely equipped from renewables with material passports, its adaptive material strategy extends into a circular business model that is built on subscription based systems, allowing to change the functional mix over time. The airport therefore fully grows and adapts with its use.
Innsbruck Airport
A Kit-of-Parts Approach.
The airport’s modular grid system is structured around “+”-shaped elements that integrate load-bearing functions with heating, ventilation, and technical installations. This intelligent system ensures scalability and adaptability across multiple locations. Prefabricated elements can be rearranged or expanded, making the design universally applicable to various urban and regional mobility hubs.
Hybrid mass timber system.
Mass timber elements are produced in a clean and controlled factory environement. Timber components are pre-fabricated to create a simple kit of parts that minimizes on-site work.
Innsbruck Airport
Inssbruck Airport
Hybrid CLT & Glulam construction.
A hybrid system of CLT floors and glulam beams and columns is used to achieve large spans, which allow for a greater interior flexibility without requiring thick timber slabs. This allows for maximum open plans and adaptable spaces.
Sustainable Timber Construction.
As the world’s first all-timber airport, the terminal utilizes locally sourced, renewable materials. The structure, load-bearing elements, and interior partitions are built from high-performance CLT and LVL, significantly reducing the carbon footprint. Timber construction enhances sustainability while creating a warm, biophilic environment that promotes well-being for travelers and visitors.
Innsbruck Airport
Innsbruck Airport
Designed for disassembly.
Mass timber ensures sustainability with minimal waste throughout its lifecycle, from harvesting to recycling. Designed for disassembly, a reversible engineered kit of parts enables spatial robustness, long material cycles, and an optimized building process, promoting a sustainable production chain with efficient resource use.
On Demand Mobility Infrastructure.
Areas can be activated when needed, gates can be extended via switchable swing gates and whole areas can be increased horizontally and vertically. The design is completely built on prefabricated timber units that allow for a high degree of freedom and technical installation.
Innsbruck Airport
Innsbruck Airport
Integrated Mobility and Urban Life.
Beyond traditional air travel, the terminal fosters an active urban environment. The central public promenade connects landside and airside seamlessly, forming a vibrant marketplace. Multi-modal mobility options, including local bus networks, e-scooters, and bikes, simplify transfers, turning the airport into a dynamic hub that integrates seamlessly with its surrounding cityscape.
From human to building size.
The universal kit of parts allows for a series of integrative solutions, that range from the overall construction sequence to human scale interfaces, embedded utilities and MEP.
Innsbruck Airport
Innsbruck Airport
Reinventing typologies.
The Innsbruck Airport Terminal stands as a pioneering example of sustainable design, seamlessly integrating air travel with communal spaces. Its all-timber construction and multifunctional facilities redefine the airport as a vibrant hub, harmoniously blending with the Alpine landscape and urban fabric of Innsbruck.