20th July 2023
The Making of… is an opportunity to reflect on Foster + Partners’ completed projects and the process of making them.
This month, Hong Kong International Airport celebrates its 25-year anniversary. Located at the hub of a global region that reaches across Asia and Australasia, it is one of the largest and most ambitious airport projects of modern times.
Grant Brooker, Head of Studio, Foster + Partners, describes his experience of living and working in Hong Kong to realise the project.
Hong Kong International Airport was won through a major international design competition in 1991. At that time, Hong Kong had the small but efficient Kai Tak Airport, situated within in the built-up area of Kowloon City. Due to its central city location, the airport offered one of the world’s most dramatic approaches for landing aircraft. However, by the late 1980s, Kai Tak’s single runway could no longer serve the rapidly growing city or the Airport Authority’s vision for the future.
The pioneering brief was to design a much larger airport for Hong Kong, which would be built on the island of Chek Lap Kok, away from the city centre. A key part of the brief was to create a new airport island, by levelling out the existing land and expanding it to four times its original area. Due to the site’s more remote location, the project also necessitated the design and construction of new mainland road and rail links, as well as two purpose-built suspension bridges and a third Cross-Harbour Tunnel. Today, it takes approximately 20 minutes to get from the city centre to the airport by train.
An aerial image of the airport island, taken towards the end of the construction process © Foster + Partners.
The scale and complexity of this project was completely unprecedented - and unlike anything we had worked on before. When completed, it was the largest single airport terminal and the largest building in the world, with an area of 516,000 m2. This was a period of incredible optimism in Hong Kong and the new airport was seen as a step change that would put the city ahead of its competitors. The authorities rightly understood that a major investment in infrastructure would be crucial for the future growth and prosperity of Hong Kong.
The construction of the airport terminal was an extraordinary exercise in logistics management and quality control © Greg Girard.
The construction of the airport terminal was an extraordinary exercise in logistics management and quality control © Airport Authority.
Two weeks after winning the competition and signing the contract, our design team was working from an office in Hong Kong. The first site visit was conducted via helicopter – as the site area was mostly seawater at that time – and we landed on top of the mountain which had just had its peak removed. This was a truly unique opportunity to design and build everything from scratch, within an extremely short timeframe of just six years.
When developing the design of the airport, we used a three-dimensional model to define the complex geometries of the roof’s lattice barrel vaults. The model was used to work out the correct dimensions for the vaults, which all differ depending on their specific location within the space. This is because the terminal’s perimeter – which is over 5-kilometres – constantly varies in height and the building is only symmetrical about its centre line.
The project was an extraordinary exercise in logistics management and quality control. When it came to construction, we created our own ports which were used to transport everything to Chek Lap Kok by sea. There were approximately 21,000 people working on site and 9,000 people working off site to build the airport.
The vaulted roof provides a constant reference point as you move to or from your aircraft © Dennis Gilbert.
The vaulted roof provides a constant reference point as you move to or from your aircraft © Dennis Gilbert.
During the process, we also won and delivered the HACTL Superterminal, which is one of the largest and most technologically advanced single cargo terminals in the world. The project reinforces Hong Kong’s status as a major centre for international commerce and communications in South-East Asia.
25 years after it was completed, Hong Kong International Airport is still a spectacular gateway to the city. Logic of movement is built into the architecture, with clear lines of sight through the voluminous space, minimal level changes, a vaulted roof that provides directionality and a fully glazed perimeter that offers continuous views of the surrounding land, water and aircraft. The entire project is a celebration of the excitement of travel.
The project would not have been possible without our immensely talented team: Mott Connell Ltd, BAA Consulting, WT Partnership, Fisher Marantz Renfro Stone, O'Brien-Kreizberg, Wilbur Smith Associates and NACO.
