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buy book | AIRPORT BUILDERS By Marcus Binney. London: Academy Editions. 1999. Airport structures are likened to the great sheds of nineteenth-century railway stations in Marcus Binney’s Airport Builders. The architectural focus on as comprehensive a collation of recent key world airport buildings as you are likely to find, portrays a consistency of form that continues the tradition of engineering as architecture. This well illustrated and neatly chronicled digest brings together geographically diverse locations. There is some evidence of regional influences but, not surprisingly, a global ‘style’ exists. Large-span roofs are a recurring theme, but all owe their origins to Saarinen’s seminal buildings in Dulles and John F. Kennedy airports. Floating roofs and glazed facades are ubiquitous, and it is interesting to compare individual architectural responses to large-span enclosures expressing the excitement of travel and the evocation of flight. A fascination with transparency of wall and roof pervades all but a few more mannered examples. As a reference book for those involved in procuring airport buildings, this book will provide much interest. Its unashamed architectural bias plays down more complex issues of passenger flows, movement systems, baggage and services integration. It remains to be seen how rapid changes in technology, commercial pressures and the passengers themselves will inform the next super terminals – or will there be a return to more user-friendly smaller facilities anticipated by Marcus Binney? Marcus Lee |