A 255,000 sq m airport terminal designed by Chicago architect SOM has opened at Kempegowda International Airport in Bengaluru, increase its capacity by 25 million passengers.
Terminal 2 contains a 90m-wide forest belt, complete with indigenous plants and multi-level bamboo pavilions between check-in and the gates – an allusion to Bengaluru’s “garden city” nickname.
A network of bridges and outdoor pathways, designed by landscape architect Grant Associates, allow passengers to navigate between security and their planes, which will pull up to 13 wide-body gates that can be switched to accommodate 28 narrow-body jets.
It is the largest terminal in the world to have been pre-certified as platinum by the US Green Building Council.
Preetam Biswas, SOM’s structural engineering principal, said: “Right from the inception, the engineering was focused on reduced embodied carbon and designing a structure that maximises the use of the material sourced and fabricated locally, making it a beacon of the government’s ‘Make in India’ policy.”
Peter Lefkovits, SOM’s design principal, said: “Terminal 2 will stand apart from every other airport in the world. The orchestration of every component—both natural and man-made—creates a passenger experience that we hope will set a precedent for the future of airport design.”
Although the terminal is open, a 123,000 sq m transit hub has yet to be completed.
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