Airports

摘要

Should architects design airports? There have been calls for the profession to boycott this building type. And when the RIBA committed itself to reducing carbon emissions in the very same year it awarded the Stirling Prize to the new Madrid Airport terminal by Richard Rogers' practice, there was no shortage of critics to point out the contradiction. Let's not fool ourselves. There is no such thing as a sustainable airport. Airbus predicts a growth in global passenger traffic of nearly 5% a year. That will translate into worldwide orders of 24,300 new passenger and freight aircraft, worth $2.8 trillion, between now and 2026. There's a grain of good news: they will be a lot quieter and more fuel-efficient than previous generations of airliners.