Kutaisi Airport
UNStudio

Image courtesy UNStudio

Georgia is located on a crossroads of rich cultures, with a history of travellers passing through the Caucasus or arriving from the Black Sea. As a result there is increasing demand from airlines to fly to Georgia.

UNStudio's design incorporates both Georgia's historic landscape and its architecture. In Georgia public buildings and private houses employ their entrance lobbies as showcases for their individual identities. The design embraces this architectural concept in order to manifest Georgia's young and dynamic democracy, along with its rapid development as a main crossing point in the region.

The architecture of the Terminal Building refers to a pavilion; a gateway, in which a clear structural layout creates an all encompassing and protective volume. The volume is structured around a central exterior space which is used for departing passengers. The transparent space around this central point is designed to ensure that flows of passengers are smooth and that departure and arrival flows do not coincide.


Image courtesy UNStudio

The 55 meter high Air Traffic Control Tower is designed to compliment the design of the terminal. The traffic control cabin on the top level forms the focal point of the tower, with a spacious and comfortable interior ensuring a workspace of optimal concentration. The exterior of the tower is clad with a transparent skin with the potential to change color whenever there is a fluctuation in traffic. The Air Traffic Control Tower will function as a light beacon to the sky for the international airport, but also from the road to and from Georgia's new parliamentary city Kutaisi.


Image courtesy UNStudio

It was particularly exciting for me to be able to design an airport which is not only linked to the new seat of parliament in Kutaisi, but which also creates an entrance condition which functions as a port for the international community. The airport presents a symbolic infrastructural gateway to Georgia and, from there, to the rest of the world.

/Ben van Berkel

The design for the new airport aims to incorporate local and international sustainable elements.


Drawing courtesy UNStudioOrganization

Drawing courtesy UNStudio Section