An Ultra-Modern Airport In Shenzhen Makes Flying Feel Futuristic

An Ultra-Modern Airport In Shenzhen Makes Flying Feel Futuristic

All airports are absolutely, positively not created equal. Case in point: the brand new Terminal 3 at Shenzhen’s Bao’an International hub, which will be inaugurated next month after five years in the making. This place is a certifiable beaut that befits the awesome act of flying that we take for granted all the dang time.

An Ultra-Modern Airport In Shenzhen Makes Flying Feel Futuristic

Studio Fuksas, led by architectural icons (and husband/wife duo) Massimiliano and Doriana Fuksas, turned a ground-bound site for arrivals and departures into something that visually soars.

This gateway to the friendly skies was designed to look like a manta ray, and extends for almost a kilometre and a half along the tarmac.

An Ultra-Modern Airport In Shenzhen Makes Flying Feel Futuristic

An Ultra-Modern Airport In Shenzhen Makes Flying Feel Futuristic

Metal and glass honeycomb cladding gives the exterior a consistent geometric motif, but the inside is where this feature truly shines; natural light pierces through the pattern, illuminating the nearly all-white interior from the swooping ceiling down to the reflective floor.

An Ultra-Modern Airport In Shenzhen Makes Flying Feel Futuristic

An Ultra-Modern Airport In Shenzhen Makes Flying Feel Futuristic

Info islands and air conditioning units are shaped like sculptural trees, while the massive supporting columns are meant to give the awe-inspiring effect of stepping into a cathedral. It becomes, in a way, a destination unto itself — as opposed to a much-maligned midpoint between here and there, wherever those final destination may be.


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