MAD has unveiled design for a new airport with bird-like volume in Lishui, China. 

Called Lishui Airport, the 12,100-square-metre building is shaped in a bird-like form that absorbs the elevation. The design changes and merges the airport into the mountains, making the airport a spiritual landmark in the region.

The airport is currently under construction and will be completed and operational by the end of 2024.

Lishui, a "forest city" in southwest Zhejiang Province, is renowned for its lush greenery and valleys. Its first airport is positioned as a domestic regional airport with an anticipated annual passenger throughput of one million, located in the hilly terrain that 15 kilometers southwest of the city. 

The planning and design try to respect the original site while ensuring accessibility, highlighting the characteristics of a mountain airport, and aiming to inspire tourism.

"Lishui is a garden city, and her airport should also be in a garden. As a municipal airport, Lishui Airport embodies the essence of transportation facilities as a public space, prioritizing convenience, human scale, and city identity over sheer size and extravagance," said  MAD Founder Ma Yansong.

Covering 2,267 hectares of land with a maximum fill height difference of nearly 100 meters, the airport adopts a large silver-white overhanging roof resembling a white-feathered bird ready to soar. 

Internally, the warm wood-toned finish and a shuttle-shaped skylight facilitate energy efficiency and create a seamless transition between interior and exterior spaces. 

The one-and-a-half-floor terminal layout optimizes passenger flow, with departure facilities located on the ground floor and waiting areas situated on the second floor. A central landscape path in the sunken parking lot further enhances the connectivity between passengers and the space.

Anticipating future growth, the airport's design accommodates increasing passenger numbers, forecasting 1.8 million passengers by 2030, 5 million by 2050, and an additional international terminal in plan.

F1 diagram

F2 diagram

Section A

Section B

MAD completed train station in the forest with a floating metal roof in Jiaxing. MAD is also working on a new art center with porous and floating canopy resembling "a continuous wave of water" in Foshan city. 

Project facts

Project name: Lishui Airport

Architects: MAD 

Location: Lishui, China

Date: 2018 - 2024

Site Area: 2,267 hectares

Building Area: 12,100sqm

Building Height: 23.95m

Principal Partners in Charge: MA Yansong, DANG Qun, Yosuke Hayano
Associate Partners in Charge: LIU Huiying, Kin Li
Design Team: SUN Shouquan, ZHANG Xiaomei, LEI Lei, YANG Xuebin, SUN Mingze, YIN Jianfeng, Punnin Sukkasem, ZHU Yuhao, ZHANG Yaohui, Alan Rodríguez Carrillo, Pittayapa Suriyapee, WANG Xinyi
 

Client: Lishui Airport Construction Headquarters
Executive Architects: CAAC NEW ERA AIRPORT DESIGN INSTITUTE COMPANY LIMITED
Façade Consultant: RFR Shanghai
Interior Design/Lighting consultant: Shanghai Xian Dai Architectural Decoration & Landscape Design Research Institute CO., Ltd
Landscape Consultant: Z’scape Landscape Planning and Design

All images courtesy of MAD.

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