Zaha Hadid Architects, Foster + Partners, Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners and Pascall+Watson have been named on a seven-strong shortlist to design the £1.8 billion expansion of Mexico City airport

The quartet of British companies is joined among the finalists by SOM, Gensler and Teodoro González de León with Alberto Kalach: TAX.

All seven bids for the gargantuan project, which were submitted this week, are being led by Mexican practices.   

The 5,000ha scheme to ‘alleviate severe congestion’ at the 60-year-old Mexico City International Airport was first announced last December by transportation secretary Gerardo Ruiz Esparza.

The new complex is expected to handle 40 million people a year through more than 70 gates. An early masterplan, with a satellite terminal, was drawn up by Arup.

It is understood the state-funded project, which the authorities want to be operational by 2018, could be split into phases, with the design team asked to look at how schemes could be delivered in stages.

Meanwhile the AJ has learnt that both Zaha Hadid and Foster + Partners are still in the running to design the world’s largest airport, at Daxing, 46km south of Beijing in China.

The practices are understood to be down to the last three in a long-running competition launched in 2011. The shortlist is completed by French aviation specialist ADPI. 

> via architectsjournal.co.uk