INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT TERMINAL WITH VERTICALITY AS A CONCEPT FOR THE FUTURE

Architectural Concern of the Project
The aviation industry has made the world a smaller place. A century ago, it would take days to travel domestic distances and international destinations would take months. With the passage of time air travel has shrunk the world but, aviation infrastructure has expanded exponentially. India has become the third largest global market in the world. The government plans to establish almost 100 airports in the country in the next 15 years. Out of these 100 airports almost 70 airports are proposed at completely new destinations. The Regional Connectivity Scheme of the government (UDAN Scheme-Ude Desh ka Am Nagrik) aims at facilitating regional connectivity through infrastructure development.
For the construction of so many airports a lot of space is required for making the terminal building, concourse, taxiways and runways this growth is compounded by surrounding highways and roads. The growth of the surrounding infrastructure is also hemmed in terms of height.
Under the schemes of the government Regional Connectivity Scheme and the International Air Connectivity Scheme, air transport is very affordably available to the common man. It is the fastest mode of transportation that is available. As compared to the other modes of transport Air Transportation is economical and faster. This has led to a very fast rise in graph of people who use air transportation. A 20 percent growth is seen in this sector per year. This although is very good for the Indian economy but, also at the Same time it is coming up with its own set of problems.
The Center of Asia Pacific Aviation has said that India’s major airports will reach saturation in the next 10 years. Out of these 10 airports the airport that has already reached 95% saturation in 2018 is the Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport, Mumbai. The airport has no room to operate more flights. This airport currently handles 45.2 million passengers every year and witnesses around 930 flight operations every day. In 2018, Chhatrapati Shivaji airport handled 48 million passengers which is its total capacity. Now, the airport can not handle any more traffic. Not just Chhatrapati Shivaji Airport, in the coming years 9 more airports will reach its full saturation. This congestion at CSIA will lead to economic losses in Mumbai along with large scale unemployment.
Architectural and Conceptual Strategies to address the concern
The passenger traffic of Mumbai is seeing almost 20% of the total air traffic growth. Navi Mumbai Airport is coming up to relieve the congestion of Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport, Mumbai. The airport is expected to take the burden of the city’s primary airport, which is also the busiest single runway airport in the world.
Ending the 21 year wait of the airport, our honorable Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi laid the foundation stone of the air-port. The Navi Mumbai Airport is expected to handle 60 million flights per year. Navi Mumbai Airport is the first reliever Airport in India.
Although the Navi Mumbai Airport should have been completed by 2020 but, the project was not started on time. Till 2019 only the site office and the runway were constructed. The airport now is expected to completed by 2024.
I believe that since Chhatrapati Shivaji Airport has already reached its congestion in 2018 serving a passenger capacity of 48 million even, 60 million passengers for the Navi Mumbai International Airport is not an easy number to cater to. With the fast-growing population and the affordable flight tickets a 60 million passenger capacity would not be enough for an airport like Navi Mumbai. Serving 60 million passengers in an airport would mean very big terminal buildings with less of green spaces. With new airports coming up the carbon footprint is also increasing. My first approach was to design an airport with less carbon footprint. So, the best way to do it was to limit the number of terminal buildings so that there is no repetition in facilities and security. This would also lead to a decrease in inter terminal transport bus and metro facility. So, my design focused on designing a single terminal building that would serve a minimum passenger capacity of 60 million.
Another approach would be to design a functional and futuristic technologically oriented terminal building. Ever since the design of the first aircraft way back in 1903, the design of the terminal building has been changing. The design of the terminal building is greatly influenced by the design of the Aircraft. The first aircrafts were supposed to be parked inside the terminal building so the terminal buildings that came up were like hangers. These aircrafts did not require a runway to take off and hence open green fields were provided. With the advent of time as new aircrafts came up the terminal building no longer had room to park the aircrafts inside. The aircrafts were moved outside the building and runways were introduced. Later, iconic buildings were seen coming up. Hence, continuously we noticed that the airport design was influenced by the design of the aircrafts.
Today, we see only those horizontal large span terminal buildings coming up. Aircraft design is changing. The technological advancements have come up with a new type of an aircraft called as the Tiltrotors. The tiltrotors are a combination of both an aero plane and a helicopter. Inn 2016, under the Certification of FAA, the first tiltrotor took its flight with a passenger capacity of 150.
My design aims at providing a conventional airport design with an extension of an airport for the future. This is done because the best way to test an upcoming technology is to do it in an existing place with minimum use of resources and energy.
If successful we can come up with vertical airport in the future.

Architectural Language Achieved for the project
The architectural language focuses on the design of an airport that is technologically oriented. Since the airport is designed as a reliever airport the major purpose to serve is the functionality and technological advancements to achieve maximum passenger capacity. A conventional airport is designed for the present needs and a vertical airport is conceptualized to serve the needs of the future.
The use of verticality of the structure, opens opportunities for the development and expansion of airport into smaller footprints, leaving more available land for green spaces. The development of the Vertical Airport as an extension to the conventional terminal building also reduces the repetition of facilities and security thereby reducing the cost incurred in testing the new technology.
Verticality is not just with the infrastructure but also with the wave of the future aircrafts. Vertical take off and landing systems would minimize the need of all kinds of taxiways and runways that take a lot of space in today’s airport designs. This reduction in paved spaces would benefit in reducing the heat sinks we face today.
Since the entire airport is so technologically strong the convectional airport has the concept of Augmented and Virtual Reality. With this concept of V and R reality the future generation would have a completely different relationship with airports. Rather than people spending hours slumped in chairs scrolling through social media or thumbing through poor quality paperbacks, they may pass the time plugged into an entirely immersive interactive experience.

SITE NAME-Navi Mumbai International Airport
SITE AREA- 2817.00 Acres
SITE LOCATION- Ulwe, Kopar-Panvel, Navi Mumbai,
Raigad Maharashtra
OWNER- CIDCO, GVK-MIAL
(Mumbai International Airport Limited)
LATITUDE-18° 59' 4.84" NLONGITUDE-73° 04' 44.81" E
GENERAL ELEVATION- 17.33 m
NUMBER OF FLIGHTS PER HOUR-80
SOIL TYPE-Alluvial and Loamy
CLIMATIC CONDITIONS-Hot and Humid
PRESENT SITE STATUS-Site Office Constructed
Work on Runway in progress
NEAREST HIGHWAY-8km from Mumbai-Pune Expressway
NEAREST AIRPORT-Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport
NEAREST WATER BODY-Panvel Creek
SEISMIC ZONE-4-High
ARCHEOLOGICALLY IMPORTANT PLACES-
Karnala Fort, Bawkhaleshwar Temple,
Belapur Fort, Elephanta Caves and Prabalgarh Fort
PROJECT TYPE-PPP