128 ARCHDIGEST.COM
Taking
Flight
Spanning more than 7.5 million
square feet and set to accommo-
date some 72 million passengers
a year by 2025, Beijing’s newly
completed Daxing International
Airport terminal is, by the numbers
alone, a staggering feat: report-
edly the largest single-structure
airport in the world. But it was also
designed to be noticed, as is the
last word
case with all buildings by Zaha
Hadid Architects. One of the
Pritzker Prize winner’s final proj-
ects before her untimely death
in 2016, the futuristic hub features
a central thoroughfare inspired
by traditional Chinese courtyards,
with a seemingly fluid network of
columns, roof vaults, and skylights.
A starburst floor plan and verti-
cally stacked domestic and inter-
national areas, meanwhile, ease
navigation. “The terminal layouts
minimize the walking distances
between check-in and gate—and
also the distances between gates
for transferring passengers—to
a maximum of eight minutes by
foot,” says Cristiano Ceccato, the
airport’s project director at Zaha
Hadid Architects. Passengers,
of course, would be wise to slow
down. As Ceccato notes, the
sinuous design “gives moments
of pause.” —NICK MAFI HUFTON + CROW
