The construction is the work of Richard Rogers' studio, who won the architectural competition for its design in 1989. But they began to deal with this plan much earlier - in 1985, and the idea of building a new terminal at the largest airport in Great Britain appeared back in 1982.
The reason for this slowness is in the attempts of customers and the authorities to reduce construction costs, to make sure that it is necessary to use just such an area for building, etc. As a result, almost nothing remained of the extended building with an undulating roof and "light canyons" that cut through all its tiers. … Rogers' 2006 construction, the fourth terminal at Madrid Barajas Airport, for which he received the Stirling Prize, provides insight into the initial design.
In London, however, a structure of a completely different kind appeared. This is perhaps one of the tallest airports in the world, with four aboveground and three underground levels. This creates significant inconveniences: if a passenger arrives at Heathrow by metro, and his plane is parked at one of the two T 5 satellite terminals, he will have to climb out of the ground to the very top of the building - to the departure hall, check in, and then go down again to board the shuttle, which will take him through the tunnel under the airfield to the neighboring building.
Over the years of negotiations, the undulating ceilings were replaced by a 160 m wide roof with one profile bend, covering the entire terminal space without the aid of intermediate supports. This decision is related to the functional purpose of the building. Since airports are often undergoing renovations, the architects made the internal structure of the building completely independent of the outer "box" of the walls and roof. This made it possible to create an interesting visual effect: along the perimeter of the building there are vertical openings with escalators and elevators, which make it possible to estimate the real dimensions of the building (T 5 length is 396 m, height - 40 m, it is designed for a passenger traffic of 30 million people per year).
But the main goal of the architects - to make the building as durable as possible and adaptable to any future changes in the situation - has not been fully achieved. The project with a budget of 4.3 billion pounds was carried out at the airport, which is due to close sooner or later. In order to land at Heathrow, most of the arriving planes must fly over all of London, on the last leg of the journey over the royal residence in Windsor. This is a serious violation not only of environmental protection standards, but also of safety rules, including those related to the fight against terrorism. Therefore, in the future, the authorities will again have to turn to the plans, which were delayed in the 1970s, to build an airport on an artificial island off the coast of Essex.
In the meantime, T5 surprises with many of its features: for example, 144 stores and cafes have opened there, more than in the rest of Heathrow, which is considered one of the most "commercialized" airports in the world. During the implementation of the project, it was necessary to bring two rivers to the surface from the pipes and run them along artificial channels sheathed with wood. To create a natural eco-system in them, fish and snails were released there from the nearby Koln River. The facade of the airport deserves a separate mention: it is completely hidden from passengers arriving from London behind the building of a multi-storey garage; the same building blocks the landscape of southern England from those who have just arrived in the British Isles. The architects wanted to create a green boulevard between these two buildings, but this space is already being filled with outbuildings. At the same time, the upper tiers of T 5 still offer a view of the fields and groves of the "green belt" of London, as well as of Windsor Castle.
Of course, the new terminal does not belong to the best examples of modern airport architecture, but given that since the beginning of its design, much has changed in the world of air travel (the Duty Free trade zones have expanded dramatically, economy class airlines have appeared with their own characteristics, Concordes have stopped flying and the Airbus A380 went into operation, safety requirements have become unusually stricter), and this structure is quite consistent with the functions assigned to it, Terminal 5 can be called a success of the Rogers Sterk Harbor Bureau rather than a black spot on its track record.
