The results of the international architectural competition for the project of the air terminal complex of the Yuzhny airport were announced in Rostov-on-Don on October 10. As Archi.ru already reported, the English bureau Twelve Architects became the winner in this competition. "Asadov's Architectural Bureau" took second place, we publish this project.
It was a competition of architectural concepts, aimed at finding a symbolic building worthy of the title of the southern "heavenly gate" of Russia. As Andrei Asadov recalls, from the very beginning his team relied on a simple and expressive image: according to architects, an airport is by definition a large form, which should be formed from large and understandable elements that are equally well read both from the ground and from porthole of an aircraft approaching landing.
In the initial version of the project, such elements were gently sloping arches. They crossed one another, tying the roof, walls and a developed entrance canopy into a single organism, facing the pedestrian square in front of the airport building. The intricacies of arches, invented by the Asadov Architectural Bureau, were highly appreciated by the jury, reaching first in the second round of the competition, and then in the so-called. the super final, when the experts could not choose between the Russian and English projects and recommended their authors to develop the initial idea, i.e. actually show what else they are capable of. In particular, the experts strongly advised Asadov's team to slightly enhance the expression of the project, as well as to consider the possibility of creating a covered passage to the parking of personal vehicles located on the opposite side of the square. It was from these remarks that the final version of the Yuzhny airport was born.
“It seemed to us that pulling an ordinary long canopy from the airport to the parking lot was too trivial, so we came up with a perimeter canopy that smoothly flows into the roof and framing the part of the square where the decorative pond with fountains is located,” explains Andrey Asadov. This reservoir in the plan has the shape of an equilateral triangle, which with its base adjoins the airport building, and the opposite angle is directed just to the parking lot and the projected railway terminal. By enclosing it in an elegant "frame" of thin pillars supporting the pedestrian galleries, architects thereby repeatedly emphasize its geometrically perfect form. This is how the Russian team got the image of an “arrow” that can be read instantly on the plan: in a reduced form, such triangles are generally very typical for airport infographics, where the most important question is which way to go. In this case, the “arrow” clearly indicates the city and the ways of communication with it, therefore the architects called it “earthly”, deciding to balance the “heavenly” one.
The second "arrow", pointing in the direction of takeoff, is the same equilateral triangle, only it cuts through not the area in front of the airport building, but its roof. The Sky Arrow is made up of triangular overhead lights - many small arrows oriented towards the runway. Their direction emphasizes the slope of the roof, which rises smoothly to the departure zone. And in order to avoid direct sunlight and overheating of the building, the architects propose to allocate part of the area of the zenith triangles for the placement of solar collectors.
In the interior of the airport itself, the theme of arrows is also played up. And if from the outside the central part of the roof seems to be assembled from transparent triangular scales, then from the inside the lanterns turn out to be spectacular cones, as if bringing the sky closer to those who are about to rise into it. The load-bearing part of the roof consists of metal cross trusses, which the architects propose to decorate with volumetric triangles of acoustic screens. These panels "under the tree" can also be considered "arrows", because they point down to the ground.
In general, it is worth noting that the theme of triangles, introduced at the stage of finalizing the project, eventually became key for him. The architects also assemble the shell of the terminal building from triangular modules - the most rigid in terms of structures and at the same time geometrically flexible, i.e. allowing you to create expressive multi-layered surfaces. By combining stained-glass windows and sandwich panels within the framework of the developed grid, the authors achieve an interesting visual effect - the airport facades seem to be cut out of paper and tremble in the steppe wind. This feeling is multiplied by the plastic of the roof, which rises not only to the take-off field, but also to the side facades of the building, forming either a wave, or two proudly spread wings.
