Melbourne Airport Says Design Your Own Terminal

The proposed layout of the Southern Terminal Precinct
Source: Urban Melbourne

Have you been fostering grand plans of outdoing Homer Simpson’s ‘Persephone’? Or maybe you’ve always dreamed of adding a Wet and Wild atop one of the terminals at Melbourne Airport? 

Australia Pacific Airports Corporation Pty Ltd (APAC) last week released a statement calling for public design input into the finer grain aspects of the new Terminal 4, which will house Melbourne’s two low-cost airlines. It reads as follows:

We’re seeking feedback on the design of its new domestic terminal.  Construction is underway on the new Terminal 4, which will be home to growing low-cost airlines Jetstar and Tiger Air.

A survey has been compiled based on a fly-through animation of the new Terminal 4, and we’re seeking input from the general public and a range of stakeholders.

Frequent Melbourne Airport passengers and visitors, aviation enthusiasts and anyone interested in the development of the new terminal are invited to participate in the survey. 

Survey respondents are asked their opinion on the look and feel of the design, as well as questions around how they would like to spend time while waiting to depart or visitors to arrive.

Melbourne Airport will monitor the survey site regularly for useful feedback on the design of the new terminal, which will be updated as progress continues.

Whilst our article title may be slightly facetious, it’s a wise move on APAC‘s behalf to involve public feedback where possible given the bare bones (if not shambolic) nature of the current low-cost facility.

Southern Terminal Precinct to Handle 10 Million Passengers A Year

Designed by Hassell, Melbourne Airport’s new southern terminal precinct will be delivered by Leighton Holdings with a construction contract valued at $370 million.

Covering 20,000 square metres, the initial phase now under construction will be capable of handing 10 million passengers per annum upon completion, doubling in capacity if and when expansion plans are enacted upon.

“Making the terminal a passenger experience rather than a chore would be ideal…”

Impressive enough, so what would be a worthwhile addition to Melbourne Airport’s Terminal 4 given the complex’s design for the most is set in stone?

Reinventing the wheel and suggesting truly groundbreaking ideas would be a pointless exercise given APAC‘s penchant for function over form, as evidenced by the 1970s international terminal facade still greeting passengers upon their arrival.

The new terminal could mimic the Melbourne Central Precinct
Source: Travel Victoria

Making the Terminal a Passenger Experience

It’s a domestic terminal with minimal layover times; therefore, the need for a terminal user to relax or be stimulated for a few hours maximum is paramount. Making the terminal a passenger experience rather than a chore would be ideal. As such, the design should:

• Incorporate a well sized, low maintenance, functional rooftop garden akin to Freshwater Place Southbank’s, which would double as a viewing platform where users could relax, have a drink or meal, and take in sweeping views of the aircraft before them to the CBD beyond. This should introduce a much more diverse material palette – brick pavers, timber and high quality concrete finishes.

• Mimic Melbourne Central’s rejuvenated retail precinct or QV’s food hall with a multi-level retail and service dominated layout – give users a high quality offering and those excruciating one to three hours of dead time will be no more.

• Have institutions such as Melbourne Zoo, Melbourne Aquarium, Scienceworks, Melbourne Museum or the NGV sponsor mini exhibits where columns (not necessarily structural) are placed within the terminal acting as aquariums, displays or reptile/insect exhibits. Keep the kids occupied whilst also exposing Melbourne’s tourist attractions at the first point of contact for most travellers.

• Paraphrasing this article ‘How new technology is influencing the design of the future,’ implement the technologies that passengers find highly useful to allow their terminal experience to be enjoyable, rather than an obstacle.

A Facelift for the Ground Transportation Hub

Why stop there?  The oversized car park masquerading as a Ground Transportation Hub is abysmal if the below render is anywhere near accurate in its depiction.  

Surely APAC, which rakes in stupendously high revenues from car parking fees, can loosen the purse strings ever so slightly more and allow those charged with designing the complex to actually design?

“The terminal design should… mimic Melbourne Central’s rejuvenated retail precinct or QV’s food hall.”

A search of ‘car park facades’ in Google Images yields both impressive and intriguing results. The array of facade materials and the technologies backing those facades are impressive and make the below render look quite pathetic in the process.

Given it is a massive facility not easily missed, the Ground Transportation Hub should ideally be a functional and efficient facility that has minimal ongoing maintenance costs whilst being aesthetically pleasing.

The proposed Melbourne Airport Ground Transportation Hub
Source: Urban Melbourne

Herma Parking Building an Example of Functionality and Design

The solution is the Herma Parking Building by JOHO Architecture.  Located in Seoul, the impressive structure is both functional and daring in its design.

Rather than the above eyesore, a clad of polycarbonate and stainless steel panels punctuated by diagrid metal vents offers a slightly more expensive, immeasurably more impressive design outcome with essentially no long-term maintenance costs due to the materials used.

Better yet, what are the chances of a mixed use development where a hotel or administration office space is placed atop the car park in akin to this mixed-use Bjarke Ingles Group project?

It’s been done with the opposing Melbourne Airport Car Park and Park Royal – why not once more?

This article was originally published on Urban Melbourne.