Incheon International Airport
Incheon, South Korea

The idea of an airport city was most prominently embraced in 1992 with the design of Incheon International Airport.

Curtis Fentress' intent was to merge the qualities of a global gateway with the practical aspects of sustainable design and planning: "This world-class airport will be the gateway to Korea of the new age. Its efforts to draw harmony between Korean images and global design trends and technologies are outstanding," says Fentress.

Retail establishments designed in harmony with daylighting strategies and innovative indigenous landscaping marked the new idea that airports should be more than just a transit centre, but also a destination.

By understanding the history of Seoul, Fentress derived architectural references for the passenger terminal that naturally fused current sustainable technologies with local materials. Incheon boasts many unique luxury features such as a golf course, spa, private sleeping rooms, a casino and indoor gardens.

Giving life to the Korean Pines and other indigenous foliage are skylights and curtainwalls. Saving energy by introducing natural light also reinforces the building's intuitive passenger flows.

A major component of the master plan, the International Business Centre (IBC I), located south of Incheon's passenger terminal complex, was conceived as a hub for many different but carefully integrated amenities, including office buildings, hotels, convention/conference facilities and retail.

IBC I focuses on providing facilities that will support the growth of international trade and Korean business activities.

This concept for the International Business Centre envisions a downtown urban centre.

The plan maintains the symmetry created by the terminal complex with the use of two central axes running perpendicular. Each axis serves as a pedestrian mall and buildings are arranged symmetrically along them with high-density uses located near intersections.

Development of the IBC I occurs first along the central pedestrian malls and grows towards the edges.

Fentress designed airports make up a combined $13 billion worth of designed public and private spaces. The firm's designers and architects have broad experience of carrying through fast track and multiple-phased projects, large, complex, public projects consisting of multiple buildings, renovations, modernisation, expansions and new construction.

Coordination with local, city/state regulatory agencies, compliance with green building assessment standards, management of large, diverse group of consultants, traffic circulation and parking challenges, design-build projects and partnering are also key to making an airport city a reality.