Name: Architect Explains Subtle Airport Design Tricks That Guide Travelers
Uploaded: 2024-12-23T05:01:00Z
Duration: 8 min 2 s
Description: Are you an expert at navigating airports? Chances are, you’re actually being subtly guided by design techniques meant to keep crowds moving. WSJ asked an architect to explain.

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Are you an expert at navigating airports? Chances are, you’re actually being subtly guided by design techniques meant to keep crowds moving. WSJ asked an architect to explain. Photo Illustration: MacKenzie Coffman

https://m.wsj.net/video/20241220/bb333654-2eca-4424-bdd3-4ede81fb5f24/4/hls/manifest-hd-wifi.m3u8

Are you an expert at navigating airports? Chances are, you’re actually being subtly guided by design techniques meant to keep crowds moving. WSJ asked an architect to explain.

Architect Explains Subtle Airport Design Tricks That Guide Travelers

Narrator: If you walked into an airport, could you make it through security and to your gate without relying on signs? That's something architects like Peter Ruggiero have to consider.

The sign that's in the foreground is very visual, very easy to understand. But as I look further into the space, there's a lot of visual noise.

Narrator: Instead, Peter prefers massive windows and curved pathways to subtly guide millions of passengers every day. And travel is increasing, with 57% more passengers than 2002. We asked an expert to explain how airports can keep passenger flow seamless, making the difference between a smooth travel experience and increased revenue or a missed flight.

All airports have two sides, a landside and an airside.

Narrator: The landside often looks like this, with linear check-in counters as the focal point of the space.

In the linear arrangement, it was a destination. You walked up to it and then you had to walk away from it.

Narrator: And this made sense back when all travelers had to stop at the counter to get their boarding pass. But today, there are more paths. Families, elderly passengers, and infrequent travelers may need more assistance and are more inclined to use the counters rather than the kiosks. They may also want to stop at a bathroom before heading to security. Frequent travelers, however, are more likely to check-in online, skipping this whole area and going straight to security. But the position of these counters blocks visibility and hinders the flow of traffic.

What we've illustrated is the need for all of these things to be highly visible.

Narrator: The solution? Rotate the counters so they're perpendicular with the entrance.

The island configuration allows for that fluid transaction. You walk up to it and then you continue on your journey. You don't have to back away from it. You don't have to walk around it.

Narrator: This is where intuitive wayfinding comes into play.

Traditional wayfinding is really a dependence on graphics and signage.

Narrator: But intuitive wayfinding uses the space itself to guide people. Take the ceiling in Atlanta International Airport.

This particular ceiling has a little bit of an emphasis towards the glass because it appears to be sloping down, creating a sense of a compression.

Narrator: Ultimately pointing travelers to their destination, the airside. And while many airports have uniform flooring, floor design can also encourage circulation patterns and demarcate spaces, like in LAX, where high contrast patterns divide the walking pathways from the queues.

So a well designed space should be able to tell you where you're going. And the signage, if there is any, is really there just to reaffirm that you're going in the right direction or that you arrived where you should be going.

Narrator: Next, stop security, the link between the landside and the airside. But here, the rules of good wayfinding can be in conflict with the safety measures implemented by security agencies.

Security has changed so much since it was introduced, you know, over 50 years ago. If you think of the original prototypical designs for airport terminals, security located somewhere in the middle, and it was almost like this little pavilion. Passengers went in on one side, they went through security, and they exited on the other.

Narrator: But TSA requires a barrier between the non-secure landside and secure airside, reducing transparency and interrupting the flow.

But how do we minimize the impact of that wall to create this kind of pleasant passenger experience and still achieve the requirements? We design security in a lower ceiling area where the wall is minimal, the presence of the wall is not intrusive. So we go from the tallest ceiling height of the departures hall and then into the lower, more confined, and defined space of security.

Narrator: But the area has also needed to accommodate more passengers over time. In July, 2024, the TSA set a new record for screening over 3 million people in one day. The following December 1st, it beat it.

What we've learned is how we can accommodate change by creating large, flexible areas.

Narrator: So instead of building a bathroom with plumbing or a mechanical room here, architects will put more flexible spaces like an office, something that can easily be torn down later. That way, security can expand if needed, making way for new machines and more efficient methods, like parallel divestment.

And what it means is instead of one person at a time grabbing a tray, putting their suitcase on the conveyor belt, taking their coat off, taking their hat off, their shoes, whatever it is, multiple passengers can do it at the same time, reducing the amount of time that a passenger spends in security.

Narrator: And getting passengers through the line faster has a benefit. For every 10 minutes a passenger spends in the security line, their spending in the terminal decreases by 30%. Retail used to be an afterthought at airports. Stores were tucked into any available space.

In a configuration like this, there might be a greater need for signage to announce what is ahead and what can be anticipated, because without it, a passenger really will not be aware of what's there until they're there.

Narrator: So now, airports and airlines are spending billions on renovations to make open retail hubs, where clear sight lines help establish what's available and where people pass through the retail rather than next to it.

Utilizing the large pavilion-like space, the retail is visually and physically much more accessible. Floor patterning, the shape of the soffit above you, the pattern and configuration of light all really helping to serve a kind of a clearly defined path of circulation but not a prescribed path of circulation.

Narrator: But airports have to balance the needs of their passengers with those of the planes, which require a lot of space to taxi safely. And ultimately, this balancing act helps dictate the airport's configuration. Some of the busiest airports in the US, like in Atlanta and Denver, use this layout, linear satellite terminals.

Because it's an island, planes can be placed entirely around its perimeter. So there is no loss of efficiency.

Narrator: But passengers may have to use underground shuttles or trains to get between terminals.

You're removing kind of the visual clues and the visual awareness of being at the airport.

Narrator: Other airports have curves and fingers, which can constrain the plane's movements but help to keep passengers above ground the whole time, maintaining their spatial awareness. And that's key as passengers walk through the terminal regardless of layout. Sharp 90-degree turns reduce transparency.

A passenger, say, located here, walking in this direction, their sight line is about that big.

Narrator: Wide, curved paths increase that sight line. And level changes give travelers a bird's eye view of the space before they descend into it.

That awareness really starts to hopefully contribute to reducing the anxiety and the stress levels, because then that passenger may actually be more comfortable spending time in the terminal shopping.

Narrator: While departures gets a lot of attention, Peter says the arrivals area has been neglected.

The airport is a front door to a city.

Narrator: But often, arriving passengers' first impression is essentially of a basement. So when he worked on LaGuardia's Terminal B redesign, Peter sent arrivals down a series of cascading escalators overlooking the departures hall before arriving in baggage claim.

We really wanna make everyone feel that they have this elevated moment.

Narrator: When you're going on vacation or seeing family, you probably aren't expecting the airport to be a very memorable part of your trip, but Peter thinks it should be.

How do we make the experience memorable? And how do we make the processing actually almost invisible, that checking-in is so transparent, that going through security is hopefully effortless? We approach these projects from two positions. One is utility and the other is delight.

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