The Ramon International Airport is located in the midst of a desert landscape, 18 km. North of Eilat,

a resort city at the northern tip of the Red Sea in Israel. The project commissioned by the Israeli Airport Authority (IAA)

is termed a “Greenfield Airport”, an Airport planned from scratch with no existing infrastructure on virgin land,

a rare opportunity of planning and design within the Aviation Building Design Industry.

The project is planned for 2.25 million passengers per year in phase 1 (2010) and 4.25 in phase 2 (2030). The airport harbors a 3600 m Single Runway, a 40,000 sqm. Passenger Terminal Building,

a 50 m. high Air Control Tower, all Support Buildings, including a Terminal for Private Aviation, and all required Infrastructure, including massive waterways to route the annual flooding from the adjacent mountain range.

Over the last 30 months, our office of Amir Mann - Moshe Zur - Ami Shinar - Orna Zur Architects, partnering two of Israel's leading firms Mann Shinar Architects and Moshe Zur Architects, has led this massive project as Head of Project Management and as Lead Architects, spearing a team of over 30 international consultant firms, including Arup London.

The clear and unique Conceptual Vision:

The Terminal echoes the Desert Boulder, a Self-Shading Mass sculpted by the Movements of Wind and Rain, in this case determined by Movements of Arriving and Departing Passengers.

The entire program of the Terminal was laid out in a two level simple box, all infrastructure on bottom level, all passenger traffic on top level.

The top of the box was then pulled out, creating for a self-shading mass, carved in by glass-screen walls defining entrances and exits,

and dividing the space of the terminal based on Landside/Airside divisions and Arrival/Departure movements.

To the exterior the building is uniformly cladded in white triangular aluminium plates, from an airplane window the view is of a seemingly alien like element, a modern mirage within the desert surrounding.

The interior is wholly cladded by wooden bamboo strips, creating for a warm experience. All programs are set within one-story pavilions and furniture elements, creating an efficient comblike-traffic of passengers, and allowing for a flexible approach open for future needs.

The carved in mass, allows for the penetration of the wild desert nature to the interior of the building as landscaped patios.

The resulting space is one large “open-schemed” space set on one level, whereby all passengers and visitors may uninhibitedly view the entire interior shell, with all its incoming/outgoing movements, only the glazed protruding "desert oases" acting as filters.

The landscape designed by TeMA follows the original mapping of the flood waters. In plan, a Fan of meandering lines streaming out from the mountain range into the desert valley determining the design of the shaded parking area, access ways and footpaths, "flowing" into the design of the Terminal's interior flooring.

As the project encompasses not only the Terminal Building but the entire airport, and as the Architect acts as Project Manager, this is a one-off opportunity to fully control the plan and design of all built elements, thereby creating for a continuous language and approach from furniture element to overall vision, an extremely rare occasion within the field of design.