The design of the proposed new airBaltic Terminal at Riga International Airport provides us with an exciting opportunity to look critically at the prevailing airport typologies, especially as they relate to a new smaller, single airline terminal of the future.
Over the last 20 years, airport design has focused primarily on creating non-hierarchical spaces contained within or under a single monolithic roof form. Passengers rely almost exclusively on signage and graphics for way-finding as the spaces are disconnected from the primary passenger circulation between airside and landside, the inherent functional requirement of the terminal.  Often terminal design relied on the “interior street” as a concept that was developed as a solution to the large-scale terminal where minimal transfer times and efficient movement between land and airside where not the determining design factor. The scale of these new terminals meant that enormous distances had to be covered by passengers and the relative experience was one that needed to be treated not unlike the retail mall experience.
The passenger circulation in these terminals is not intuitive and encourages meandering, window shopping etc, not unlike circulation within a mall. These spaces tend to emphasize the movement perpendicular to the land to air pathway as in a traditional galleria space. Movement across the barrier becomes secondary and is typically appears as punctuation along this galleria type space.
The unfortunate consequence of this approach is the fragmentation of the personal experience of movement from point of drop off at the curb, through to embarking and departure. Due to external demands of enhanced security and the complexity of passenger circulation and subsequent separation of passenger types, the transition between landside and airside has become increasingly fragmented and confused. Introduction of the Schengen agreement functional requirements has added a new layer of complexity to airport circulation that demands a new approach.

DESIGN CONCEPT

Inherent in the airBaltic brand is the idea of connectivity. This theme is one that is manifest in both the brand profile, and the modern operational culture of the airline. The airBaltic experience is one that seeks to balance the operational necessities of air travel with the more inspirational and positive associations we have with flying.
Freedom is our essential association with flight; however, the experience can suffer under the weight of the operational complexities imposed by contemporary air travel. The exuberance of air travel and the control required by operational considerations may seem mutually exclusive. The terminal design should address this reality and seek to create an environment where the “control” associated with operations does not effectively extinguish the “freedom” associated with flying. Connectivity and communication are essential components of the solution, and as such, we see the terminal as a conduit for air travel.

The movement of passengers between landside and airside is our point of departure and primary design consideration. This movement from landside to airside can be expressed by a series of parallel virtual corridors defined by the repetition of an extruded form. These “virtual corridors” are created by extruding an inverted u-shaped portal shape in the east/west direction to generate a primary grain clearly describing the landside to airside path. The building is composed of eighteen parallel portals shapes which are each extruded along a unique curve to create an undulating wave composition running from east to west. The curves are variations on a typical curve generated from the sectional path of passengers travelling from aircraft down to curb and curb to aircraft. The effect is to create a volumetric landscape within the greater airport landscape.

The two portal forms at the north and south ends of the building are each extruded out 224 m beyond the main body of the terminal building to form the Non-Schengen and Schengen departure piers. The volumetric expression of these piers is a clear extension of passenger movement along a landside to airside path. Another portal shape is extruded out to the east towards the city beyond the terminal to provide both a visual link, as well as a physical covered connection from the terminal building to the parking volume. When viewed from the air, the building form extends a hand into both landside and airside. Conceptually, passenger circulation within the terminal is then either interpreted as with the grain (primary) or against the grain (secondary) creating an experiential circulation hierarchy within the building.

The use of a repetitive module (spatial unit) to make sequence of directional spaces creates a variety of spatial experiences as passengers move throughout the building. Because the extruded portal shapes are moving through space along unique curving trajectories, they create areas of openness and compression as they rise up or move downward towards the floor. The effect is to reduce the scale of the interior volumes by defining a series of varied interior compartments. This familiar rhythm of directional spaces recalls the composition of barreled vault buildings of the Riga landmark Central Market, themselves with a historical connection to flight. This use of this type of repetitive unit also facilitates the future bay by bay expansion of the terminal.

As transfer passengers make up approx 70% of the projected passenger capacity, the quality of the transfer passenger experience and efficiency of transfer circulation is critical to airBaltic customers. In contrast to typical terminal profiles, the relative importance of the transfer passenger suggests that the movement of these passengers should inform the building design in a direct and meaningful way.
The internal network of transfer passenger circulation from gate to gate through the required security and passport controls is consolidated into an L-shaped object to create a distinct airBaltic “Transfer Bar” that is expressed in the terminal massing as a colored floating volume. Identified by the airBaltic green, the transfer bar volume is legible at distance to arriving passengers prior to arrival at the contact gates or transfer from remote gates. Passengers can visually identify their unique transfer circulation path and destination before entering the terminal. This provides passengers with clear and intuitive way-finding within the building immediately upon arrival.