Chantilly, Virginia, United States, Airport, 1962- Present
Neo-Futuristic Airport
The Dulles international airport is located in Virginia, United States. The airport was designed and built by world renown neo- futuristic architect Eero Saarinen. At the end of world war two aviation grew which led to the Washington Airport act of 1950. This act basically said that the government would fund a second airport fo the state. Many proposed locations were not passed until the U.S. president at the time Dwight D. Eisenhower chose a location in a small town bordering the city to place the new airport. The airport is twenty six miles from the city and named after the secretary of state at the time. The airport is one of the busiest in the country, serving over twenty three million customers a day and flying to more than a hundred and twenty five locations. Finnish - American architect Eero Saarinen was hired to design the main terminal because of his ability to create a graceful beauty in his designs. Some challenges associated with the project include making a structure that stands out from its modern surrounding and also to create a graceful entrance to the building. The terminal is a double height space with the bottom floor being used for departing passengers and the top floor being for arriving passengers. One of the major design aspect that seperated the airport from others were the use of transportation vehicles.The airport used mobile terminals which would drive and connect the passengers to the plane opposed to the plane coming to the terminal. The mobile terminals allowed for the overall shape and size of the terminal to remain pure. “Saarinen studied airports across the country and came up with a terminal design that expresses ideas of flight and movement in its simple, wing-like form. His monumental, yet minimalist, terminal – constructed of glass, steel, and concrete, with a catenary curve roof supported by cables – still provides an open, airy, and modern environment for today’s travelers.” The terminal has sloped fluid masses on its exterior which support the building and also relates the terminal to the idea of flight. The building had an inverted arc for the roof which allowed the building to avoid some windloading measures. Tension cables are run from one side to the other making an inverted arc on the middle. Concrete was poured over the cables allowing for a fluid surface. Every move that was made considered the structural quality, the aesthetic and the relation to the human body. “Every detail - doors, canopies, balustrades - is scaled for humans, as in a Gothic cathedral, so that the impression of size is continually reinforced between them and the grand elements of composition...But more than this, the entire design is based on recognition of the functional as well as emotional needs of a man.” The terminal is one of few in the world that the passenger is directly considered throughout the entirety of the building.The airport was immensely successful and influenced many others that came after. construction of the airport began in 1958, but Saarinen did not live to see its completion in 1962. He died of a brain tumor at age 51 in 1961. But his design for Dulles influenced a mid-century wave of sensual, expressive modern forms.” The architect Eero Saarinen left many projects unfinished when he died early. The firm which worked for him finished his buildings through the extensive work Saarinen had already done. While alive Saarinen thought of the dulles terminal as one of his best works. “I think the airport is the best thing i have done. It is going to be really good. Maybe it will even explain what i believe about architecture.”
Sources:
Eero Saarinen : an architecture of multiplicity, Antonio Román Pg 111-123
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