The design of Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport’s third terminal is to focus on creating a unique passenger experience, the building’s architect said after learning his design had been selected for the project.
The concept behind the design is to use every corner of the terminal complex, which is to include a multifunctional building for retailers and entertainment providers, project architect Andrew Tyley said.
There would also be a plaza that connects the terminal and the multifunctional building, providing a spacious area for public use, Tyley said of the 640,000m2 project, which is scheduled to be completed in 2020.
“We have created an urban place in a public realm,” said Tyley, from UK architectural firm Rogers Stirk Harbour and Partners.
The design of the third terminal is to take an unconventional approach, integrating the arrival area into a much larger departure area so that all passengers can fully appreciate the building, he said.
Travel experiences of arriving passengers are often overlooked, Tyley said, adding that arrival areas are roughly only one-fourth the size of departure areas at major airports across the world and are often on lower levels, preventing travelers from having a full view of the terminal.
In the project, the arrival level is to be placed above the departure hall with a balcony so that all passengers could appreciate the ceiling that is to be decorated with petal installations, Tyley said.
Rogers Stirk Harbour and Partners beat more than 300 design companies from 13 nations to win the NT$74.6 billion (US$2.27 billion) project, because of what the judges said was an innovative plan with efficient traffic flow design.
The airport said it plans to introduce several procedures that are likely to expand its capacity to 45 million passengers per year by 2018 so that it can deal with an estimated 10 percent annual growth rate.
Taoyuan Airport Corp chief executive officer Fei Hourng-jiun (費鴻鈞) said the focus would be mainly on improving boarding efficiency by installing more self-service facilities for checking in.
Up to 10 bag drop kiosks could be installed at Taipei Main Station when the new MRT line between Taipei and the Taoyuan airport opens next March, he said.
That would let passengers to check their luggage before they arrive at the airport and has the potential to increase the airport’s annual capacity by 1 million passengers, Fei said.
A magnitude 6.4 earthquake struck off the coast of Hualien County in eastern Taiwan at 7pm yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The epicenter of the temblor was at sea, about 69.9km south of Hualien County Hall, at a depth of 30.9km, it said. There were no immediate reports of damage resulting from the quake. The earthquake’s intensity, which gauges the actual effect of a temblor, was highest in Taitung County’s Changbin Township (長濱), where it measured 5 on Taiwan’s seven-tier intensity scale. The quake also measured an intensity of 4 in Hualien, Nantou, Chiayi, Yunlin, Changhua and Miaoli counties, as well as
Credit departments of farmers’ and fishers’ associations blocked a total of more than NT$180 million (US$6.01 million) from being lost to scams last year, National Police Agency (NPA) data showed. The Agricultural Finance Agency (AFA) said last week that staff of farmers’ and fishers’ associations’ credit departments are required to implement fraud prevention measures when they serve clients at the counter. They would ask clients about personal financial management activities whenever they suspect there might be a fraud situation, and would immediately report the incident to local authorities, which would send police officers to the site to help, it said. NPA data showed
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