Schiphol New Pier

To accommodate rapidly rising passenger numbers, Amsterdam Airport Schiphol is currently developing a robust reinvention of its infrastructure. The first significant project of its capital program is the new pier. The design of the pier was awarded to AECOM in the form of a total engineering contract. Within this team cepezed is the lead architect. The pier is a brand new design completed in just over a year, from masterplan to technical design. Construction is equally ambitious: the pier is slated to be finalized by the end of 2019. Schiphol has a history of understated design, unlike many other modern airports. The pier reimagines the traditional Schiphol DNA, emphasizing transparency, modularity and rhythm and horizontal façade treatments. The design team focused on integrated solutions, to return to the sleek, minimalist feel of Schiphol’s original piers, while updating it with modern detailing and sustainable materials. The new pier houses a complex array of functions. It not only accommodates three security and border zones, it also functions as a mini terminal combining security and border filters. All combined, more than twenty distinct passenger flows can use the building to either arrive, depart or transfer. To add to the project’s challenging brief, the pier’s realization will included three different operational phases, in the meanwhile expanding the building from 11 to 14 gates and adding a new connection to the new terminal complex. This complexity is also reflected in the pier’s gatehouse designs. The pier has three double capacity gatehouses that can service either one so-called wide body aircraft or two narrow body aircraft simultaneously in combination with the three border and security levels. Also known as ‘MARS’ stands, these gates are unique for Schiphol and still a rarity elsewhere. Passengers moving through the building will experience little of the complex arrangements underpinning the pier´s design. Instead the passenger process is designed around offering a serene and calm atmosphere, guiding the passenger smoothly and quickly through its handling areas while offering comfortable dwelling areas unseen anywhere else at Schiphol. Where Schiphol´s previous piers are predominantly transit areas, the New Pier offers not only ample retail and food & beverage areas, but also comfortable waiting lounges offering a variety of atmospheres. Passengers are no longer expected to wait at their designated gates, but are invited to explore the pier and choose a waiting area of their preference. Transparency and visibility are key to ensure a comfortable experience. The project employs an open pier concept, meaning that vertical objects are clustered around the gates, aiding their recognizability while also ensuring unobstructed views throughout the building for the passengers to keep an eye on the next step in their journey. Large voids and double-height areas enhance the spatial experience of the pier, visually connecting the pier’s different levels. To aid passenger wellbeing, large scale plants and trees are dotted around the pier’s voids and waiting areas. Across the board, the project upgrades existing Schiphol design solutions. Through intensive interactions with Schiphol´s internal and external stakeholders, design evolution has taken place on items such as boarding desks, border control booths and gate operation procedures. Even the iconic wayfinding design will be subtly updated: while leaving the graphic design well alone, an updated sign casing, taking advantage of LED technology, will ensure a sleeker, crisper look. The pier breaks new ground when it comes to sustainability at Schiphol. The pier will achieve a LEED Gold label, but the project’s sustainable ambitions go further still. While extensive use of aquifer thermal energy storage and solar panels aid the project’s energy efficiency, an intelligent climate façade on the pier’s south west orientation reduces the solar heat load when necessary: solar screens, developed for Dutch greenhouses, move up and down inside the cavity of the climate façade to modulate sunlight entering the building. Reused or regenerative materials are used throughout the pier’s interior. In all major passenger areas, floors are finished in either bamboo or composite marble tiles, made of reused marble granulate. Ceilings in most areas are fitted out with slats made of either bamboo or recycled PET plastic.