PALMA, "AIRPORT CITY"

All airports in the world have been created to cater for the transport of passengers and merchandise by aircraft in the necessary safe and economical conditions.

However, not all airports can be considered as an extension of the city in whose territory they are performing that specialised task.

The collective methods of transport devised by humanity, especially the train, boat and plane, have introduced new and important features to the cities, although with different intensity and characteristics throughout their respective historic roles.

For centuries the boat, and therefore ports, have been the protagonists in this respect. We can rarely define a city in relation to its trains (although there certainly are some), but there are undoubtedly clear examples of port cities. Nevertheless, they have not always been equal as ports nor alike in style.

At first, the boat needed very simple land resources: a small jetty, as a substitute for the spare boat, to be able to reach land. With the passing of time that simple space expanded to become an urban network capable of accommodating multiple economic and social relations, to the point that even the inhabitants of the port districts acquired special and different cultural traits distinguishing them from the rest of the city. This happened in the beginning of the 20th century. Nowadays, although those phenomena persist in many port cities, we have started to witness an interesting transformation in some of them. In San Francisco, New York, London, Miami, Sydney and Barcelona, to mention just a few examples, we can see how in some areas the boat (or rather the specialised transport that it represents) is being displaced (or even disappearing) to give way to commercial and leisure activities which have been created in an indirect way. So much so that
in these port areas there are either pleasure boats or tall ships for passers-by to visit and enjoy.

If I have made these brief comments on boats and ports in an airport context, it is because I think that something similar is happening with aeroplanes and airports.

The differences are, however, significant.

Port cities can only exist next to the sea or rivers and lakes. Railway networks and consequently large stations are not usually found on small islands, such as Majorca for instance. Planes, on the other hand, reach any piece of land where their presence is necessary, safe and profitable.

At first, aircraft needed a place to land, then a surfaced area and a few, small buildings... In only a few years, certainly very few in comparison with ports, the process has created throughout the world and especially in the more developed countries enormous urban complexes where that first need to land or take off has become less and less obvious, although paradoxically this does not alter the fact that at the same time the process is becoming more and more complex and highly technological.

In short, and to return to boats and trains for a moment, there was a time when one almost ceased to see the boat in the port which was completely transformed into a labyrinth of maritime approach "channels", while modern trains, in modern stations look more like the subway than those unpretentious and triumphant locomotives and carriages of a hundred years ago.

The growing importance air transport is acquiring in relation to land or maritime transport has given an enormous incentive to the growth process of the "AIRPORT CITY". Certainly, an aircraft's requirements to take off and land and the need to construct new airports have resulted in the considerable distances that exist between airports and cities. In this respect, the long-term future and the possibility of applying the advances in take-off and landing technology to commercial aviation may change and accelerate that process in a definitive way.
In any case, today it is quite usual for airport information or advertising to give importance to the profitable aspect of those activities that are not essentially functional, such as the commercial and business centres, parking places, hotels, etc. These kind of enterprises are being promoted to such an extent in the world's most important airports that in "tourist" terms it could seem as if the "complementary facilities" were on the point of supplanting the main activity.

Palma de Mallorca Airport is not unaffected by the processes I have referred to above.

Although it does not have a large city, it does have the advantage of being on an island and absorbs practically all passenger traffic, mostly tourists and up to eighteen million people (1998) a year, with very high peaks in summer, so that the airport in Majorca is today one of the most important in Europe.

Nevertheless, until now, its buildings, facilities and its image did not match its category.

For an island where the majority of its inhabitants live directly or indirectly from tourism, it is not a luxury to have a comfortable and attractive city-entrance, it is an urgent necessity.

Because of town planning prospects based on developed land (that is to say, on land that is ready for development but not built on) and other economic factors, the authors of the Master Plan for Palma Airport concluded that in the near future, around 2020, passenger traffic could double what it was at the time the plan was being drawn up (1986).

This, together with the deficits existing at that time and with the precaution to avoid the kind of improvisation that is so typical of airports all over the world, persuaded the Spanish Air Navigation and Airports Authority, AENA, to provide Palma Airport with a new terminal zone, pre-boarding areas and a services building.

From the very beginning we had three objectives in mind.

In the first place, our aim is to provide a satisfactory solution to all the processes concerned with the specialised function of the airport: the aircraft-building relation, the passenger, the baggage, the personnel in the complex, the vehicles, etc. In the second place, we aim to promote the "AIRPORT CITY", enhancing the role that the airport plays in the rest of the city. And in the third place, we want to project the image of what a "New Airport" undoubtedly constitutes in the eyes of its visitors.

As far as the first point is concerned, the different processes, their traffic and their priorities were conceptually defined. The kind of passengers were classified with respect to the vehicles they use to enter or leave the complex (coaches, taxis, hired vehicles, cars) and parking places were accordingly provided for coaches in arrivals (154) and departures (40), for taxis, for hired vehicles, as well as for cars (5,000 covered parking spaces in the parking and services building).

The check-in area was supplied with sufficient places to cater for expectations in 2020. Checking-in can be done in such a way that the passenger can pass through in one direction and does not have to disturb the queue in order to back track with an empty trolley. The pre-boardings (64 in all for the year 2020 and 23 for the first phase) have been designed so that the aircraft can penetrate as closely as possible between two of them, so that, because of the effect created by the glass in the building, the aircraft becomes a much more obvious and beautiful presence in the waiting area.

In the arrivals hall the baggage areas have been equipped with conveyor belts and waiting areas for the groups of passengers who are leaving the complex by coach. Passengers who do not have to collect any baggage can go direct to the parking from the pre-boardings.

As well as the 5,000 parking spaces mentioned above, facilities have been provided on the ground floor of the services building to park 800 vehicles - taxis, hired vehicles and, occasionally, coaches - and there is also the cafeteria-canteen for the sector's professionals. On the upper floors of this building it will be possible for passengers and even baggage to be checked-in without having to go to the terminal.

For the personnel working in the complex, who cover the wide range of its sectors and services, there is an annexed building, although at a distance from the terminal, and this contains dressing rooms, toilets, dining room, union offices, etc... There is a good open-air parking area for their exclusive use which can be entered from both sides of the terminal. The administrative and technical offices are located on the upper floor of the terminal building.

Everything that I have described corresponds to what we could call "strict observance" of the airport's specific function.

As I have said before, we have also tried to promote the "AIRPORT CITY", by extending the future complex as much as possible. To do this we have split the departures between two floors, on the check-in floor as already described and another on the commercial floor, with the proper departure control.

This second floor, situated above check-in, has some 20,000 m² and is used as a commercial centre with shops, cafeterias, restaurants, bars, etc. It is connected to a large, south-facing terrace-solarium (9,000 m²) with pergolas and raised gardens. This will be the obligatory thoroughfare between check-in and departure control.

As already mentioned, parking is planned for inside the services building, situated in front of the terminal and connected by a walkway. Planned for the convex side are the hotel, offices, etc. From there, over the lakes, an overhead bridge for pedestrians and cyclists will lead to the sea and that is where the future promenade, Paseo Marítimo, of the Bay of Palma will be situated. This promenade "crosses" the services building, even the parking, and leads to the walkway connecting up with the new terminal.

The third aspect we proposed tackling was the image for the "New Airport".
Airports are probably the only buildings that are normally contemplated from all angles, even from the air.

The architectural treatment given to the new terminal building aims to combine the aesthetic "solidity" of a building that is 300m long by 150m wide, with the "vibration" achieved by using glass and metallic elements. For this effect, when entering the check-in floor, a repetitive element is created with a metallic portal frame, white lacquered aluminium bands and glass panels. Everything is arranged in directions of 45º, forcing the eyes towards the sky from the access and producing transparencies from the garden terrace in departures.

The whole rests on concrete pillars between which are set the glass accesses.

This emblematic façade is "extended" on the departures floor by a stainless steel pergola lacquered in white, which "rises" to the floor of offices and, in the space shared with the departures floor, generates a metallic structure similar to the one in the access, except that its semicircular top is recognised as a fundamental element of the building, befitting its purpose which is to indicate the main entrance.

This glass and metal whole scintillates above the rest of the structure which is given an austere treatment, achieved by a wall covering of resin mortars, only sparsely and regularly relieved by glass openings cut in simple geometric shapes: triangles and squares.

To counterbalance this sombre wall and to link with the "vibrancy" of the main façade, there are two lateral bodies, parts of a cylinder, "closed" in part at the back and open through a large glass area in the interior.

The terminal constitutes the image of the airport in the departures while the pre-boardings do so in the arrivals.

In these the pronounced linear aspect of its length has been "compensated" with the rhythm of the waiting halls, accentuated by the curve of glass and the prism of the roof, transversal to the general length of the walkway.

The pre-boarding lounges have been designed to take into account, on the one hand, passenger capacity and, on the other, a floor plan that allows the aircraft to approach as closely as possible.

It is precisely in this curve where there is a glass wall (without posts), through which comes the necessary light and which provides the best view for the passengers.

Access to the aircraft is by a ramp linked with the "finger". Passengers also arrive at the same place, but by taking a ramp that runs under the corridor and in the opposite direction to the pre-boarding, they reach the moving walkway that takes them to the terminal.

This also allows an arrivals police control to be positioned in each pre-boarding area, because the queue of passengers fits into the space between said point and the landing which is reached from the "finger".

Two floors have been planned for installations and maintenance, in such a way that the former serves the arrivals and check-in floors and the latter the floors for departures and offices. In addition, a services gallery runs along the upper part of the corridors and this connects directly with the services floor of the level + 22.40. As a result of all this, no installation can be seen from the floors where the passengers are and maintenance is practically invisible as far as they are concerned.

There is no need for arriving passengers who only have hand baggage to go down to the arrivals floor, as they can go up by the walkway to the departures floor and from there, and in the opposite direction, pass to the neighbouring building of parking places.

The dominant colour is white, both on the façades and on the roofs, in contrast with the plans for huge areas of trees.

In short, the aim is to express, delicately but clearly, the magnitude of the largest tourist airport complex in Europe.

Palma de Mallorca, June 1998.

Pere Nicolau Bover
Architect of the Plan for the New Terminal Building, Accesses and Airport Services Building of Palma de Mallorca Airport (in collaboration with Eduardo Navarro del Barrio, Aeronautical Engineer and the National Engineering and Technology Company, INITEC).

NUMERICAL CHARACTERISTICS.

A) AREAS.

NEW TERMINAL BUILDING

- Level + 4.00 Arrivals. 53.880,00 m²
- Level + 11.20 Check-in. 42.274,00 m²
- Level + 16.80 Departures. 23.866,00 m²
- Level + 15.30 Waste Products. 4.191,00 m²
- Level + 25.50 Airport Offices. 17.879,00 m²

Total area of new terminal 142.090,00 m²

PRE-BOARDINGS

- Platform level (porch on traffic channels,
handling hall, stores, toilets, etc.) 44.035,00 m²
- Arrivals level of each aircraft 10.459,00 m²
- Departures level and general arrivals traffic 44.035,00 m²

Total pre-boarding area 98.529,00 m²

LINK WITH SERVICES BUILDING

- Level + 16.80 2.300,00 m²

Total link 2.300,00 m²

TERMINAL A LINK

- Low level slope 3.907,00 m²
- Departures-arrivals traffic level 3.907,00 m²

Total link 7.814,00 m²

- Services Floors and Galleries 74.950,00 m²

Total constructed area: 325.683,00 m²

B)

Passengers at peak hour: 12.000
Passengers on peak day: 150.000
Passengers per year: 24.000.000

C)

Approximate execution estimate: 20.500.000.000 Ptas

- Embarkation area
- Offices floor
- Services floor for installations and maintenance