Project Details
- Project Name
- Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport Terminal 2
- Architect
- SOM
- Client/Owner
- GVK, Mumbai International Airport Pvt. Ltd.
- Project Types
- Transportation
- Project Scope
- New Construction
- Size
- 4,843,755 sq. feet
- Shared by
- Madeleine D'Angelo
- Project Status
- Built
This article appeared in the September 2020 issue of ARCHITECT as part of expanded coverage of the 2020 AIA Architecture Awards.
It’s hard enough to design an airport that escapes the pitfall of placeless-ness—so often the bugbear of the typology—but to do so on the scale required for Terminal 2 of Mumbai’s Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport requires skill and careful planning.
Skidmore, Owings & Merrill were charged with building a 450,000-square-meter (4.8 million-square-foot) facility that could handle a large portion of the hub’s estimated 40 million annual passengers. (At press time, pandemic restrictions on air travel in India are starting to ease, and international flight operations are slated to resume in September). The firm also had to account for the requisite modern amenities and support services on a site sandwiched between small private residences and a river.
Such close quarters redoubled the imperative to make the building as sensitive as it would have to be serviceable, and this SOM achieved with a design that combines structural ingenuity and formal daring. The terminal’s primary superstructure is composed of coffered white panels that bend, twist, and compress. Taking the form of biomorphic mushroom-like columns, they spread and conjoin to form a gigantic roof canopy that admits daylight to the concourses and reduces the bulk of the building for neighbors.
The architects hit on this eye-catching solution (along with decorative motifs in the flooring and fixtures) by observing and consulting with Mumbai-based designers and craftspeople. From a vast wall covered in the work of local artists, to a multi-tier plan for sorting traffic, to exquisitely careful siting that minimizes disruptions to nearby residents, SOM’s project brings together technology and ambiance in an original, organic synthesis.
Project Credits
Project: Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport – Terminal 2
Location: Mumbai, India
Client/Owner: GVK, Mumbai International Airport Pvt. Ltd.
Architectural Designer: Skidmore, Owings & Merrill /(SOM INDIA LLC) (New York, NY)
Project team members:
• Design Partner: Roger Duffy, FAIA
• Managing Partner: Anthony Vacchione, AIA
• Structural Director: Charles Besjak, SE, PE, FAIA, LEED
• Project Manager, Director: Laura Ettelman, AIA
• Senior Design Architect: Scott Duncan, AIA, LEED AP
• Senior Aviation Planner: Derek Moore, AIA, Ph.D
• Design Architect: Peter Lefkovits, AIA
• Technical Architect: Narin Gobindranauth, RA
• Structural Engineer: Preetam Biswas, PE
Architect and Engineer of Record: Larsen & Toubro Limited
Local Design Architect and Engineer’s: Larsen & Toubro (EDRC) Limited
Interior Designer: Skidmore, Owings & Merrill
Structural Design Engineer: Skidmore, Owings & Merrill Mechanical Design Engineer: Skidmore, Owings & Merrill Electrical Design Engineer: Skidmore, Owings & Merrill Plumbing Design Engineer: Skidmore, Owings & Merrill Civil Engineer: Larsen & Toubro Limited
Geotechnical Engineer: Larsen & Toubro Limited Construction Manager: Larsen & Toubro Limited General Contractor: Larsen & Toubro Limited Program Manager: CH2MHill (Jacobs) Landscape Architect: Hyand Edgar Driver(HED) Lighting Designer: Brandston Partnership Inc. Any other consultants, with their roles:
Acoustics: Cerami Associates
Communication, IT, Security, & Special Systems: Mulvey & Banani International Inc.
Signage & Wayfinding: Pentagram/Entro
Baggage Handling: BNP Associates
Vertical Transportation: Van Deusen & Associates
Cultural Design Collaboration: Abu Jani–Sandeep Khosla Size in Square Feet: 450,000 square meters (4,843,755 square feet)
Materials and Sources
Acoustical System: Bose
Adhesives/Coatings/Sealants: Laticrete, Mapei, Kerakoll, Pidilite, Bostik /Jotun India, PPG Asian Paints, Ackzo Nobel/Hilti, 3M, GE Silicones, Sika
Building Management Systems/Services: Johnson Controls
Carpet: Brintons Carpets India Pvt Ltd,
Ceilings: Acoustical Metal Ceilings-Durlam GmBH and Lindner, Hunter Douglas (AOCC), Saint Gobain & Armstrong (Acoustical Gypsum Tile Ceilings) GFRG- Formglas, Canada, Gillespie, UK
GFRC- Canbuild, Hong Kong
Concrete: Larsen & Toubro Limited
Exterior Wall Systems: CSG Glass and Mitsubishi Plastics (Alpolic), { Building Maintenance System- Cradle Runways (India) Pvt Ltd}
Flooring: Natural Granites from Italy, India, China by Shah Granites Pvt Ltd, Bramco India Pvt Ltd & Kshamta Projects, India… Kota Stone, Polyurethane & Epoxy Flooring, Vitrified Tiles in BOH Areas by various vendors.
Glass: China Southern Glass, Saint Gobain, India
Gypsum: Gyproc by Saint Gobain & Buildon Gypsum Plaster HVAC: Blue Star (Ph -1 & 2) & Larsen & Toubro Limited (Ph-3 & 4) Insulation: TWIGA
Lighting: Erco, Lucent, Selux, Sill, Hoffmeister, ACDC, Elliptipar, IO Lighting, Tryka, WE-EF, Glashutte
Limburg, Neri, Lumascape, OSRAM…. Precisosa, Czech Republic (Chandeliers) Lighting Control Systems: Philips Dynalite
Masonry/Stone: Local (Masonry)
Metal: Stainless Steel -Mero Asia Pacific, Ruby Steel
Millwork: CCM srl, Italy & Cosmos Media Products Pvt Ltd, India (AOCC only) Paints/Finishes: Jotun India, Ackzo Nobel, PPG Asian Paints Photovoltaics/Other Renewables: By GVK after handover
Plumbing/Water System: ETA Engineering Pvt. Ltd, India & Larsen & Toubro Limited
Roofing: Llyod Insulation India for Ph-1 & Tremco for Ph-2, 3 & 4.
Seating: By GVK
Site/ Landscape Products: Granite Planter & Water Features by Waterman, UAE, Softscape & Irrigation network by Proscape, Bengaluru.
Walls: Saint Gobain India ( If this is for Gypsum Board) else masonry covered in previous fields Wayfinding: Gleason Advertising PTE Ltd, Singapore, Mini Sign Design, India, Rachana Arts, India Windows/Curtainwalls/Doors: None/Permasteelisa (Ph 1, 2 & 3) , Mero Asia Pacific (Ph 4)/ Metal Doors-Shakti Met (Ph 1 & 2, Shakti Met Hormann (Ph 3 & 4), Iron Mongery & Auto Door- Dorma, Assa Abloy Group
Electrical Cabling- Larsen & Toubro Limited
Project Description
The project won a 2020 AIA Architecture Award.
FROM THE AIA:
Accommodating Mumbai’s emergence as the financial capital of India and supporting its airport’s growing volume of domestic and international air traffic required a bold solution. Already daunting, this project was further complicated by the client’s challenge to triple the existing airport’s capacity on a highly constrained site ringed by informal villages and an overflowing river. The result is a new terminal that echoes the heritage of the country and the spirit of the city.
The design team’s response for the new terminal is an x-shaped, four-level plan that seamlessly fits the site, avoids the villages and river, and maximizes frontage for aircraft parking. The terminal also provides aircraft contact gates that can handle 32 wide-body aircraft or 48 narrow-body aircraft for both international and domestic travel. In India, this meant that the design needed to separate departing and arriving passengers from each other to accommodate local customs, as well as separate post-security facilities for both international and domestic sectors. The team, however, was able to arrange the post-security facilities to pivot between both sectors and allow the 450,000-square-foot terminal to fit the site.
In order to keep the airport functioning at all times, the terminal was constructed in phases. It embodies Mumbai through its forward-looking design that is both energetic and distinctively Indian. Instead of copying historic models for the massing, interiors, and details, the design evokes pavilions and pillared halls. The monumental superstructure has quickly become one of the city’s iconic forms, and its concrete and composite steel design uses long-span bays to provide flexible interior floor space. Above, the truss roof structure features GFRC and GRFG cladding with a coffer pattern that echoes traditional Indian decorative patterns and extends well over the departure curb to provide shelter from the sun and rain.
A number of the interior details were designed in collaboration with a local fashion house and are based on traditional craft patterns. Gate lounge light fixtures resemble the lotus, India’s national flower, and provide a hand-crafted feel that helps humanize the passenger spaces. In addition, several hundred meters of wall space were set aside to display artwork, a feature that a number of travel writers have noted as a unique feature of the terminal. Its strategic placement makes it visible to departing and arriving passengers alike.
Project Credits:
Project: Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport Terminal 2
Architects: Skidmore, Owings & Merrill
Engineer – Structural: Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP
Baggage Handling: BNP Associates
Lighting: Brandston Partnership, Inc.
Acoustics: Cerami & Associates
Engineer of Record: Larsen & Tuobro, Ltd.
General Contractor: Larsen & Tuobro, Ltd.
Engineering Consultant: Mulvey & Banani International, Inc.
Signage: Pentagram
Code Analysis: Rolf Jensen & Associates
Vertical Transportation: Van Deusen & Associates
