by Ron Bernthal
On December 14, 2021, Genève Aéroport officially opened its new, beautifully-designed Aile Est (East Wing) to the public, using the occasion to also celebrate the reopening of the Swiss LX022 Geneva-New York JFK route, after it had been discountinued in March, 2020, due to the Covid pandemic.
Genève Aéroport has been modernizing its facilities in order to offer passengers on medium and long-haul flights a quality of service that lives up to the reputation of the airport. The East Wing building replaces the long-range wide-body aircraft pavilion, built as a temporary facility for Boeing 747’s in 1975, and which became technically and environmentally outdated. The new East Wing building, has been extremely ambitious in its approach to reducing operational energy while at the same time offeirng passengers a colorful environment, comfortable seating and new signage. The $669 million, 1,706 foot-long, high energy-efficiency building of glass and steel is constructed on two levels, and was fully financed by Genève Aéroport.
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Designed by the RBI-T consortium composed of Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners (RSHP), the Jacques Bugna architecture studio in Geneva, and the engineering offices Ingérop in Paris and T-Ingénierie in Geneva, the East Wing building was a great example of how the close collaboration between architects and engineers was required to deliver a clear, highly integrated vision.
The new building can accommodate approximately 2,800 passengers per hour for departures, and 3,000 passengers for arrivals. The building serves six existing aircraft stands with new telescopic air-bridges. The jetty contains departures, arrivals, transfer and border controls, as well as new airline lounges.
Responding to the constraints of the building site, the East Wing is an extruded parallelogram that seems to float above the service road located at apron level. Its main facades are fully glazed and inclined at 26° in order to safeguard access to daylight for the buildings located immediately to the south on a very tight site. This arrangement also creates a dedicated volume for the arrivals corridor on the upper level and, on the airside, ensures the façade is protected against direct solar radiation.
One key concept of the East Wing design was to minimize internal structural elements to ensure great transparency and offer passengers a breathtaking view of the Jura mountains, the activity on the apron level or tarmac, and aircraft arrivals and departures. The structure consists of a metal exoskeleton of approximately 7,000 tons of steel, with the interior space bathed in natural light from the 215,000 square-feet of glass windows.
The primary frame is painted in light grey, while the secondary structural elements are dark grey in color. The floors are covered in natural stone, the balustrades and vertical walls are glazed. The color accompanies the movement and orientation of passengers along the East Wing, and marks each 260-foot module throughout the length of the building. The materials used were chosen for their durability, their ease of maintenance and to serve as a showcase for passengers.
“At Geneva Aéroport Aile Est the primary structure and low energy technologies are orchestrated and celebrated into one simple bold statement,” said Graham Stirk, senior design partner with Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners (RSHP). “Each engineering component is finely crafted not unlike that of a beautiful Swiss watch. These simple elemental components are given further emphasis by using a spectrum of colours that provide clarity as well as a festive and memorable experience for all travellers.”
The RBI-T consortium project was designed to set an example in terms of energy thanks to the implementation of advanced technologies. The excellent thermal insulation of the East Wing is achieved by the deployment of high-performance triple-glazed facades with additional solar protection, limiting the use of artificial lighting and reducing heating and cooling loads.
Electricity is produced by a solar installation composed of 75,000 square-feet of photovoltaic panels on the roof. A further significant reduction of the energy footprint of the building is ensured by the efficient thermal insulation of the building envelope, the recovery and use of rainwater and the use of high-efficiency heat pumps. The heat pumps produce and store the thermal energy of 110 geothermal piles that run to a depth of 984-feet and will be able to connect in the near future to the hydro-thermal network GeniLac, which uses the waters of Lake Geneva to heat and cool the city’s buildings, completing the system of renewable energy sources supplying the building.
