Barajas Airport

I just had to share this. Upon arriving in Madrid on my way to the OFFF 09 festival in Lisbon, I awoke to a very bright morning and an amazing architectural treat that is Barajas airport. The new terminal was completed in 2006, cost 1 billion dollars, covers 8,180,572 square feet, and is beautiful.

Antonio Lamela and Richard Rogers are credited as the designers and architects. It was designed to maximize light, and create as much of a stress-free environment for air travelers as possible. Truly adhering to human centered design principals really shines through here.

One more very ineresting element of the terminal – it is as I said before 1 kilometer long. It uses support beams that thrust upwards to both sides at every 10 meters. Each one of these beams is painted a slightly varying hue from dark blue on one end to purple on the other. The effect is a graduated rainbow of sorts inside the building that stretches just about as far as the eye can see. You can also determine the location of your gate by the color patters. For instance, your gate number will also be assigned a color on the airport signage. BRILLIANT and FABULOUS! Its amazing what can be achieved when the way that humans interact with experiences is made paramount in the design. See pictures below.