Israel Airports Authority Management Building

Planned by our firm, the new Israel Airports Authority management building is a 5 story structure with a total area of 13,500 sq.m. located in the eastern support area of Ben Gurion Airport, adjacent to the existing dining hall. The building is located between the main traffic circle and the open parking area.  There are two entrances: the central public entrance, enabling easy access to the dining hall along with an arched shaded arcade, and an employee entrance from the rear parking area leading to the various departments of the building.

The building’s design follows a clear and simple circulation path that begins at the central atrium into which both entrances converge. Two wings of the building flank the 5-story atrium, three east wings toward the dining hall, and the west wing along the road. Each wing comprises modular office rooms for the organization’s departments as well as two inner corridors surrounding the core and its accompanying support functions. A deputy-director unit fortified as a secure-space is located at the end of each corridor, with a secure-space hall that serves as a conference room and emergency stairs. In accordance with the zoning plan, the building’s roof was designed using arched aluminum Following the southern facade in two spatial plains, as well as concealing the technical systems on the roof. During the design research phase, we looked for a method to express the building’s innovation and its flight motif, leading us to employ the direction of the parking lot and the building’s geometry to create a continuous screen wall integrating a unique shading element. Plates of photoelectric cells, anchored to a suspending system connected to the screen wall, are arranged vertically along the facade at an angle toward the sun. These elements give the facade a dramatic complex and technological look. Photoelectric cells have not yet been used in Israel as a central architectural element beyond their technical function of creating electricity from sunlight and only several attempts have been made at this world-wide. The façade’s design enables double energy-saving; both passively through shading elements and actively through the photoelectric cell activity.

The building’s northern facades consist of concrete precast plates with large windows that allow indirect light. The project is now in a tender process and will commence construction in April 2018 and is expected to be finished by 2021.

Client:                  Israel Airports Authority

Location:             Ben Gurion Airport

Area:                    13,500 square meters

3D Rendering:     Totem