China’s largest airport also called the ‘Starfish Airport’ is now officially open. Chinese President Xi Jinping graced the inauguration ceremony of Daxing International Airport’s sprawling main terminal building. The inauguration comes ahead of the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China on October 01st. Officials hailed the $63 billion transport hub, which also includes a railway network as a new powerful source of national development. The Daxing airport is located 30 miles south of Beijing and has been designed by the late British Iraqi architect Zaha Hadid.
As expected the Daxing airport is massive like most of the other infrastructure projects in the country. The main building is regarded to be the world’s biggest free-standing terminal and is equivalent to 97 football fields. The airport boasts of 4 runways for commercial flight operations which can accommodate 300 takeoffs and landings per hour. The best part is the time which was taken to construct the airport; less than 5 years after the construction began. It will surely lessen the pressure on Beijing Capital International Airport which is already running at maximum capacity. As per the officials, Daxing airport will be able to take care of 100 million passengers a year by 2040 thereby dwarfing Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International airport which is currently world’s busiest airport according to the Airports Council International. As far as the designing part is concerned, Hong Kong-based Level 8 has planned the airport’s interiors. The task, no doubt can be called as huge as designing a small city. In addition to the regular duty-free shops and lavish restaurants, Daxing has pet hotels, childcare facilities, stages for public events and much more. Ask Simon Chua, executive director of Level 8 about the designing and he will be quick to confirm that the new aeropolis is a glimpse into the shape of the cities of future. Seeing the expanse of the structure and the area, the airport can also serve as a new paradigm for office complex developments. He also added that this scheme will inspire future airport developments which can have quality workspaces integrated with natural
It goes without saying that technology holds the fort at Daxing Airport. With a robot-operated parking system, facial recognition technology to speed up security checks as well as boarding and seamless wi-fi service, Daxing Airport is well stuffed with a futuristic vision. And to add it will be roving robot guides who shall help lost passengers. The Chinese media is already hailing Daxing as the ‘Starfish Airport” because that is what it looks like from the air. Airport officials are of an opinion that passengers will not need to walk more than eight minutes to get to their respective gates. Many airlines have planned their routes via Daxing airport already.
It will be an understatement to say that Daxing Airport is one of the phenomenal architectures of the modern world; in all honesty, it is more than that.
