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The design for the expansion of the Passenger Terminal at Wuxi Airport pursues two inseparable goals: to integrate the new with the existing in a fluid and coherent way, and to restore to the airport a poetic dimension capable of evoking the natural landscape of the area-the water of Taihu Lake, the docks, the reflected light.
The result is a crystallized skin that ideally extends the cover of the old terminal, transforming it into something new: no longer an abstract and neutral plane, but a living surface that captures and diffuses light, building a fluid and memorable space.
Key data
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Key data
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Continuity and transformation
The roof of the new terminal is an ideal continuation of the existing one: same orthogonal geometry, same abstract lightness – but reinterpreted. Diagonal incisions on the metal surface generate extrusions and intrusions that give rise to skylights and interior greenhouses, transforming the plan into a crystalline landscape in continuous light variation.
Water skin
Wuxi is a city of water. Taihu Lake and its basins are the founding landscape of the area, and the project brings them into the terminal through light. The reflections and vibrations of the crystallized skin evoke the surface of the water – a space that one does not just walk through, but feels and remembers.
Distributional fluidity
The internal functional system reflects the same fluid logic of the roof: a continuous distribution path connects check-in, retail, and tour operator spaces on levels 0, +1, and mezzanine. At the junction point between the old and new terminals, an underground public plaza on level -1 becomes the connective heart of the complex, between the land-side mall and air-side retail services.
Structure as landscape
The structural system takes up the square mesh of the existing terminal – metal pillars with diagonal arms – but evolves it: where the old terminal generates symmetrical tree-like figures, the new one produces asymmetrical figures, consistent with the triangular geometry of the roof. A subtle variation that tells of the continuity between the two phases without sacrificing the identity of the new.
