Tropical umbrella - design of the regional airport in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Architectural Review, The, Sept, 1998 by Phoebe Chow

Kisho Kurokawa's new regional air terminal for Kuala Lumpur re-energizes the moribund typology of the hub airport through diversity, complexity and delight.

First considered in these pages as a project (AR May 1997), the most recent phase of Kuala Lumpur airport is now complete. Reflecting Malaysia's economic and commercial aspirations, the new development will act as a hub for international travel from which local connections will distribute passengers around the region. Although hubs are becoming an increasingly important part of global air travel, they tend to be anodyne and internalized, cut off from any sense of local culture and climate. Situated 31 miles outside the city, Kisho Kurokawa's new airport synthesizes indigenous materials, forms and landscaping in an attempt to introduce diversity and complexity into a moribund typology.

The airport follows the relatively conventional arrangement of a main terminal building and a series of free-standing satellites. On landside, the four-storey terminal connects with road access at first floor (international arrivals) and fourth floor (international departures). Domestic arrivals and departures are on the second floor. The terminal is also served by a railway station on an intermediate mezzanine and from here a new high speed train link unites the airport with the city.

Like Kansai (AR November 1994), Kuala Lumpur's formal and spatial set piece is the international departures hall at upper level. Here, the concourse is enclosed by an elaborate roof of linked hyperbolic paraboloids, supported by squat, conical columns which also contain and distribute services. The undulating roof has a peculiarly sensuous quality, like melting domes, a cluster of umbrellas or a billowing Bedouin tent. The underside is clad in narrow strips of wood and vertical slashes of glazing incised along the edges of each paraboloid wash the cavernous space with an ethereal luminance, reflected by the lustrous floor of highly polished marble and terrazzo. The roof form alludes to traditional Islamic domes and vernacular Malaysian timber structures. Oversailing beyond the external wall line, the paraboloids provide protection against the heat and glare of the tropical sun.

On airside, the terminal is linked to a longitudinal pier. Running along the terminal's south-east edge, the pier has the capacity to serve around a dozen planes. Beyond the pier is a pair of cruciform satellites, reached by shuttle rail links from the terminal complex. Acknowledging that passengers may be obliged to spend long periods in the satellites if flights are delayed, care has evidently been taken with their design. (For most airports, the form of the satellites is usually of secondary or negligible importance.) At Kuala Lumpur, each satellite has a quartet of three-storey arms wrapped around a central circular hub. Services, arrivals and departures occupy separate floors. The central hubs take the form of inverted cones open to the sky, filled with luxuriant greenery, like fragments of rainforest. Although the landscaping is still in its infancy, the effect is nonetheless diverting and the greenery will also filter light through the inclined glazed walls surrounding the hub gardens.

The cruciform plan ingeniously attempts to reduce lengthy trudges to individual gates. Passengers are disgorged in the centre of the satellite and board their planes from gates stationed on both sides of each satellite arm. The satellites employ a similar but simplified architectural language of undulating roofs and tree-like steel structural elements. Timber-clad ceilings are randomly studded with spotlights, like stars blazing through a tented canopy, heightening the shimmering play of light and reflections.

The potential for expansion was a major element of the brief, so the basic arrangement of terminal and two satellites can simply be handed (replicated in mirror image) about the central station and road network. Satellites (or even half satellites) can be added incrementally as necessary, and the longitudinal pier attached to the main terminal can also be extended. Considering the shambolic evolution of most major airports, this sense of ordered development immediately sets Kuala Lumpur apart, but it is also distinguished by the invigorating drama of its public spaces, which endeavours to civilize the drear experience of modern air travel.