Foster + Partners has planned the Techo International Airport located 20 kilometers south of Phnom Penh, Cambodia's busy capital, which will replace the existing Phnom Penh International Airport.

The competition-winning master plan includes a new airport city with a state-of-the-art terminal building at its center that will provide a new vision of the city and the highest levels of experience for its passengers while setting new standards for sustainability.
The building designed by Foster + Partners for the Techo International Airport comprises a central head with two aerodynamic profile-shaped piers on each side that optimize walking distances. The head has all the elements of passenger processing, security, and immigration under a cover supported by structural trees.

This cover is a steel grid structure with a screen that filters daylight and illuminates the space, combining the latest technology with local craftsmanship, and evoking the Cambodian vernacular in a contemporary way with its warm interior materials.

The terminal, which will be powered almost entirely by photovoltaics, is strategically located to anticipate future expansion scenarios due to its phased modular construction.
 


Techo International Airport by Foster + Partners. Courtesy of Foster + Partners.

Project description by Foster + Partners

Construction continues apace on the Techo International Airport in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Located 20 kilometres south of the city centre, the project offers a new vision for Cambodia’s capital. The design embodies a strong sense of place, drawing inspiration from one of the oldest civilisations on earth, inspired by its vernacular forms, and responsive to the tropical climate. The overall competition-winning master plan by the practice includes plans for a new airport city with a state-of-the-art terminal building at its heart, providing the highest levels of passenger experience and setting new standards for sustainability.

“An airport is amongst the most important of public buildings, reflecting its symbolic status as the gateway to a city and its crucial role in the globalised economy. The new Techo International Airport will be an important part of Phnom Penh’s continued development as the nation’s primary inter-regional, inter-modal transport hub.”

Stefan Behling, Head of Studio.

Techo International Airport by Foster + Partners. Courtesy of Foster + Partners.

The terminal building comprises a central head house with two aerofoil-shaped piers on either side that optimise walking distances. The head house contains all the passenger processing, security and immigration, and retail elements under a single overarching roof canopy that stretches from the drop-off to the airside, providing shelter from the elements. The roof – supported by structural trees spanning 36 metres – is a lightweight steel grid shell, with an innovative screen that filters daylight and illuminates the vast terminal space. Designed to be highly legible at a human scale, there are minimal level changes throughout the terminal and views out to the apron to improve clarity and make movement intuitive. Interior materials are warm and welcoming, evoking the Cambodian vernacular in a contemporary manner.

“Inspired by Cambodia’s history and built heritage, the terminal’s design stands as a modern embodiment of Cambodian culture. The Terminal roof is an expression of lightness and inherent modularity, serving as a symbolic gateway for every traveller’s journey.”

Nikolai Malsch, Senior Partner.

Techo International Airport by Foster + Partners. Courtesy of Foster + Partners.

Aspiring to be one of the greenest airports in the world, the project takes a sustainable design approach, combining the latest technology with local craftsmanship, whilst minimising running costs. Flooded with natural light, the terminal is full of lush greenery, with mature trees rising through the soaring central void and edge planting softening the interiors. The terminal will also be almost entirely run on energy generated by an onsite photovoltaic farm.

The modular construction and phased project timeline enhance constructability. The terminal is strategically located to anticipate future expansion scenarios. The first phase of the airport terminal includes the central headhouse and the aerofoil wings to the north, accommodating up to 13 million passengers a year. Subsequent phases will include the second aerofoil wing, accommodating 30 million passengers.

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January 2024.
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Phnom Penh, Cambodia.
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Norman Foster is considered by many to be the most prominent architect in Britain. He won the 1999 Pritzker Architecture Prize and the 2009 Príncipe de Asturias de las Artes Prize.

Lord Foster rebuilt the Reichstag as a new German Parliament in Berlin and designed a contemporary Great Court for the British Museum. He linked St. Paul's Cathedral to the Tate Modern with the Millennium Bridge, a steel footbridge across the Thames. He designed the Hearst Corporation Building in Manhattan, at 57th Street and Eighth Avenue.

He was born in Manchester, England, in 1935. Among his firm’s many other projects are London’s City Hall, the Bilbao Metro in Spain, the Canary Wharf Underground Station in London and the renovated courtyard of the Smithsonian American Art Museum and National Portrait Gallery in Washington.

In the 1970s, Lord Foster was one of the most visible practitioners of high-tech architecture that fetishized machine culture. His triumphant 1986 Hong Kong and Shanghai bank building, conceived as a kit-of-parts plugged into a towering steel frame, was capitalism's answer to the populist Pompidou Center in Paris.

Nicolai Ouroussoff, The Times’s architecture critic, has written that although Lord Foster’s work has become sleeker and more predictable in recent years, his forms are always driven by an internal structural logic, and they treat their surroundings with a refreshing bluntness.

Awarded the Prince of Asturias of the Arts 2009.

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