Prague Airport to get green facelift
Prague’s Václav Havel Airport will soon be getting a makeover. With a project called The Czech Lanterns, leading Dutch architecture studio MVRDV has designed an extension to Terminal 1 that is draped in a green satellite image of the Czech Republic, visible both from outside on the roof and inside on the ceiling.
The Czech Lanterns project, so called because the planned buildings are designed to shine like giant lanterns, especially in the dark, is the winner of an international architectural competition to give Prague’s main airport a new look. It envisions an expansion of Terminal 1 with three new buildings.
The first and second buildings will contain the airport’s new security area, business and VIP lounges and a vertiport. The third building, located on the other side of the airport loop road, will house a conference centre, hotel and parking facilities.
MVRDV’s design proposal is intended to minimise stress as passengers travel through the airport by surrounding them with greenery and providing a seamless security screening process. The exteriors, which will be draped with an illuminated, programmable satellite image of Czechia, are intended to form three “Czech Lanterns” that will be visible from afar. For people coming home, the “lanterns” are intended to provide a sense of return and of being guided home.
The expansion won’t only look green – it also will be green, with a portion of the energy used by the building generated by photovoltaic solar panels on the exterior, as well as printed glass that will reduce solar irradiation at strategic points.
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