More than 10 million passengers a year will pass to the terminal on international and domestic flights initially. But the sky is the limit with aviation set to boom in the next few decades and the Federal Government predicting 80 million will pass through the airport eventually.
The functional and cost effective design can be described as a “practical rather than beautiful” work and it is aimed at giving value-for-money as the new Gateway to NSW and Australia.
Western Sydney will be right on the doorstep of the airport which will be surrounded by a massive Aerotropolis city in its own right, employing 250,000 plus local people.
World renowned architects Zaha Hadid and local firm Cox Architecture won the design competition and the winning entry has now been revealed by the Department of Urban Infrastructure.
The design is the next step in Western Sydney International taking shape, with major earthworks set to start early next year.
The winning design focuses on the customer journey while paying tribute to the Western Sydney region and natural landscape. It passed a range of value-for-money and technical reviews.
Minister for Cities, Urban Infrastructure and Population Alan Tudge said Western Sydney would be the big winner as the airport continued to take shape.
“The construction phase alone will support 11,000 direct and indirect jobs in the Western Sydney region,” Minister Tudge said.
“Within the first five years of the airport opening it is expected to support 28,000 full time jobs for the people of Western Sydney.”
Prime Minister Scott Morrison said the design showed the once-in-a-generation infrastructure project coming to life.
“This is set to be the largest gateway to Australia and these designs are another step to making it a reality,” he said.
“Designed alongside locals and built by local workers the airport will deliver massive economic benefits to the region.”
Aurecon has been appointed to provide the terminal precinct engineering design services for the new Airport.
The global engineering, design, and advisory company, based in Australia and South Africa, was selected through a competitive tender process to oversee engineering of the terminal precinct.
Reference design
This includes development of the reference design and technical advisory support for the 10 MAP terminal building, the aircraft apron, public car parks and roads.
The Aurecon team led by aviation expert Brett Reiss will bring a mix of engineering, technical aviation and advisory skill sets to what is the largest aviation project Australia has seen in decades.
“We are not just engineers, we are approaching this project with a user centred design approach to ensure that the project provides a great passenger experience,” Mr Reiss said.
Instrumental in the development of this approach was Aurecon’s i40 team, which is an internal innovation team that deploys Design to Innovate processes to help unpack a problem and develop solutions.
Federal Finance Minister Mathias Cormann said designing and constructing a terminal capable of catering for 10 million passengers annually was a significant challenge.
“To meet the challenge the terminal will be designed for modular expansion, to accommodate the long term capacity of up to 80 million passengers anticipated every year by the early 2060s,” Mr Cormann said.
To be considered for the design project, interested firms were required to have experience designing an airport of similar size and complexity to Western Sydney International in the past five years. The final decision on the winning design was made by a panel of some of Australia’s most renowned architects.
Liberal Senator for Western Sydney Marise Payne said the competitive process undertaken for the terminal precinct design led to the very best outcome for Western Sydney.
“The iconic final design ensures that air travel will be accessible for locals, as well as locking in new opportunities for people who want to work, shop and meet at the terminal precinct,” Senator Payne said.
The airport has committed to delivering 30% of direct job opportunities to Western Sydney residents and is currently exceeding that target.
Member for Lindsay Melissa McIntosh said designing an airport and working through concepts with local students was important.
“I am pleased to see that Zaha Hadid Architects and Australian architects Cox Architecture will work with Western Sydney University students, local Aboriginal groups and other stakeholders to further refine and enhance the concepts to arrive at the final design,” Ms McIntosh said.
“This is the first step in preparing our local kids for the jobs of the future by playing such an integral role through the design of the Airport. We know that post construction over 28,000 jobs will be created and we want our kids to take those opportunities.”
