AECOM and Pininfarina Win Istanbul New Airport Design Competition

İGA has chosen an innovative design by AECOM and Pininfarina as the winner of an international design competition for the regional Air Traffic Control (ATC) tower and technical building at the Istanbul New Airport. Unusually, the winning entry marries influences from the aviation and automotive sectors, with strong architectural design. The AECOM and Pininfarina collaboration was chosen from a total of six entries from international architectural teams, including Zaha Hadid, Fuksas, Moshe Safdie, Grimshaw-Nordic and RMJM. 

The win marks AECOM’s first collaboration with Pininfarina, the design house renowned for its car designs for Ferrari and Alfa Romeo, among others. The collaboration combines the expertise of AECOM’s architectural and engineering teams with Pininfarina’s distinctive architectural style that epitomises speed and movement, influenced by automotive design. 

Yusuf Akçayoğlu, chief executive officer of İGA, said: “One of the world’s largest aviation projects, Istanbul New Airport’s air traffic control tower will be an iconic structure, visible to all passengers travelling through the airport. We were looking for a striking design fit for a 21st century airport while remaining sensitive to Istanbul’s unique heritage. We received excellent designs from all over the world and are delighted to announce the AECOM and Pininfarina team as the competition winner.” 

The ATC will be the landmark for Istanbul New Airport, which is set to be the world’s largest new airport in terms of annual passenger capacity. The competition scope was to deliver the concept designs for the tower, showcasing contemporary sustainable architectural design that reflects the multi-cultural and historical characteristics of Istanbul city. 

The AECOM and Pininfarina design evokes the aerodynamic forms used in automotive and aviation design, and includes an elliptical tower that will be visible to all passengers flying in and out of the new airport. The tower shape is inspired by the tulip, which has been the symbol of Istanbul for many centuries and is an important cultural reference in Turkish history. 

Jennifer Dixon, head of architecture, Europe, Middle East, India and Africa, AECOM, said: “In this competition, our aim was to combine the dynamism and romance of Pininfarina’s architectural style that is so influenced by automotive design with AECOM’s in-house aviation architecture capabilities. The AECOM and Pininfarina team has created a beautiful and highly functional piece that rekindles the excitement and glamour of modern air travel at the crossroads of Europe and Asia.” 

Bernardo Gogna, senior vice president and director of global aviation, AECOM, said: “Our approach to this competition was to combine the expertise of a different design industry with AECOM’s in-house aviation architecture and engineering capabilities. Our goal was to bring Pininfarina’s values, which are grounded in tradition and craftsmanship, to the world of aviation. The result marries pure iconic beauty with true innovation.” 

Paolo Pininfarina, chairman of Pininfarina, said: “The Istanbul ATC for the New Airport is an iconic building, destined to become a landmark for Istanbul. Our aim, as with all our projects, was to develop a bespoke idea that embodied our partner’s design identity while at the same time bringing a new aesthetic perspective. By leveraging the unique combination of our 85 years’ experience in design – from cars to superyachts, and from luxury products to furniture – with our architectural knowledge gained from several projects around the world, we have been able to create a technologically advanced structure of distinctive character.” 

The design competition is the latest win for AECOM at Istanbul New Airport. Earlier this year it was appointed by İGA to deliver designs for all the airside works at the airport. The new airport will have an initial capacity of 90 million passengers per year. It will be located on the European side of the city, 35 kilometres from the centre on a site adjacent to the Black Sea. Subsequent planned phases will expand the airport to include six runways and three terminal buildings. When all phases are complete, the airport will have an annual capacity of up to 200 million passengers. 

İGA is a consortium of five leading Turkish contractors comprising Cengiz, MAPA, Limak, Kolin and Kalyon. İGA was awarded the concession to build Istanbul New Airport as the engineering, procurement and construction contractor and will also be the operator. In October, İGA secured a €4.5 billion loan from a group of six banks for the first phase of the project.