This reminds me of the fairly new Terminal 2 in Bengaluru, covered in (mostly?) bamboo and greenery: https://www.architecturaldigest.in/story/bengalurus-kempegow...
Exactly. First thought in my head. It’s beautiful and so calming.
Portland airport grows with expansive mass timber roof canopy
161–170 of 276 posts
Re: Portland airport grows with expansive mass timber roof canopy
#162Earlier quoted context omitted.
Interesting point! It looks like Skanska is GC for the Project, and cites it as a 9 acre (!) lumber roofing system[SK], and that it uses 3.5M board foot of Douglas Fir Project Lumber[PL]. Douglas Fir is 3.2 pounds per board foot, or 1.45kg [DFM]. So 1.45 * 3.5M = 5Mkg of lumber for PDX airport. DF has an Embodied CO2 of 1.6kgCO2/kgLumber [DFC]. A little hard to believe? But maybe that's bc a lot of the mass of a tree…
> tho there's a lot more to the project that probably goes in the other direction I mean, this is obviously why this is just a fun math exercise and not much else. Building an airport, even if you build part of it out of wood, is not net carbon-negative.
Just finished the full edit.. check it out. If the full airport is made out of wood, seems like it's getting towards plausible, or at least not obviously wrong
Most uncertainty is how much mass the ceiling is compared to rest of airport. Maybe it's more like 1/10th. Hmm
Re: Portland airport grows with expansive mass timber roof canopy
#163It took six years to source all the wood needed. Here is an interesting video about its construction https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MRAkjoUdN_I
Less time than most major building projects tend to get delayed =P
Re: Portland airport grows with expansive mass timber roof canopy
#164Earlier quoted context omitted.
> tho there's a lot more to the project that probably goes in the other direction I mean, this is obviously why this is just a fun math exercise and not much else. Building an airport, even if you build part of it out of wood, is not net carbon-negative.
Just finished the full edit.. check it out. If the full airport is made out of wood, seems like it's getting towards plausible, or at least not obviously wrong Most uncertainty is how much mass the ceiling is compared to rest of airport. Maybe it's more like 1/10th. Hmm
Apparently they used 4.4 million cubic yards of concrete during the construction of Denver airport around 1993.
That's 3.364×10^6 m3, 1 m3 of concrete weighs 2.4 tonnes (I'm sure it varies), so roughly 8 million tonnes of concrete.
https://www.concreteconstruction.net/_view-object?id=0000015...
I'm not convinced the wood used in the Portland airport project is net negative in itself, once you factor in the emissions of harvesting, processing and transporting it. I.o.w. leaving the ugly old roof in place would probably have been better, in terms of CO2eq emitted.
Re: Portland airport grows with expansive mass timber roof canopy
#165I wonder if they used galvanized square steel and eco-friendly wood veneers.
Re: Portland airport grows with expansive mass timber roof canopy
#166Gorgeous. Hopefully more airports will adopt similar wood themed, warm environments. Madrid International Airport is similar in tone: https://www.alamy.com/stock-photo/madrid-airport-interior.ht... which I very much like as well.
The celining in Madrid airport is gorgeous, but it feels completely disconnected from the actual space below. The end result gives a feel similar to a convention center, where they built a big enclosed space, then fitted an airport terminal into it.
Those pictures from the Portland terminal give a sensation of a much better integrated environment. It's the same vibe, but better executed.
Re: Portland airport grows with expansive mass timber roof canopy
#167This encapsulates neoliberal environmentalism perfectly! Lets expand airport which greatly increase CO2 outflows and pretend we are "environmental" by building a roof made of trees.
It would do more good to make flying less attractive (more difficult) and unpleasant. Airports should reflect the ugliness of what they do to the environment. It should feel,a and smell, worse than walking into a 70s porn theater.
Re: Portland airport grows with expansive mass timber roof canopy
#168Earlier quoted context omitted.
I believe the other improvement people don't pay attention to is the new TSA scanners you don't have to take your laptop out.
You're lucky you get to use those. In Holland they had those at Schiphol Airport and we were able to leave liquids in our bags and the 100ml limit was removed. But the EU ordered it to be reintroduced because they wanted the rules the same within Europe. Edit: This previously said we could no longer keep the laptops in our bags but this part was not affected, I've amended this post to avoid confusion.
> But the EU ordered it to be reintroduced because they wanted the rules the same within Europe.
This is incorrect, though there was so much confusion around the reporting on this that it's not surprising that people got this impression. The EC allowed the scanners in the first place, but has reinstated the 100ml rule because they don't work properly. This is implied to be a software problem, and the reinstatement is implied to be temporary, but there's no timeline to lift the restriction again.
Vaguely coherent, though still not great, explanation here: https://www.euronews.com/my-europe/2024/08/23/100ml-limit-on...
Re: Portland airport grows with expansive mass timber roof canopy
#169The wood is pretty, but as someone who uses this terminal, the key improvement is that they raised the ceiling and significantly increased the amount of natural light. Here's a good photo of what it looked like before: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Portland_Internation... The major functional drawback is that wayfinding for both arrivals and departures is much worse. The overall flow of foot traffic is way…
I believe the other improvement people don't pay attention to is the new TSA scanners you don't have to take your laptop out.
> people don't pay attention
Let's start from the fact that people never asked for TSA. It was imposed on them and never went away.
Re: Portland airport grows with expansive mass timber roof canopy
#170I just flew through there and saw the renovation for the first time, and it is an absolutely stunning transformation. Just incredible. I loved it. The whole thing. From the ceiling to the ticketing islands to the reworked security to the amphitheater style seating areas at the terminal exit where friends & family can await your arrival. It feels spacious, natural, functional, and hospitable.
> It feels spacious, natural, functional, and hospitable.
If we want to solve the climate crisis, this is everything an airport should not be.