JOHN F. KENNEDY (JFK) INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT TERMINAL 5 TWA flight centre (source :

Wikipedia)

INTRODUCTION :

John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK), New York, is one of three major airports serving

the New York/New Jersey metropolitan area and is the primary international airport for the

region. The airport is operated by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey (PANYNJ) and

handled 46.5 million passengers in 2010. In addition to serving as the principal international

gateway airport for the northeastern United States, the airport is the primary hub for JetBlue

Airways. The airport is located in the borough of Queens on Long Island about 15 miles

southeast of midtown Manhattan. The airport was one of the first airports to adopt the unit

terminal concept, and the central terminal area (CTA) formerly comprised eight separate

passenger terminals, seven of which are still in use, as shown in Figure 1. The eighth terminal

(Terminal 6) was demolished in October 2011 to accommodate future expansion of Terminal 5.

TWA Flight

Center (TWA Flight Center), was the original name for the Eero Saarinen design held at

Idlewild Airport Terminal 5, later renamed John F. International Airport Kennedy, for the

company Trans World Airlines.

The design award was given to the branch of Eero Saarinen & Associates in Detroit,

becoming the most famous building of the airport, and a National Historic Landmark. Its

facilities filmed by Steven Spielberg's "Catch Me If You Can".

Saarinen died in 1961, a year before the building was finished.

Location:

Source: iFly.com, “New York Kennedy Airport (JFK) Terminal Map”

Terminal 5 is located at the opposite end to the central axis of the master plan from the

International Airport John F. Kennedy, in southeast Queens in New York City, USA,

about 19 miles from Manhattan. JFK is the airport with the most international passenger

tickets in the U.S. and the base of operations for JetBlue Airways and others.

Concept :

axonometry

"... A building in which the architecture itself would express the drama, the special

character and excitement of travel ... a place of movement and transition ... The shapes

were deliberately chosen to emphasize a progressive increase the quality of the line.

We wanted a lift "Eero Saarinen

The TWA terminal is carved like a symbol of flight is involved, abstract, an allegory on

the fly made of reinforced concrete. It has often been described as the figure of "an

eagle to take land." Its curvaceous flight evoke a fluid. The formal vocabulary of the

modern architect appears on the symmetry of the plant or the rebels, with the

movement forms the main inspiration, even in the smallest details to develop your

design.

Before starting the project, Saarinen made a deep study of the behavior of the USER

within the airport, whether travelers, visitors or companions. It showed that the flow of

travelers in their journeys, they are never in a straight line, detail taken into account by

the architect when designing an environment shaped envelopes.

Design :

The terminal had a futuristic, inside there were large windows from which aircraft could

be seen parked in the TWA or departing passengers passing through the red carpets of

the fingers. The doors of the terminal were close to the street, making it difficult to

create centralized entrances and security checks. It was the first airline terminal to have

a closed-circuit television, a central p / a, tapes for luggage, an electronic display of

flight, besides being the forerunners in the use of scales to weigh luggage.

JFK was innovative in the airport industry to have companies that were responsible for

designing their own terminals, which also were the owners. Then other airlines built their

own, such as Eastern Airlines or American Airlines.

Project Development :

No less singular as well as forms for the time, is the way the project was developed. All

design work was done on scale models. The first was built in late 1956 at 1:50,

successive working models were at 1:200 to a final working model where the solutions

were tested formal, structural and construction, built in the second half of 1957, at 1:50.

Allowed to prove that size, too, the spatial qualities, lighting and difficult aspects of

studying project's drawings. The cover went through several models to get the final four

different vaults, with a silhouette pointed it out.

Spaces:

Inside spaces coexist and organic forms, defining, despite being diametrically opposed,

the broad spectrum of architectural expression of Eero Saarinen. This is a large deck

that houses a single hall with shapes and objects available to travelers who appear as

sculptural works.

Plants

Ground floor

On this floor is the great and only lobby of the building housing the exchange from the

passengers, all counters and traffic management thereof. Also, isolated from the

circulation, enabled an area from which to watch the movements of aircraft.

Top Level

This second level, in the attic on the first, emphasizes the idea of unique hall

downstairs. Stood in a café, a restaurant, a bar and several private rooms for meetings.

A staircase leads travelers to the boarding area which is flanked by two galleries. These

galleries have a vaulted ceiling, reaching a maximum elevation above the horizon of the

passengers, suggesting a much larger scale than the actual resource perspective an

almost baroque. The distinctive curves of the design create attractive and spacious halls

while a strange degree of excitement to an airport terminal.

Structure

Saarinen was inspired by the Gothic vaults to

house an area without columns that allows for various services. Although the structure

appears to be a sculptural piece of concrete is reinforced inside by an invisible network

of steel, a kind of "invisible steel hammock" that supports the roof. This is a Y-shaped

column that becomes so plastic and other beams leisurely hold responsible for the four

sections of the roof, while allowing, through its separation, the zenith passage of natural

light and lighten the visual weight of the structure.

In subsequent models made to scale, this cover was changing its shape to adjust freely

to an element capable of sustaining. The great structural concern was to avoid

excessive thickness in the edge beam that would hold the cantilever. The form evolved

from a single continuous shell, some shells fastened by large ribs, reaching the final

form consists of four distinct arches, with a silhouette pointed out, forming a kind of four-

pointed star. The edge beam was configured as a forward slope and the ridge that

forms in the backfill water collection channels of the cover.

The continuous flow from one area to the other creates a space without limits, an

architecture of fluidity. Columns, arches and sills are combined to form a single element.

pier design concept terminal