Kuala Lumpur International Airport
Terminal Complex
Kuala Lumpur's new international airport is located 60km south of Malaysia's capital, Kuala Lumpur. Taking up an area of 100 k㎡ (10km x 10km), it is 10 times larger than Tokyo's Narita Airport.
Between the airport and the capital city lies, Pudu Raya, the international information technology (IT) city designed as Malaysia's Silicon Valley. As the world's largest airport, with 5 runways, it aims to be one of the three international hub airports of Asia, particularly in the future era of the HSST (High Speed Surface Transport, the plane flying between New York and Tokyo in 3 hours).
The main terminal spans 38.4 m along a grid pattern, allowing for easy expansion in the future. The hyperbolic paraboloid shell is reminiscent of traditional Islamic domes, striving to describe the symbiosis between cutting-edge technology and Islamic tradition.
To put it in other words, the architecture of the airport is abstract-symbolic, the abstraction deriving from modern architecture' s idea of abstract (geometric), and the symbolism taken from Islamic tradition.
A man-made tropical rainforest surrounds the airport, in addition to vegetation being planted in the central garden space of the satellite.
The symbiotic relationship between nature and architecture is realized through the concentric garden in the airport, airport in the forest composition.
