Design
The terminal has a sleek design, with two symmetrical "wings" and a sharp tip at its center which is specially visible when approaching the terminal from the sides. This original design has granted the building the nickname of "La Paloma" ("The Dove"). White concrete and glass have been used. The interiors are open and luminous spaces, distributed in two floors, the upper one for departures (check-in counters and gates) and the lower for arrivals.
There has been some criticism of Santiago Calatrava's design by Aena, the Spanish airport authority, because it seems difficult to make further enlargements in the terminal's capacity because the design is too closed. In spite of this, modifications have taken place in 2005-2006 in the check-in area to provide enhanced shopping facilities for travellers, with almost double the retail space now being offered.
Basques using the airport widely complain about its lack of an arrivals area, since once passengers clear customs, they step directly outside. However, there is a dramatic viewing gallery raised above the baggage reclaim area, where those waiting to greet passengers can wait and watch as they collect their baggage and leave the terminal. There is often waving and excitement as relatives or friends scan to see each other from the gallery, and the architect cites this in defence of his design of the arrivals area.
Calatrava also designed the Zubizuri bridge in Bilbao. Like the terminal, it has been praised by its architectural looks and criticized for impracticality.
Read more about this topic: Bilbao Airport
Famous quotes containing the word design:
“With wonderful art he grinds into paint for his picture all his moods and experiences, so that all his forces may be brought to the encounter. Apparently writing without a particular design or responsibility, setting down his soliloquies from time to time, taking advantage of all his humors, when at length the hour comes to declare himself, he puts down in plain English, without quotation marks, what he, Thomas Carlyle, is ready to defend in the face of the world.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Joe ... you remember I said you wouldn’t be cheated?... Nobody is really. Eventually all things work out. There’s a design in everything.”
—Sidney Buchman (1902–1975)
“If I commit suicide, it will not be to destroy myself but to put myself back together again. Suicide will be for me only one means of violently reconquering myself, of brutally invading my being, of anticipating the unpredictable approaches of God. By suicide, I reintroduce my design in nature, I shall for the first time give things the shape of my will.”
—Antonin Artaud (1896–1948)