Predictability over indeterminacy

Airports come in two sizes: too big and too small. Fundamentally compromised by the necessity to accommodate unpredictable future expansions, airports are ultimately forced to ‘gamble’ on their right size. In terms of its design the airport is condemned to a permanent open end…

With the Hajj as one of the main defining elements, the new Jeddah International Airport presents a unique situation: its expansion is a given in advance, occurring at a fixed moment for a fixed length of time. This relative predictability allows the design of the Jeddah airport to acquire a level of specificity unheard of in a ‘regular’ airport: allowing the rehabilitation of the particular over the general, of centrality over linearity, and of character over blandness.

Arrival over departure

Airports are primarily places one leaves from. With the business trip and the vacation as the airport’s main, perhaps even only, use, the excitement of going away generally outweighs that of coming back.

This discrepancy is also expressed in the design of the airport, with departures generally located in a ‘grandiose space’ on top (mostly under a billowing roof) and arrivals located in a flat utilitarian luggage-collect-space below, making the first acquaintance with a new destination often one of disappointment.

The unique condition and purpose of the new Jeddah International Airport presents us with a compelling reason to consider arriving with the same consideration as leaving. (Mecca you don’t leave, to Mecca you go!)