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Terminal 2 prepares for take-off
Heathrow’s development director John Holland-Kaye talks to John Burbedge
When Heathrow’s new Terminal 2 opens on June 4, John Holland-Kaye is promising business travellers a modern, stylish and efficient experience – and maybe a morning lie-in.
“For the first time at Heathrow, we have designed a fast-track service for business passengers that has the shortest possible walk and enough designated lanes to guarantee a consistent level of speed,” says Holland-Kaye, who has overseen the creation “on time and under budget” of the new privately-funded £2.5 billion terminal.
With quality service and time- saving as the goal, that consistency of throughflow means business passengers using Terminal 2 will be able to plan their travel better, which could mean getting home to their families sooner or that extra morning lie-in.
“Essentially, airports are here to get people on and off their planes as quickly and simply as possible,” says Holland-Kaye. “We have tried to give passengers more control of their time and make every journey better.”
The design team put themselves in the shoes of every type of passenger – tourist to business executive, families to pensioners – skillfully planning out the facilities each needed.
Terminal 2 certainly looks set to ‘wow’ travellers of all types. Externally, its wave-like steel-framed roof and glazed walling will not only provide a visually stunning building, but also maximize natural light. Internally, Slipstream, a 70-metre 77-tonne sculpture emulating the twisting flight path of a stunt plane, will be a memorable feature of Heathrow’s new terminal, but
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also one of the longest permanent sculptures in Europe.
Holland-Kaye hopes the overall impression that Terminal 2 passengers take away will be positive, pleasurable, and abiding.
“First impressions are hugely important. What business-users see when they enter an international hub airport such as Heathrow, can form their impression of the whole country.”
Luis Vidal, the terminal’s Spanish architect, describes airports as “the cathedrals of the 21st century; the gateways to nations”, ready to serve their public function and able to adapt to future changes and challenges.
Designed to be user-friendly for passengers, airlines, and workers, Terminal 2 will be “welcoming and comfortable; pragmatic and functional; flooded with natural light and providing intuitive orientation for everyone,” says Vidal.
Holland-Kaye highlighted the construction team’s challenge in “building such a large facility bang in the middle of the world’s busiest international airport, with live flights taking off only a few metres away.” Foundation piles also had to be sited above the busy Piccadilly underground line. All this was achieved without disrupting passenger travel, while maintaining the UK’s safest construction site.
With British Airways Terminal 5 already operating successfully, Terminal 2 is one more step in the £11b transformation of an outgrown Heathrow, effectively rebuilding it into a modern efficient hub airport. The Terminal 2 development allows demolition of the ageing Terminal
The Slipstream sculpture, created by internationally renowned British artist Richard Wilson RA and precision engineered by craftsmen in Hull, will carve through the open space of Terminal 2’s covered court
One, set to close in 2016, in turn allowing a future expansion of Terminal 2. Terminal 3 is scheduled to close in 2020.
Holland-Kaye is also keenly aware of the importance of a ‘new’ Heathrow to the UK economy and Thames Valley businesses, notably the 200 top international companies that have chosen to base themselves close to Heathrow for its travel links.
“Being a hub airport, we can fill planes every day with passengers and fly to 80-plus international destinations, with UK exports in cargo-holds for global markets – a really valuable part of the national economy.”
With expectations of Crossrail arriving in 2018, Western Rail access to Heathrow (WRatH) by 2021/22, and ultimately HS2, Holland-Kaye’s vision of Heathrow is a world-class airport connecting smoothly with modern rail transport infrastructure and major UK motorway routes.
“One of the great opportunities of this new infrastructure is to build on its strength. When we look to providing UK economic growth, by far the best place to do that is at Heathrow. And our third runway proposal will allow us to connect to all the new markets emerging around the world.
“The real challenge is to ensure the UK punches above its weight as a worldwide trading nation for the next century, and to do that we need to be connected from Heathrow.”
Terminal 2: The facts
• Terminal 2: The Queen’s Terminal, built on the same footprint as the old terminal but more efficiently designed, will serve 26 airlines and 20 million passengers a year.
• In 1955, HRH The Queen opened the original Terminal 2, designed to service 1.2 million passengers. It was demolished in 2009 when handling 8 million passengers.
• The £2.5b development, one of the UK’s largest privately funded construction projects, provided jobs for approximately 35,000 people – 5,000 per day at peak build.
• It is the world’s first airport terminal to be awarded BREEAM rating for its sustainable building design.
• It‘s the first UK development by internationally renowned Luis Vidal + Architects. Vidal’s work has included Madrid, Zaragoza and Warsaw airport projects.
THE BUSINESS MAGAZINE – THAMES VALLEY – MAY 2014
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