Western Sydney Airport has shortlisted five architectural teams for the competition to design its terminal.
The competing teams will now create their vision for Western Sydney International (Nancy-Bird Walton) Airport’s terminal precinct, which includes a plaza, a public transportation interchange and the integrated international and domestic passenger terminal.
The architectural teams that have been invited to participate in the design competition are: Design Inc & Foster + Partners; Architectus, Gensler, SAA and Surbana Jurong; Cox and Zaha Hadid; Woods Bagot and RSHP; and Hassell and Pascall Watson.
“There’s a lot of interest in designing the airport – more than 40 parties put their hand up for the job. We’ve narrowed it down to these final five, which represent an encouraging mix of Australian and international talent,” said Western Sydney Airport chief executive officer Graham Millett.
“Each team’s experience in airport design will be crucial to its pitch to design Western Sydney International’s terminal. There are so many factors that will have to come together in the design to ensure our customers have a seamless experience in an enjoyable environment.”
As part of the shortlisting process, each architectural team had to demonstrate that in the past decade they had designed at least three major airport or aviation projects on a comparable scale to Western Sydney International. At least one architectural practice within each team was required to have a permanent Australian office, and the teams were asked to outline how they intended to involve university students with a link to Western Sydney in the airport design process.
The successful design will have to be scalable and include concepts not only for the first stage of the airport, but for subsequent stages, including the long-term 82 million annual passengers expected by the 2060s.
The winning design is expected to be selected by the end of the year. Work to build Western Sydney International is well underway, with more than 1,000,000m³ of earth moved on the 1,780ha site. The airport is on track to open in 2026.