It is no secret that air travel can be an ordeal. While glass-half-full types may rightly appreciate the stunning vistas offered by a window seat, more than half of American air travelers feel overwhelmed out before they even board their aircraft. That stress often stems from flight anxiety, which afflicts up to 40% of Americans. For many, flying is stressful and even frightening.
For airports, it’s essential that the travel experience is soothing, but still efficient and clear. This is where interior airport design comes in. Airport design architecture must bridge the gap between the logistic needs of air travel and the emotional needs of travelers. These divergent, often conflicting requirements make airport design an interesting challenge for architects and interior designers alike. As a result, modern airport design features offer some of the most innovative and creative solutions found anywhere in contemporary architecture and design.
Otter Air Services, a boutique & concierge-level charter company in Grand Rapids, uses a custom Split Flap display to welcome guests to their amenity-rich space.
The Secret to Good Airport Design: Working With the Grain
Airports are transitive spaces. To design the passenger experience, architects and designers need to consider the entire trajectory of a traveler’s journey from bag check to the gate, or inversely from gate to baggage claim, or for connecting flights from one gate to another. In all scenarios, travelers move through airports with purpose. They have clearly-defined start and end points, and frequently navigate between them with urgency.
In this way, airports differ from other large high-traffic spaces like malls, stadiums, or public plazas. Good airport architecture needs to facilitate efficient navigation while still fostering a calm and soothing ambiance to ease feelings of stress. For architects and designers, this means prioritizing a handful of key design strategies.
Wayfinding is Essential
First and foremost, airports must – above almost anything else – be easy to navigate. Travelers expect to see clear, accurate signage with large ADA compliant text and up-to-date information. Historically, that is why Split Flap displays have been the go-to design solution for airport wayfinding needs.
Oat Foundry Split Flap displays pull directly from that history with large lettering that is easily viewed from a distance. They naturally make a calm but attention-grabbing sound, even in kinetic environments, that gently informs passengers of an update in progress. This effect is amplified with hanging signage that floats alone and commands attention from above in busy airport spaces.
325 Main features a custom Split Flap display from Oat Foundry that rotates through local transit times and schedules.
While modern airport technology relies on personalized wayfinding techniques like airline apps and texted updates, Split Flap displays can help transform airport spaces into soothing, orderly environments with their classic retro sound and charm. As travelers navigate airports, there needs to be a balance in the design where urgency feels appropriate and welcome for those who need it, but not required for those who don’t.
Airports are an ideal place for storytelling centerpieces, drawing on the rich history of transit in a Solari board-inspired medium such as Chroma Flap.
Thinking Big: Scaling Airport Architecture with Thoughtful Design
Another challenge facing airport design is the sheer scale. Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson airport welcomes over 100 million travelers per year. That’s the equivalent of over 4 sold-out NFL stadiums passing through its terminals and concourses every single day. To accommodate huge numbers of travelers, international airports are often massive. Modular interior designs with repeated blueprints help keep gate layouts consistent, but large connective spaces give architects and designers the opportunity to really shine.
Take San Francisco’s SFO airport design. HOK, a design, architecture, and engineering firm, recently completed a project to connect two terminals while adding a centralized hub for airport logistics and operations. By linking terminals together with a light, airy, and biophilic design, HOK gave travelers new ways to reach their destination both before and after security checkpoints.
The new connection immediately reduced congestion at bottlenecks and provided travelers with a comfortable, spacious environment to walk through or rest in. The same firm is currently planning a similar, larger renovation of St. Louis Lambert International Airport to connect its two main concourses with a huge new terminal.
While airport architecture must prioritize scale, connectivity, and navigability, the buildings also serve as cultural ambassadors to travelers. With logistic needs met, designers can begin to get creative and artistic in uniquely local ways.
Placemaking Airport Interiors: How to Say “Hello!” With Analog Design
As the first place visitors see when flying to a city, interior airport design must have a strong local flair, give off a warm welcome, and above all else be charming and memorable. Split Flap analog displays make excellent ambassadors for all of these needs while remaining grounded in historically transit-oriented design. Oat Foundry Split Flap display boards welcome travelers at a beloved local deli in Denver International Airport, in a charming art installation at Pittsburgh International Airport, and over an Irish pub located in New York City’s Moynihan Train Hall.
In all these instances, the Split Flap and Chroma Flap displays amplify a warm, local aesthetic. Personality and local identity are key components for airports or any long-distance travel hub. It is important for a city to put its best foot forward, but can thoughtfully designed places can also ease nervous travelers through familiar touches of home or exciting indicators of adventure. Whether putting classic, vintage Split Flap displays back into use in their historic airport setting, or making a bold colorful design statement with a Chroma Flap display, Split Flap analog display boards make an excellent addition to any terminal, concourse, gate, or baggage claim.