HEATHROW AIRPORT

London | United Kingdom

YEAR

2012

STATUS

Completed

TYPE

Transportation

SERVICE

Tensile Structures | ETFE Technology

FINAL CLIENT

HETCO

CLIENT

Taiyo Europe Gmbh

ARCHITECT

Foster + Partners

ENGINEER

Maffeis Engineering SpA

MATERIALS

PTFE | ETFE | Steel

SURFACE

80,000 m2

Heathrow Airport is a sequence of crisp and uncluttered spaces set under an undulating shaped roof that guides the passengers through three zones: check in, security and departures. Therefore function and shape are deeply integrated allowing passengers to easily orientate themselves in an intuitive way.

The inner membrane ceiling is used to cover the main primary steel structure and the steel trapezoid profile roof from underneath. The smooth curved surface is realized with membrane ATEX 3000 TRL perforated silicon coated glass fiber fabric produced in the UK.

This fabric is used from architectural point of view with an optical advantage of high light transmission (about 40%) and with optimal acoustic properties. For the single layer ETFE foil under the windows in an inclined position it has been used an opalescent white ETFE 200µm with about 42% light transmission.