MARCO POLO AIRPORT

Venice's Marco Polo Airport

an example of architectural renovation

Expanding a passenger terminal is a complex challenge that requires close collaboration between the airport operator, the design team and the contractors performing the work. In this context, Marco Polo Airport in Venice, a major transportation facility in northern Italy, embarked on an ambitious reconfiguration project aimed at completely renovating the airport without compromising or interrupting its service.

The expansion consisted of adding nearly 100,000 square meters to the existing terminal, greatly increasing convenience and accessibility for international passengers. This ambitious project aimed to meet the functional needs for more than 15 million passengers per year, ensuring the required traffic capacity until 2030, while respecting the delicate ecosystem of the lagoon and the historic center of Venice.

The sinuous and modern forms of the new additions harmonize with the horizon line in an elegant movement, thus enhancing the iconic landscape of the lagoon and offering spaces with high quality standards.

The design aimed for maximum integration between architectural, structural and plant engineering aspects, without neglecting the operational, commercial and maintenance aspects of the airport. The first expansion lot, inaugurated in 2017, created a new entrance area on the landside, improving accessibility to the terminal and connections between different modes of transportation. An architecturally significant element of the entire expansion program is the large glass gallery roof, inspired by the Venetian blown glass tradition. This cover provides ample commercial and service space, welcoming departing and arriving passengers. The roof, with a maximum length of 280 meters, a width of 22 meters and a height of 18 meters from ground level, takes advantage of the space between the terminal and the street on two levels, offering generous and bright spaces on both the departure and arrival levels. Its lightweight structure represents an engineering and logistical challenge, but it has been successfully achieved. The roof was covered with a checkerboard of crystals carved into a metal mesh, reminiscent of the art of Venetian blown glass. This process of cold-bending crystals, when well designed, proved to be highly performant in the case of geometrically complex enclosures. Careful integrated and multidisciplinary design enabled the creation of this unique structure, with an enclosure independent of the underlying structures.

The expansion of Venice Marco Polo Airport is an example of how innovative design and careful planning can transform an existing facility into a modern and welcoming hub, while respecting the region's historical and environmental heritage. This project represents a milestone in the evolution of airport architecture and demonstrates the potential to improve the passenger experience and functionality of the airport.

Insight : The Innovative Technology of "Cold Bent Glass" in Architectural Design

Cold bent glass is a process that has only recently begun to make its way into the glass industry, with the first examples of cold bent double glazing dating back some 15-20 years. To date, the process remains largely unexplored, but in recent years, several application methods have been developed to cold bend glass panels.

The process of cold bending glass is based on a few key considerations. The achievable cold bending radius is about 1,500 times the thickness of the glass to be bent. For example, for 10-millimeter glass, the maximum bending radius is 15 meters. However, the behavior of the glass is affected by various factors, including torsion, panel shape, thickness, perimeter constraint conditions, type of interlayer (if the glass is laminated), temperature, and deformation duration.