Copenhagen Airport consists of three terminals with a number of piers that distribute passengers to and from gates. Wrapped in Nordic aesthetic, Pier E is the biggest expansion of Copenhagen Airport in 25 years. It offers an intense yet humble architectural experience as a spatial flow machine bathing in daylight, with floating walkways lined with ash wood lamellas complemented by in-situ cast concrete, integrated artworks and marble terrazzo floors. The inspiration was the 1960 design of Terminal 2, which is an example of a complex airport building where balconies, floating walkways and a generous influx of daylight form a coherent expression.  
Consecutively, Copenhagen Airport is ranked amongst the world’s best international airports and Pier E continues the airport’s proud design tradition of combining a strong functionality with high-quality materials. It offers an intense, yet still humble architectural experience as a spatial flow machine bathed in daylight with floating walkways lined with ash wood lamellas complemented by in-situ cast concrete, integrated art works and marble terrazzo floors.

With its Nordic aesthetic, the 36,000 m2 building distributes air passengers to and from their respective gates as the biggest expansion of Copenhagen Airport in 25 years. The structure spans four storeys and holds a total of 8 gates, 15 bus gates, passport and border control and a transfer area.

The ground and first floor holds the departure area. On the second floor, the arrival area breaks up into three floating walkways. In between the concrete columns and cores, these floating walkways provide smooth and transparent passage and accommodate different passenger categories. The transparency promotes interaction between travellers in a carefully choreographed, natural flow that brings them smoothly to and from the terminals.

Lined with 250,000 Nordic ash wood lamellas, the underside of the walkway balconies complement the in-situ cast raw concrete and marble terrazzo flooring with carpet-lined waiting areas. The large façade windows and skylights provide generous daylight and highlight the spatiality and materials as well as the vast numbers of integrated artworks, such as a two tonnes colourful ceiling hung sculpture by William Soya and a 132-m2 glass mosaic by Alexander Tovborg.

The furniture is custom designed to complement the in-situ cast concrete walls. Chairs are dark grey form-moulded aluminium and the ash wood waiting bench by the window section works as a radiator cover. Designed with varying perforation, the walls contribute to a pleasant acoustic environment.

Background Copenhagen

Airport (hereinafter CPH) has the ambition of becoming emission-free by 2050. This involves air traffic as well as operations, and it was therefore also with sustainability in mind that they in the Spring of 2020 had to renovate a number of offices in the airport’s terminal 3. When it comes to energy renovation, price and savings are in focus. It was therefore important for CPH that the solution should provide significant energy savings while having a short payback time.

Solution

In collaboration with Signify CPH chose to replace 250 conventional downlights with the tailormade and 3D-printed GreenSpace Downlights with PerfectFit. The downlight is printed from recycled polycarbonate, which reduces CO2 emissions by 76%. At the same time, the lighting technology in the downlight consists of an LED board, which significantly reduces energy consumption compared to similar, conventional downlights. In an office like this, with need for light 24 hours a day, this is of great importance. PIR sensors were installed in the toilets for extra savings when no presence was detected.

Especially when renovating recessed lighting solutions, it is a challenge to find luminaires that fits the cut out 1:1. With Signify myCreation’s PerfectFit solution, however, it was possible for CPH to get a tailormade solution that would fit directly into the existing cut outs. Thus, it was not necessary to replace the ceiling, which kept the project budget down. The mounting of the 250 downlights was made by the installer Kemp & Lauritzen. Kemp & Lauritzen’s electricity chairman at the airport, Henrik Nielsen, points out how the installation was easy and straightforward, due to the matching cut outs.

The result