SubscribeAirports are often regarded as latter day cathedrals both by the commissioning body and certainly by the architect involved.
They are pure 21st century status symbols. It is very easy to understand how this situation has been arrived at, first air travel has until very recently had the perception of being glamorous and special. The planes had a silver fuselage with mythical emblems emblazoned on the tail. Step inside and the glamour was reinforced by the air hostess pampering to every whim. One had ‘arrived’ even before you ever took off! With this as the historical backdrop it is not hard to see how airports have become a pinnacle of architectural achievement. How did this all come about?
The airports themselves came out of the aerodrome, a rough timber built shed affair with, if you are lucky, a smooth strip of concrete to take off and land. It was all about aviation and flying rather than passengers and commercial functions. In the UK the airport authority was a government body – the Ministry of Civil Aviation, this was then superseded in 1965 when British Airports Authority was formed to run all the airports in the UK. A body that was to radically change how airports were perceived. They had absolute power, and it was this power that was to see the birth of the architect who would turn from a jobbing creative to a passenger terminal specialist.
This new way first opened the door to very low-key terminal architects who designed the exterior shell. Following on came the big name architectural practise with an equally large ego. The cathedral concept was born and as in all cathedrals the interiors are not about the practicality of people but more about the spirit of the building. Retail or the food and beverage offer was not part of the airport operator’s creed and certainly not the architects – it would get in the way of the ‘space’. Commercial activities were strictly limited to one shop selling all things to not quite all people, and a café to be avoided at all cost.
One of the first commercial operators to have the foresight to understand what the passenger wanted and needed was the UK retailer WH Smith, a name at the time synonymous with books, magazines, records et al. They even had a Director of Passenger Terminal Retailing such was their appreciation of the opportunities that were to expand in the later decades. By and large any commercial venture was run by the airport them selves and as a consequence a poor offer at a hugely inflated price. One of the most unusual scenarios of this time was that although the UK was still living in a perception of post war austerity the actual customer profile was that of the very wealthy who would spend money. This factor was never understood.
Out with austerity and in with the new! Passenger numbers very quickly started to rise and as a consequence the airport authorities started to address the increasing need for catering to the passenger. This was not about making money for the airport though; it was about expanding what was already there.
The first Duty Free shop in the world opened up in Shannon airport (Ireland) in 1947. This then set a trend for Duty Free shopping that was to go round the world, but was by its very nature an airside activity and a very limited one at that. What about the time spent landside, not just for the traveller but also for the meeters and greeters? This was all to change with the privatisation of British Airports Authority (BAA) in July 1987. With this privatisation came Aviation commercial constraints. As part of the privatisation process the new government of the day imposed an annual incremental decrease in landing fees. BAA had to make up this imposed shortfall or suffer the angst of their Shareholders.
The commercial banner was unfolded and run up the airports mast. Revenue from the seven airports under its control quickly went from 185million pounds to over one billion pounds in 1999. BAA understood that passengers have money and while they are airport bound need to be serviced, entertained, fed and watered and a place to park the car, all revenue producing activities. High street shops began to be seen in the landside and airside areas, restaurants and bars were put in and if the passenger ran out of cash there were banks on hand to cash that cheque! This innovative step in global passenger terminal operation was essential to cope with the decrease in landing fee income and it allowed BAA to take on new build projects at those airports, safe in the knowledge that as the airports expanded so did the potential for revenue income.
The Design Solution first started working on airport retail architectural planning in 1988 on terminal 4 at Heathrow. BAA had appointed Barry Gibson, as Head of Retail such was its importance to oversee the massive development that was to follow. BAA’s prime innovative thinking was to appoint specialists from outside the aviation industry. Retail expertise with impressive track records were hired at main board level.
Allied to this was their understanding that the usual airport architect simply did not have the retail and food and beverage experience so retail architects were brought in such as The Design Solution. It was, and still is, inevitable that there would be battles between the two architectural parties. The purist on one side and the commerciality of the retail architect.
With a background in shopping centre design, and in order to master plan or in most cases re-plan the airports interiors, a move had been made that has been the backbone of the airport retail offer ever since. The two things are quite separate though; an airport is a place to travel from and not a primary reason to shop. Space within the airport is also at a premium and it is time regulated as passengers have flights to catch.
Another essential element of retail architecture within the airport is that the space available is more expensive to develop. Traffic flow is also fundamentally different in that airports are linear – you enter one door and depart through another where as a shopping centre the entry and exits are one of the same. All these factors and more make the retail architect a critical player in the airports design.
There is now an accepted recognition that a proportion of any new airport a certain ‘space’ is set aside for commercial activities. The battle always being fought is just where this ‘space’ allocation is, for far too often the space given is in the wrong area. The simple truth is that this space has to be part of the passenger through route from door to plane for to put it anywhere else would defeat the purpose and end in failure.
The gains for the airport operator are considerable and over the last 10 to 15 years both the need for a retail master planner and the benefits that person can give have climbed up the commercial agenda. If an airport is looking for 35% revenue out of retail and food and beverage, effective commercial master planning makes in excess of 50% attainable if all non aviation income is taken into account, and this should be the aim. At CEO level there is the desire but below this the infrastructure and the practicalities of retail spaces suggest that this is often difficult to achieve.
Worldwide there is now a recognition that ‘specialists’ are now required for the non-aviation issues of a terminal. Herein is the battle between the two architectural parties. From the airport terminal architects point of view there is the historical notion that there has to be 100% visibility between entrance and departure gate. This manifests itself architecturally in a dramatic roof free of services, no walls or if there are any these on the exterior they are made of glass. However aesthetically beautiful this may appear it underestimates what in contemporary passenger terminals actually goes on. From the retail architect’s point of view there is a need for wall space, a flexible services strategy and an inherent requirement for the ability to change the interior space as passengers and travel changes.
Individual retailers invest in design companies’ expertise to produce their own brand that is seen and understood on the high street. The retail architect produces a more flexible approach so that the brand can be used and developed within the confines of the airport. If left to the terminal architect a lot more constraint would be applied with the net result that all the retail shops would look the same taking retail back 50 years. The starting point as in all retail scenarios is prime commercial space that can be developed at an acceptable cost.
There is, in essence four separate avenues in which this can be achieved. The first is identifying and taking under-utilised space and changing it into a commercial area. A second way is the relocation of non-commercial activities such as offices out of the terminal thereby freeing up this space for commercial exploitation. This is particularly relevant in the make up of American airports. Thirdly, by reconfiguring the existing retail space in order to maximise passenger flow and visibility, which aids improved turnover. The last and the most important, but expensive is to build new space which comes as part of a Terminal expansion programme.
The great benefit in identifying new build opportunities is that this can provide operational as well as commercial benefits, and as we have seen over the last few years opportunities such as the requirement for more space to house baggage handling equipment with the introduction of ‘hold baggage screening’ can easily be adopted to provide a “platform” for commercial opportunities.
The battle between the two variant architectural parties will never end but the airport industry is slowing realising that retail planning needs to be part of the master planning at the inception of the airport project. International syndicates that are bidding for new international airport projects are increasingly likely to have a retail architect on board. This demonstrates to the airport body that the team have fully incorporated the commercial activity of passenger terminals into their thinking.
The beneficiaries to all this are the passengers and the airport operator. Passengers have even greater expectations, because after all they are consumers. They want more choice, more value and more quality. In many cases, the easy wins have already been achieved, but there are still a very high percentage of passengers who do not spend at all. Breaking through this barrier is the next major challenge and will come about from a delivery of a more complex and targeted offer. The retail architect is the person to do it.
