1. percentagegrowth
Population
Passengers in
Flight
Real GDP
1990 1992 1994 1996 1998 2000 2002 2004 2006 2008
0
20
40
60
80
Co:A
the
professional
the
student
the
family
the
mother + child
the
international
traveller
the
unaccompanied
minor
9.5 min
Co:C
study for this week’s
chemistry exam
swim 1200 meters
board
aircraft
board
aircraft
discover World’s Fair recollections
visit chapel
board
aircraft
board
aircraft
board
aircraft
Co:B Co:C
Co:D
Co:E
Co:International
board
aircraft
6.25 min
Co:B
9.5 min
Co:A
1
2
3
4
5
6
2.9 min
Co:D
5.9 min
Co:E
3.2 min
Co:I
finger painting workshop
A
C
A
A
B
B
typical
passenger
scenarios:
(A)
(B)
(C)
gate lounge
transfer
flight
information
arrive to
airport
ticket
check-in
locate
gate
use lavatory/
purchase food
ticket
check
board
aircraft
baggage
security
check
gate loungeunboard
aircraft
locate
gate
use lavatory/
purchase food
ticket
check
board
aircraft
gate lounge
transfer
flight
information:
delay
airport waiting
area
unboard
aircraft
use lavatory/
purchase food
ticket
check
board
aircraft
inquire
about
gate
originating (A)
transfer(B)
delay (C)
locate
gate
watch ‘A Bug’s Life’
security
threshold
‘dwell’
0-4
60-90
Lambert - Saint Louis International Airport
EAST TERMINALMAIN TERMINAL
wingspan
93’
124’
192’
199’
217’Boeing B-747
64
R: nose, wingtip, tail
33 % of aircraft : delayed
The experience of the modern airport has
become subject to disconnected, generic
public activity and a banal reference to time
and space. The luxury of air travel no longer
carries the prestige it once did; it still,
however, carries the weight of serving as the
window to many American cities.
The temporal association that the airport
inherently embodies suggests a fluvial
movement defined by a new demographic: people
in flight. This increasingly popular form of
exchange advocates for a dynamic form of
programming, to actively reinforce the
potential for exchange amongst its captive
audience.
Thus, the objective stands as to offer product
to their wait, and to suggest memory to this
place while embracing the undeniable mobility
within the airport.
Premise
release
escape
play
learn
reflect
absorb
sanctuary
recreation center
‘story theatre’ children’s art
museum
digital library
historical manuscript collection
The scheme proposes a series of
interventions, ‘strands’ of events,
which in their multiplicity could
re-connect the functioning terminals by
way of the existing International
corridor, and stage a public arena for
passengers of originating, transfer and
delayed flights. By displacing
programmatic elements of permanence
within a culture of transience, a
shearing result is intended to foster an
organic interaction foreign to the
place.
These strands, relative to proximity,
may suggest spatial adjacencies, while
recognizing the potential for future
terminal implementation. With time, the
animation of this existing framework may
exude the phenomena of an urban street,
transposed and contextually
re-invented.
The negative space between the masses
accounts for a 217-foot diameter, the
largest incoming wingspan at Lambert.
Tschumi defines cross-programming as,
“using a given spatial configuration for a program
not intended for it, i.e. using a church building for
bowling”.
proportion of items,
digitized
life of the over l a y
the airport as a social contruct
Program Overlay
Ekta Prakash Desai
ektad@wustl.edu
hour 1
hour 24
Engage every Hour
OVERLAP during hours
of operation
OCCUPY the ‘closed’
engage engage engage
e x t e n d i n g
engage
The airport functions as a non-stop facility. Programs could function similarly,
and in scenarios of an unlikely 24 hour pursuit, their inhabitated framework in
the ‘closed’ state could suggest another type of occupation. This perpetual shift
in the form of habitation of spaces extends their relationship to one another,
re-inforcing their intended dichotomies and proposing new ones.