Use the following learning
objectives to focus your study while reading this month’s
ARCHITECTURAL RECORD / AIA Continuing Education article.
After reading this article, you will be able to:
the term long-span roof.
2. Describe various types of long-span
3. Discuss how long-span roofs
are appropriate for airports.
Over the years, airport design has become
inextricably linked to crystal-clear wayfinding, expansive
views, and abundant daylight. Nothing seems to satisfyor
expressthese characteristics as elegantly and vividly
as do long-span roofs. By minimizing the number of vertical
supports and maximizing opportunities for skylights and other
daylighting strategies, such vast structures permit passengers
to see clearly where they have come from and where they are
going. Meanwhile, the soaring volumes and undulating shapes
made possible by their inherent geometries can help lift the
spirits of most any weary traveler, even before leaving the
While a roof is essentially the means
to keep out the elements for most buildings, it is often the
defining architectural feature of an airport terminal. Airports
require big-scale solutions, explains Adolfo Preus,
an architect with the firm Studio Lamela in Madrid. A long-span
roof can help facilitate the flow of circulation amid its
complex internal programming; provide flexibility in an industry
whose use patterns have been known to fluctuate relatively
quickly in a short period of time; echo the large dimensions
and aerodynamic shapes of a terminals primary focal
pointthe aircraft; and generate the scale and excitement
befitting the primary ports of entry into our cities and countries.
A long-span roof structure can typically
be found in the terminals departure hall. Departure
halls are treated as the prime space in the airport,
observes Michael Meschino, senior associate in the Toronto
office of the engineering firm Halcrow Yolles. Its
where our clients particularly want daylight, fine details,
and grand dimensions. Passengers, after all, spend the
most time in airports in preparation for a trip. Some terminals
may capitalize on long-span structures in other sections as
well. In the new terminal at Lester B. Pearson International
Airport in Toronto, for example, the architects used a second
long-span roof to cap the terminals international hammerheadthe
large element at the end of one of the piers dedicated as
the waiting area for passengers going abroad. And at the new
terminal for Barajas Airport in Madrid, the same long-span
roof module was applied consistently to multiple segments.
4 at Barajas Airport in Madrid (above), designed
by Richard Rogers and Estudio Lamela, the
same long-span roof module was applied consistently
to multiple segments.
Photography: Courtesy Richard Rogers Partnership
Long-span roofs also raise other, nonstructural
issues. The creation of such an expansive interior volumemost
of which is far from the pedestrian levelraises the
question of how to economically condition the space. Architects
also have to consider maintenance requirements when deciding
where and how to install mechanical, lighting, and communication
systems within such large vertical dimensions.
Despiteor because ofall the
possible variations and concerns in long-span roof structures,
Steven Cook, AIA, principal architect at Murphy/Jahn, was
able to express most succinctly the one recommendation shared
by all architects working in this specialty: Make sure
you have a good engineer.