He's a master of something that should never even be noticed if executed properly. Smooth as silk, lol. A lot of design principles are rooted in psycholgy, made to reduce stress and anxiety.
Airports: We're going to spend billions on a new airport to make it easier for passengers and make it more efficient. Also airports: We're only going to open 2 of the 30 security lines, and make all 50 arriving flights go through them at the same time.
Security is handled by TSA only and let me ask you a single question, do you like what department of homeland security did for the past 5 decades? You get millions of migrants and 911. Answer this sincerely before you ever open your mouth on this issue plz
Fascinating to see how a designers's motives work for creating an airport. At the same time, a humble reminder to self that everything in this world is designed to get you to shop and spend your money. Better be aware I guess. If they truly cared, we'd have better waiting areas for those big layovers. Sleeping pods. Facilities that the disabled could benefit from. But then, like he said with that sheepish smile of his "shopping" is what matters the most.
I worked at O’Hare International Airport, where they showed Terminal 1. I agree that there’s a lot of signage that can lead to confusion for some passengers. I really wished they had fixed it.
I just went through O'Hare for the first time. I figured it out, but it was pretty confusing and unintuitive. I had to go up, then backwards, seemingly out of the airport, to get to the tram, without much explanation of what I was doing... I ended up turning around to double-check I wasn't going the wrong way because of how unintuitive it was. The signs were the only way to know where to go, and they were not that easy to understand.
7:10 There should be bright yellow lines on the floors around the baggage belt at the baggage claim, so people stay back and only go to the belt when they see their bags. We have that in Sweden and most people respect the lines. In most other countries everyone stands right at the belt making it a hassle to see ones bag and to take it of the belt.
@@CrabbyOldLady I think that Australia is quite the opposite. We don't have lines but everybody stands back and only goes forward when they see their bags. Wonder why???
I understand that there can be subtle cues from architecture, flooring, etc. of where to go. But when I’m at an airport, especially a large, unfamiliar one, I don’t want to guess or assume where I should go next. I want clear, unambiguous signage that removes all doubt. I can’t count the number of times upon arriving at a new airport where signs pointing to baggage claim or ground transportation was subpar and insufficient and led to doubt and anxiety as to whether I was going in the right direction. And routing us through retail? Don’t get me started. That may be good for the airport to sell overpriced merchandise to impulse buyers and unprepared travelers, but it’s often a pain to have to negotiate the turbulent flow of traffic as passengers slow down, peel off, or reenter the flow so they can check out the retail. I do make limited airport purchases for very specific reasons, but I can seek those out rather than be funneled through.
I agree with the retail route, it's frustrating and unnecessarily confusing in a lot of airports. In one particularly bad airport, I had to go through the duty-free area (shaped like a horseshoe) several times in one go because the plane was delayed and the gate kept changing. It was very frustrating. Just give me a shortcut!
I was thinking the same thing, "You know what stressed me out in airports these days? The Fluster Cluck around the retail spaces that they force us to go through."
This! Give me super clear, obvious information on how to get to the luggage and out of the airport. And good lord, get me away from the retail. I am here to fly. Not shop.
They definitely succeeded in the case of the new LaGuardia. It's absolutely beautiful, especially considering how it used to be! Its one of my favorites to travel thru now!!
I flew LGA earlier this year. It is a shame it is so difficult to get to from NJ because I loved it. The newly renovated Terminal A at EWR reminded me a lot like if they took LGA and plopped it in Elizabeth.
Agree. LGA has become a world class airport. The mass transit around it is what lets it down. JFK kind of has some mass transit and is undergoing big renovations now to upgrade it.
I am a multi-million mile flyer and HATE HATE HATE the shopping mall concept of airports. Trying to get to gates and being forced to walk through throngs of meandering window shoppers is ANNOYING!
I don’t understand who’s shopping at an airport?? You only have so much room in your carry-on or personal item, you can’t do any real shopping. And I can’t imagine anyone would hang around to shop at an overpriced airport once they’ve arrived back home. I understand buying food, but is there anyone out there who can help me understand why retail stores thrive in airports?
@@todaywelearned duty-free shopping... although its becoming increasingly more of a scam, especially because it really doesn't exist in the USA and the prices are bumped up to basically the taxed prices elsewhere.
One of my favorite airports is Incheon International in the Seoul area. It has big open spaces, large windows that let in natural light, is visually pleasing, and is easy to navigate.
Thoughtful design can lower my anxiety levels and flying is a very high anxiety activity for my family. Thank you to these architects for making the experience enjoyable.
I hadn't flown in over 10 years, and this year (2024) when I flew, all of the U.S. domestic airports that I went through (SFO, ORD, DEN, BWI) were a lot more delightful than the what I remembered from my other past airport experiences. Not perfect, but overall the experiences just felt better. Glad to see this video show the thought processes of what's going into the remodels of these places.
It’s a lot of walk and wasted space. On the contrary, the more frequently used departure terminal is so cramped and the security hall gives me claustrophobia.
An expert like this are the types of people Americans need to fill these roles and improve the country as a whole. Unfortunately, new leadership thinks they are the smartest people on the planet and that's why Americans cannot have nice things for very long.
The concept of simultaneous/parallel divestment areas at security lines is efficient, but when the airport workers herd people away before their bags move out of reach of others, it creates new issues. Too much opportunity for petty theft (e.g., of wallets, keys, and phones stuffed into exterior zippered pockets of rollerboard suitcases) when pax aren't within sight of their bags.
I have to say I do like the more open retail like spaces in an airport. It calms me because It feels more like a mall Im casually strolling through over the extremely long anxiety inducing airport corridors.
It’s fine, but I don’t get all the accolades. Having security at individual gates is awful. Terminals 1 and 2 are decrepit. 3 is fine. Its best terminal is good, the rest of it is mid/low tier.
I don’t mind Changi but I don’t get the hype. It’s more stress to do the security at the gates. I’d rather get everything done and once airside just have to get to the plane at my leisure.
I would give the best airport terminal design to Hong Kong Airport T1. You mostly only travel in one direction from check-in to your boarding gate. It's got very high ceilings and huge glass windows that brings in a lot of natural sunlight into the building. The seating areas also provide beautiful views of the apron and the aircrafts. It almost feels like a luxury airport.
I really liked the ATL. One of the few airports I felt really safe in. The trains were my favorite part, and I was happy that I had time to grab a snack before I left because the food court was right above my gate. It was pretty cool to experience, having only flown a handful of times in the past.
Yeah I'm probably in the minority but I had some fun checking out ATL and roaming between a couple of the terminals on the train last time I was there.
Never gave much thought to an airports' layout before this video...............very interesting..............next time I fly I will pay more attention...................
Well done and a lot of good information. I am one of those people who analyze my surroundings constantly and airport design remains one of the most interesting
I have a suggestion for Peter's clients to increase the likelihood of me buying things in the air side retail: stop gouging on prices. If they're going to keep charging "captive audience prices" I'm only going to buy something if I am incredibly desperate and can't do without it for the next 2-3 hours...
They aren't charging that directly because you're captive. The rent on airport retail space is high because the airport (not retailers) knows you are captive and the airport is trying to make more money. The retailer then has to pass that on to the consumer to make the same % they would outside the airport. Couple that with airports being longer shift hours and harder (or more expensive) to get to than a standard location and they need to charge more again to simply cover costs. Having said that, I still agree with you, I would buy more at an airport for the right prices, but I rarely buy anything unless I am leaving a location and find something I haven't seen anywhere else, or absolutely need it now or when I land
I'm not sure what you're getting at. Plenty of smaller airports have people embarking and disembarking from/at the same gate on the same level precisely because they only have one level, and it works just fine.
I found the airports in the US to be so much more complex and confusing than airports in the other countries. I have travelled through Atlanta and it's just bad.
US airports are also much older, built in a time when the airlines themselves were the biggest influence on airport design. Human-centered airport architecture didn't really arise until after the Soviet collapse and civil aviation really took off following America's deregulation shakeup.
How is Atlanta bad? It’s linear layout of the concourses all connected by the train is one of the most straight-forward designs out there. With 250 gates, the airport is huge, which is probably what most folks who don’t like it are responding to and findi it hard to make tight connections. As an origin and destination, it’s really easy.
I'm probably a failure of a traveller in airport's eyes. The only things I buy are: - water, if there's no watering station. That being said, water dispensers are so common nowadays, it makes me really happy. I always travel with water bottle. - rarely - warm food. I carry snacks, but some flights just aren't compatible with eating beforehand or I have eaten before the flight, but the travel time to airport is long so I'm hungry again. There were two times when I bought anything airside. First one was at a small shop on really tiny airport in one of the Malaysian cities. They had local arts and crafts stand, legit one, not Chinese trinkets. I bought a pack of 3 bracelets for $5. And second time, I couldn't find my brand of sunscreen before departure, but I found my sunscreen in a shop on the airside - this one saved me the hassle of finding sunscreen at the destination. What I dislike is airport prices. There's no _delight_ in being ripped off. Expensive brands are not something I buy, yet it's 90% of airport retail. Food is expensive, but I'm hungry and I need a warm meal so I have no choice. If one meal (that leaves me slightly hungry) is more than my daily budget on a trip, there's no joy. I don't know if I'm an outlier, or people actually casually buy a handbag for $200 when they wait for a plane.
MCO's Terminal C is a fantastic additional example of a lot of these modern design languages. Very modular in design for future expansion needs, towering ceilings with large windows on all floors, nature brought into the spaces, and imo, most impressively, moving the arrivals hall to the top floor, to have the grandest entrance possible into the City Beautiful
He forgot one important point: consigned luggage goes in via a tight inspection but, on the way out, anybody can essentially grab any luggage off the conveyor belt. It's a serious security issue that has yet to be addressed by any airport. Luggae should only be handed to their rightful owner upon arrival.
I agree with you but don't see an easy or reasonably priced solution. You'd either need hoards of baggage staff to check baggage stickers and pass bags out, or some expensive automated way where you scan your baggage receipt and are delivered your bags via automated conveyor belt or told to wait for it to arrive. Also extremely expensive to retrofit. Another solution would be to check the bags you've taken when exiting arrivals, but that still doesn't prevent someone from messing with your bags and their contents in the baggage hall. At least make the baggage claim area accessible only to arriving passengers. I've seen some where anyone can walk in off the street.
@@Chromana Your last point is 100% although the only airports I can recall that allow anyone off the street access to the arrivals belts are in the USA (pretty sure Vegas was like that). Even the worst airport I EVER went to (a now closed airport in Romania that had no queueing for check in, it was just a free for all crush of bodies) still had the arrival belt (singular) only accessible to people in arrivals.
I think SFO was the original (at least that's what SFO claims) when it came to museum exhibits, but the exhibits are not at all snooty and dull. I remember SFO exhibits about Godzilla and other kaiju, surfboards, signs from African barber shops, airline amenity kits - things like that. They're really pretty interesting. I've noticed more and more airports doing the same thing.
Super interesting. Orly airport in Paris is a great example of this, it's become really lovely, airy, and grand-feeling. Makes me want to arrive early and actually spend time at the airport. In contrast London airports (Gatwick in particular) are horrible and make you want to leave as fast as you can.
One thing I always see various designers like this talk about is subtlety in the wayfinding and subconscious direction. The problem I see most of the time with this though, is that when you're actually within a space such as this - especially if it's crowded - you're not going to get the perspective nor the view that you need to truly notice things like this most of the time, particularly ones that are placed on the floor. Also, I totally understand from a theoretical or conceptual standpoint how arching walls or ceilings may subconsciously direct peoples attention or inclinations towards them, however, to the mass majority of people.. these and other architectural wayfinding methods are often overlooked entirely and not given a second thought. I can easily be convinced what the intention was and could even agree, but when unaware or uninformed everyday people walk into a space it's highly unlikely that they'll interpret those designs as intended unless their made very well and you ensure the designs can be interpreted as intended consistently. I dislike how Architects and Designers so frequently talk about these things as if they're sure people so regularly interpret wayfinding designs just how they themselves did but the reality is that most of the time.. they don't. I think there needs to be much more emphasis in the industry about how everyday people will interpret a design vs how an artist or informed enthusiast will. You're making the space FOR the people, not for your huddle of Architects and Designers.
LOL. I understand. But I worked there for a few years way back when, so it still feels kind of like home. That being said, I live in the south suburbs of Chicago now, so I completely prefer to fly SWA out of Midway. It is so much more pleasent.
Newark's newest terminal A appears to follow most (if not all) of his design considerations. It makes a lot more sense to me now. I'll pay a bit more attention next time i go through there.
I appreciated my experience with the Denver airport train. Made it super fast to get to/from my gate, it cut down on walking, and when I went to the wrong gate, I made it to the other end of the airport with plenty of time to spare. And tbh it was pretty fun. I do understand how it can be disorienting but in comparison to what I’m used to (SLC’s B Gates…) it’s a much better system
I hate airports that make you flow "through" the retail on your way to airside. It's confusing and distressing when you are anxious about getting to your gate but you are forced to travel through a shopping mall first. Also, it's obvious that the planners are doing this and I lose faith that the logic of their design is to help me get to my gate rather than provide more contact with shops.
i really like hong kong's airport. i can find my way really easily when travelling alone, especially because I expect myself to get lost lol, but the paths are intuitive
The yellow signage with the clear Arial letters were originally designed by Total Design for Schiphol Airport, it has been copied to countless other airports since
Airport experience has a huge impact on travel I adore airports like schiphol in Amsterdam or or the one in Singapore making me actually looking forward to go there Meanwhile I try and avoid airports like Manchester or Luton like the plague
I'd have to return after they're all done with the construction at Schiphol, as I wasn't so impressed going through there (both Schengen and foreign). That is if EU entry there didn't take so freakin long and Amsterdam wasn't so darn pricey. But yeah having the train station embedded underneath the terminal is fantastic, and felt much more organic than say Frankfurt or Shanghai Hongqiao.
They are slowly being added as the equipment gets updated at different airports. Last time I traveled I was able to leave everything in my bag at least. IIRC there's some bureaucracy with the shoes still so regular passengers have to remove, but if you're 1st class or in the Pre-check program you can keep them on.
I love landing at an airport that is well designed with little signage. Where thr design flows gou where to go and then you see a sign saying bag pickup showing you went the right way.
I loved this video and hope it’s the future of our US airports. My question is if the ticket counters are in a roomy parallel formation with open space on all sides how do the bags get through to the internal sorter and put on the planes?
Edit: Ive noticed airports have become super smooth and easy to navigate lately. Kansas City just got an upgrade, it's amazing. Original: This is genius and also the way that I approach design as well. I do web development but interiors is my dream and future goal. My parents have influenced the way I design because theyre kind of clueless lol. So Im constantly trying to make things easy and obvious for people. no need to think or stress. Apple's design is widely considered user friendly, but it still confuses and frustrates my mom. she just gives up... idk why. I was trying to teach her HOW to look at it instead of making her memorize instructions on how to do specific things. like look at the bell, what does a bell symbol tell you. connect it to real life. at the same time, for a woman who grew up in rural india in the 60s, many digital elements wont make sense. like a "play" button, would just be a random triangle for her. or even non-digital elements. arrows are not a thing really in indian villages. there are designers who focus on creating universal products to aid impoverished communities all over the world. it gets complicated when considering which symbols resonate with Everyone so it can be used. anyway. i find it all interesting and helpful, and thank you for this video.
What about the terminals during the renovation/construction. I was at Addis Abeba once while it was under construction. It really was a construction site with some fencing (inside the terminals) with barely any signs telling you where to go. Other then that, signs for information (where to go for which gate etc.) should be the highest priority I think. Floor plans and subtle hints where to go might work, but people want absolute certainty that they are going in the right direction and will make it in time (maybe not all, but I certainly do). Some airports have walking times on signs for gates, I find those really helpful for figuring out if I have time to get something to eat or when I have to start moving towards the gate when at a pleasant waiting spot.
The older terminals are a mess at Singapore. Wear and tear with poor maintenance. Singapore Changi Airport is really only good because of how willing Singapore is to introduce cutting edge technology like automated passport control gates before any other country.
Apparently the only reason why the think about making it easier to navigate the airpot is so that we spend more. And still many airports, even modern ones, are still a pain to navigate. Heathrow for example is just tiring.
Really awesome. I would love if I could redesign our hospital and department. Utilize our medical knowledge and integrate not only the patient satisfaction and calming components to architecture
I am curious when these design tricks started to be used. Especially the check-in desks. There are many airports that I can recall from 20 years ago that had the check-in desks in that configuration long before you had check-in kiosks and online check-in
I fly quite often and I still find most airports confusing. I just follow the herd of people and keep reading and still can get lost. My hunch is the people who design these terminal don’t travel often and are pretty much clueless. Case in point try to find out where to meet Uber at SFO. Good luck with that.
More than likely they fly too much and lost the sense being an inexperienced traveler. The recent SFO major redesign happened before iPhone. Ride share services are retrofitted into it.Also, ride shares are the most disruptive form of transit on vehicle flow leaving an airport due to its operational pattern, putting it out of the way of other traffic makes sense. I had no problem locating the ride share pick up spot in SFO.
The Uber and Lyft pickup area at SFO wasn't originally designed to be a pickup area. Uber and Lyft were causing so much congestion in front of the terminals that the airport had to find another place to move them, so they chose the top of the parking garage between the terminals. Not ideal, but others airports came up with much worse procedures. Last time I was at LAX, you had to take a bus to a pickup area for rideshares.
Parallel divestment is tremendously inefficient in my opinion. Especially when an overzealous bag screener pulls multiple bins for secondary. Just creates chaos on the other side of the queue and backs up the entire line as not enough bags can be processed by the scanner in time. It’s a bandaid solution.
I personally enjoy spending an hour or two just looking for a place to sit at any bar or restaurant in an airport. It really adds to the awesome experience of commercial flying.
I like the architect digest channel's video about airport design much more, it explains the problem different airport tried to solve or optimize for, this one, seems quite shallow
I'd give top marks to Doha, and I wouldn't mind an extended layover in the new Istanbul terminal. Changi has the annoying gate checkpoints, and Dubai is basically one long badly-lit shopping mall.
I HATE being constantly manipulated to walk around shops, and forced to wait in busy areas of shops by manufactured delays in reporting gate numbers. This increases stress. It is clear, even from this video, that the goal is not primarily to get people onto planes, it’s to get them to shop more. It’s vulgar.
Nearly all the major international airports are designed this way. I was recently at Heathrow, Dublin and Frankurt airports. They have duty free shops where you have to walk through both on arrivals and departures. I get that they are trying to increase their business by having more foot traffic but it slows down people who have to find their way around window shoppers and gawkers.
Hey it’s the times we live in. Majority of the revenue made by airports comes from retail, food concessions and parking fees. I think it’s something like 75%. It’s how they keep the lights on. lol. That’s not going to change anytime soon unless you want government pay for everything and send up your taxes. Just so you know there was a famous architect who tried to eliminate retail from the design of the new Berlin International Airport, when got to the higher-ups of what he did, he was overruled by his colleagues and fired. The redesign took several months and cost the city government millions.
@@jehiahmaduro6827 Well, these times suck. They need change. Whether taxes pay it or it’s in the ticket price, or it’s in the price of food and goods at the airport, it all still comes out of our pocket. I’d rather the funding method that reduces stress and annoyance, not increase it.
last time I flew out, my home airport had ONE functional elevator in the terminal. unfortunately, with my wife having mobility problems, and no direct path from parking to check in, we had no choice but to use that elevator.
How about this: Pearson airport. Mixed domestic & international check in. Systemic failures due to volume. All avoidable with proper planning & resources.
The only "memorable" aspect I need at an airport is how fast I got through security and how on-time my flight was. Don't send me through mandatory shopping space like I'm in Ikea.
6:57 "passengers may actually be more comfortable spending time in the terminal shopping. (laughs)" They don't care about a pleasant experience for the travellevers, they want us to spend money !
You clearly haven't been to Changi where they manage that exceptionally with the airport being a destination in of itself that you want to visit, spend time at and shop without even flying.
I think there are ways to create calming and engaging cultural experiences that aren’t just about making money (although most airports are looking to just maximize revenue) I think airports like Schipol that has a version of the Rijksmuseum or Changi that have gardens are examples of how to create non-shopping programming
What’s the fastest way to the airport? We raced in New York, L.A. and Chicago: on.wsj.com/3VTqA0z
I already know that LA is dead last given the horrible traffic and the incomplete train to LAX
This video is so relaxing for some reason. I could watch this man talk for hours
He's a master of something that should never even be noticed if executed properly. Smooth as silk, lol. A lot of design principles are rooted in psycholgy, made to reduce stress and anxiety.
Try this video : Airport Expert Creates the Ideal Layout for LaGuardia Airport (New York) | WIRED
Because he exudes mastery. And he cares about the subjects going through the built environment.
Agreed.
I would love to be in a class he taught just about this!
Airports: We're going to spend billions on a new airport to make it easier for passengers and make it more efficient.
Also airports: We're only going to open 2 of the 30 security lines, and make all 50 arriving flights go through them at the same time.
Security is handled by TSA only and let me ask you a single question, do you like what department of homeland security did for the past 5 decades? You get millions of migrants and 911. Answer this sincerely before you ever open your mouth on this issue plz
@@kiraasuka9943Your "answer" is American-centric, racist AND incorrect. Well done!
@@kashiichan so do you feel the US is safer today than it was 10 years ago?
Has nothing to do with opening more lines. @@kiraasuka9943
MCO in a nutshell
Fascinating to see how a designers's motives work for creating an airport. At the same time, a humble reminder to self that everything in this world is designed to get you to shop and spend your money. Better be aware I guess.
If they truly cared, we'd have better waiting areas for those big layovers. Sleeping pods. Facilities that the disabled could benefit from. But then, like he said with that sheepish smile of his "shopping" is what matters the most.
That is how capitalism works I guess.
I worked at O’Hare International Airport, where they showed Terminal 1. I agree that there’s a lot of signage that can lead to confusion for some passengers. I really wished they had fixed it.
I just went through O'Hare for the first time. I figured it out, but it was pretty confusing and unintuitive. I had to go up, then backwards, seemingly out of the airport, to get to the tram, without much explanation of what I was doing... I ended up turning around to double-check I wasn't going the wrong way because of how unintuitive it was. The signs were the only way to know where to go, and they were not that easy to understand.
7:10
There should be bright yellow lines on the floors around the baggage belt at the baggage claim, so people stay back and only go to the belt when they see their bags.
We have that in Sweden and most people respect the lines. In most other countries everyone stands right at the belt making it a hassle to see ones bag and to take it of the belt.
Nobody in the US would pay any attention to those yellow lines.
@@CrabbyOldLady I think that Australia is quite the opposite. We don't have lines but everybody stands back and only goes forward when they see their bags. Wonder why???
This is more of a cultural difference. Some cultures respect other's personal space/convenience more than others.
I understand that there can be subtle cues from architecture, flooring, etc. of where to go. But when I’m at an airport, especially a large, unfamiliar one, I don’t want to guess or assume where I should go next. I want clear, unambiguous signage that removes all doubt. I can’t count the number of times upon arriving at a new airport where signs pointing to baggage claim or ground transportation was subpar and insufficient and led to doubt and anxiety as to whether I was going in the right direction.
And routing us through retail? Don’t get me started. That may be good for the airport to sell overpriced merchandise to impulse buyers and unprepared travelers, but it’s often a pain to have to negotiate the turbulent flow of traffic as passengers slow down, peel off, or reenter the flow so they can check out the retail. I do make limited airport purchases for very specific reasons, but I can seek those out rather than be funneled through.
I agree with the retail route, it's frustrating and unnecessarily confusing in a lot of airports. In one particularly bad airport, I had to go through the duty-free area (shaped like a horseshoe) several times in one go because the plane was delayed and the gate kept changing. It was very frustrating. Just give me a shortcut!
I was thinking the same thing, "You know what stressed me out in airports these days? The Fluster Cluck around the retail spaces that they force us to go through."
This! Give me super clear, obvious information on how to get to the luggage and out of the airport.
And good lord, get me away from the retail. I am here to fly. Not shop.
"Make Airports more memorable". Yep, it was truly memorable to have multiple rude and abusive TSA agents yelling at you with different directions.
They definitely succeeded in the case of the new LaGuardia. It's absolutely beautiful, especially considering how it used to be! Its one of my favorites to travel thru now!!
now if only it had working mass transit...
I flew LGA earlier this year. It is a shame it is so difficult to get to from NJ because I loved it. The newly renovated Terminal A at EWR reminded me a lot like if they took LGA and plopped it in Elizabeth.
Agree. LGA has become a world class airport. The mass transit around it is what lets it down. JFK kind of has some mass transit and is undergoing big renovations now to upgrade it.
I am a multi-million mile flyer and HATE HATE HATE the shopping mall concept of airports. Trying to get to gates and being forced to walk through throngs of meandering window shoppers is ANNOYING!
Absolutely. It makes lounges or gates the only calm areas, but those are in turn getting packed unless you're at a exclusive/premium lounge
Sounds like either you're just lazy or maybe bad at planning
But money
I don’t understand who’s shopping at an airport?? You only have so much room in your carry-on or personal item, you can’t do any real shopping. And I can’t imagine anyone would hang around to shop at an overpriced airport once they’ve arrived back home. I understand buying food, but is there anyone out there who can help me understand why retail stores thrive in airports?
@@todaywelearned duty-free shopping... although its becoming increasingly more of a scam, especially because it really doesn't exist in the USA and the prices are bumped up to basically the taxed prices elsewhere.
We agree. We love the layout of LaGuardia airport arrival area coming from Toronto in July 2024. It was really memorable.
One of my favorite airports is Incheon International in the Seoul area. It has big open spaces, large windows that let in natural light, is visually pleasing, and is easy to navigate.
Thoughtful design can lower my anxiety levels and flying is a very high anxiety activity for my family. Thank you to these architects for making the experience enjoyable.
I hadn't flown in over 10 years, and this year (2024) when I flew, all of the U.S. domestic airports that I went through (SFO, ORD, DEN, BWI) were a lot more delightful than the what I remembered from my other past airport experiences. Not perfect, but overall the experiences just felt better. Glad to see this video show the thought processes of what's going into the remodels of these places.
The international arrivals at SEA-TAC is really memorable and grand. Great video!
It’s a lot of walk and wasted space. On the contrary, the more frequently used departure terminal is so cramped and the security hall gives me claustrophobia.
I round trip from Norfolk to SeaTac each year. Arriving at SeaTac is a breeze. Departing from SeaTac is horrible. I dread it every year.
This expert is already reducing my stress 😅
An expert like this are the types of people Americans need to fill these roles and improve the country as a whole. Unfortunately, new leadership thinks they are the smartest people on the planet and that's why Americans cannot have nice things for very long.
The concept of simultaneous/parallel divestment areas at security lines is efficient, but when the airport workers herd people away before their bags move out of reach of others, it creates new issues. Too much opportunity for petty theft (e.g., of wallets, keys, and phones stuffed into exterior zippered pockets of rollerboard suitcases) when pax aren't within sight of their bags.
I have to say I do like the more open retail like spaces in an airport. It calms me because It feels more like a mall Im casually strolling through over the extremely long anxiety inducing airport corridors.
I may be biased but I think Changi Airport's got it down pretty neat.
It’s fine, but I don’t get all the accolades. Having security at individual gates is awful. Terminals 1 and 2 are decrepit. 3 is fine. Its best terminal is good, the rest of it is mid/low tier.
@@qwerty112311100%. And you can’t do anything once you’re past security. You’re stuck at the gate.
I really like Chinese airport just because of how much of an experience it is, but I don’t know how functional it is in terms of an airport
I don’t mind Changi but I don’t get the hype. It’s more stress to do the security at the gates. I’d rather get everything done and once airside just have to get to the plane at my leisure.
Not to mention that the Jewel is landside...
Bit of a pain
Just went to Tokyo Narita Airport and it’s set up like this too.
Airports around the world have been doing this for decades already, the US is just only now playing catchup
Parallel divestment. Love it. Something we really need to work on here in the US.
I would give the best airport terminal design to Hong Kong Airport T1. You mostly only travel in one direction from check-in to your boarding gate.
It's got very high ceilings and huge glass windows that brings in a lot of natural sunlight into the building. The seating areas also provide beautiful views of the apron and the aircrafts. It almost feels like a luxury airport.
I really liked the ATL. One of the few airports I felt really safe in. The trains were my favorite part, and I was happy that I had time to grab a snack before I left because the food court was right above my gate. It was pretty cool to experience, having only flown a handful of times in the past.
Yeah I'm probably in the minority but I had some fun checking out ATL and roaming between a couple of the terminals on the train last time I was there.
Never gave much thought to an airports' layout before this video...............very interesting..............next time I fly I will pay more attention...................
LGA Terminal B is so well done. This guy did a fantastic job.
Well done and a lot of good information.
I am one of those people who analyze my surroundings constantly and airport design remains one of the most interesting
I love interior design. Genius.
I have a suggestion for Peter's clients to increase the likelihood of me buying things in the air side retail: stop gouging on prices.
If they're going to keep charging "captive audience prices" I'm only going to buy something if I am incredibly desperate and can't do without it for the next 2-3 hours...
They aren't charging that directly because you're captive. The rent on airport retail space is high because the airport (not retailers) knows you are captive and the airport is trying to make more money.
The retailer then has to pass that on to the consumer to make the same % they would outside the airport.
Couple that with airports being longer shift hours and harder (or more expensive) to get to than a standard location and they need to charge more again to simply cover costs.
Having said that, I still agree with you, I would buy more at an airport for the right prices, but I rarely buy anything unless I am leaving a location and find something I haven't seen anywhere else, or absolutely need it now or when I land
Having passengers embark and disembark on the same level is archaic.
Split level jet bridges are a MUST !!!
I'm not sure what you're getting at. Plenty of smaller airports have people embarking and disembarking from/at the same gate on the same level precisely because they only have one level, and it works just fine.
I found the airports in the US to be so much more complex and confusing than airports in the other countries. I have travelled through Atlanta and it's just bad.
US airports are also much older, built in a time when the airlines themselves were the biggest influence on airport design. Human-centered airport architecture didn't really arise until after the Soviet collapse and civil aviation really took off following America's deregulation shakeup.
How is Atlanta bad? It’s linear layout of the concourses all connected by the train is one of the most straight-forward designs out there. With 250 gates, the airport is huge, which is probably what most folks who don’t like it are responding to and findi it hard to make tight connections. As an origin and destination, it’s really easy.
Fascinating video which explains so much about how & why modern airports are designed and built.
Hello from Bucharest, Romania - a huge underrated city in Europe:)
I love these videos!!!
This strangely reminds me ALOT of video game design. Very interesting!
I'm probably a failure of a traveller in airport's eyes. The only things I buy are:
- water, if there's no watering station. That being said, water dispensers are so common nowadays, it makes me really happy. I always travel with water bottle.
- rarely - warm food. I carry snacks, but some flights just aren't compatible with eating beforehand or I have eaten before the flight, but the travel time to airport is long so I'm hungry again.
There were two times when I bought anything airside. First one was at a small shop on really tiny airport in one of the Malaysian cities. They had local arts and crafts stand, legit one, not Chinese trinkets. I bought a pack of 3 bracelets for $5. And second time, I couldn't find my brand of sunscreen before departure, but I found my sunscreen in a shop on the airside - this one saved me the hassle of finding sunscreen at the destination.
What I dislike is airport prices. There's no _delight_ in being ripped off. Expensive brands are not something I buy, yet it's 90% of airport retail. Food is expensive, but I'm hungry and I need a warm meal so I have no choice. If one meal (that leaves me slightly hungry) is more than my daily budget on a trip, there's no joy.
I don't know if I'm an outlier, or people actually casually buy a handbag for $200 when they wait for a plane.
I always get anxiety when I'm at the airport traveling alone but definitely the design for some airports are really relaxing
MCO's Terminal C is a fantastic additional example of a lot of these modern design languages. Very modular in design for future expansion needs, towering ceilings with large windows on all floors, nature brought into the spaces, and imo, most impressively, moving the arrivals hall to the top floor, to have the grandest entrance possible into the City Beautiful
Yes! Being able to see ahead is so much better
He forgot one important point: consigned luggage goes in via a tight inspection but, on the way out, anybody can essentially grab any luggage off the conveyor belt. It's a serious security issue that has yet to be addressed by any airport. Luggae should only be handed to their rightful owner upon arrival.
I agree with you but don't see an easy or reasonably priced solution. You'd either need hoards of baggage staff to check baggage stickers and pass bags out, or some expensive automated way where you scan your baggage receipt and are delivered your bags via automated conveyor belt or told to wait for it to arrive. Also extremely expensive to retrofit.
Another solution would be to check the bags you've taken when exiting arrivals, but that still doesn't prevent someone from messing with your bags and their contents in the baggage hall.
At least make the baggage claim area accessible only to arriving passengers. I've seen some where anyone can walk in off the street.
@@Chromana Your last point is 100% although the only airports I can recall that allow anyone off the street access to the arrivals belts are in the USA (pretty sure Vegas was like that).
Even the worst airport I EVER went to (a now closed airport in Romania that had no queueing for check in, it was just a free for all crush of bodies) still had the arrival belt (singular) only accessible to people in arrivals.
Wonderful Video! He is extremely smart! I learned a lot today!
Great video ✨
Explain more about the arrivals area design at the airport in the next one
Honestly really fascinating
Many airports have excellent art collections or changing exhibits. SFO (San Francisco), for example, always has great artwork to enjoy.
I think SFO was the original (at least that's what SFO claims) when it came to museum exhibits, but the exhibits are not at all snooty and dull. I remember SFO exhibits about Godzilla and other kaiju, surfboards, signs from African barber shops, airline amenity kits - things like that. They're really pretty interesting. I've noticed more and more airports doing the same thing.
Super interesting. Orly airport in Paris is a great example of this, it's become really lovely, airy, and grand-feeling. Makes me want to arrive early and actually spend time at the airport. In contrast London airports (Gatwick in particular) are horrible and make you want to leave as fast as you can.
One thing I always see various designers like this talk about is subtlety in the wayfinding and subconscious direction. The problem I see most of the time with this though, is that when you're actually within a space such as this - especially if it's crowded - you're not going to get the perspective nor the view that you need to truly notice things like this most of the time, particularly ones that are placed on the floor. Also, I totally understand from a theoretical or conceptual standpoint how arching walls or ceilings may subconsciously direct peoples attention or inclinations towards them, however, to the mass majority of people.. these and other architectural wayfinding methods are often overlooked entirely and not given a second thought. I can easily be convinced what the intention was and could even agree, but when unaware or uninformed everyday people walk into a space it's highly unlikely that they'll interpret those designs as intended unless their made very well and you ensure the designs can be interpreted as intended consistently. I dislike how Architects and Designers so frequently talk about these things as if they're sure people so regularly interpret wayfinding designs just how they themselves did but the reality is that most of the time.. they don't. I think there needs to be much more emphasis in the industry about how everyday people will interpret a design vs how an artist or informed enthusiast will. You're making the space FOR the people, not for your huddle of Architects and Designers.
ORD is the only airport I’ve been in that made me pull up a map on my phone to get to my gate. Really irked me.
LOL. I understand. But I worked there for a few years way back when, so it still feels kind of like home. That being said, I live in the south suburbs of Chicago now, so I completely prefer to fly SWA out of Midway. It is so much more pleasent.
Newark's newest terminal A appears to follow most (if not all) of his design considerations. It makes a lot more sense to me now.
I'll pay a bit more attention next time i go through there.
This is why Changi is so nice ❤
I appreciated my experience with the Denver airport train. Made it super fast to get to/from my gate, it cut down on walking, and when I went to the wrong gate, I made it to the other end of the airport with plenty of time to spare. And tbh it was pretty fun. I do understand how it can be disorienting but in comparison to what I’m used to (SLC’s B Gates…) it’s a much better system
Really love your explainer videos!
Interesting thoughtfulness.
I hate airports that make you flow "through" the retail on your way to airside. It's confusing and distressing when you are anxious about getting to your gate but you are forced to travel through a shopping mall first. Also, it's obvious that the planners are doing this and I lose faith that the logic of their design is to help me get to my gate rather than provide more contact with shops.
Great video.
i really like hong kong's airport. i can find my way really easily when travelling alone, especially because I expect myself to get lost lol, but the paths are intuitive
The yellow signage with the clear Arial letters were originally designed by Total Design for Schiphol Airport, it has been copied to countless other airports since
With that distinctive mustard yellow color. Fantastic signage.
@@George-ni5ic All I remember about Heathrow years ago was that almost everything was yellow.
This really made me understand how Schiphol is nice even when busy but for example Istanbul Airport is such a horrible experience overall
I actually thought Istanbul does it pretty well but I haven't been to Schiphol.
Airport experience has a huge impact on travel
I adore airports like schiphol in Amsterdam or or the one in Singapore making me actually looking forward to go there
Meanwhile I try and avoid airports like Manchester or Luton like the plague
Schipol is so cool and I love the way it feeds right into the train station.
I'd have to return after they're all done with the construction at Schiphol, as I wasn't so impressed going through there (both Schengen and foreign). That is if EU entry there didn't take so freakin long and Amsterdam wasn't so darn pricey.
But yeah having the train station embedded underneath the terminal is fantastic, and felt much more organic than say Frankfurt or Shanghai Hongqiao.
Do US airports have those new security scan things where you dont need to remove laptops or boots? That improves speed massively
They are slowly being added as the equipment gets updated at different airports. Last time I traveled I was able to leave everything in my bag at least. IIRC there's some bureaucracy with the shoes still so regular passengers have to remove, but if you're 1st class or in the Pre-check program you can keep them on.
Thanks Peter
This was so interesting! Thank you
1:37 has been implemented in Vienna airport since the early 90s and no, it doesn‘t work without signs
I used to think airports can never be beautiful then I landed in Incheon international airport in S. Korea and I was blown away
I love landing at an airport that is well designed with little signage. Where thr design flows gou where to go and then you see a sign saying bag pickup showing you went the right way.
the real magic is the MEP systems being able to fit and account for the architectural design.
Me he tragado las reviews de los americanos y me acabo de dar cuenta de que Vicesat es el mejor reviewer del mundo ❤
I loved this video and hope it’s the future of our US airports. My question is if the ticket counters are in a roomy parallel formation with open space on all sides how do the bags get through to the internal sorter and put on the planes?
LGA terminal B is delightful to fly out of!
Edit: Ive noticed airports have become super smooth and easy to navigate lately. Kansas City just got an upgrade, it's amazing.
Original: This is genius and also the way that I approach design as well. I do web development but interiors is my dream and future goal. My parents have influenced the way I design because theyre kind of clueless lol. So Im constantly trying to make things easy and obvious for people. no need to think or stress. Apple's design is widely considered user friendly, but it still confuses and frustrates my mom. she just gives up... idk why. I was trying to teach her HOW to look at it instead of making her memorize instructions on how to do specific things. like look at the bell, what does a bell symbol tell you. connect it to real life. at the same time, for a woman who grew up in rural india in the 60s, many digital elements wont make sense. like a "play" button, would just be a random triangle for her. or even non-digital elements. arrows are not a thing really in indian villages. there are designers who focus on creating universal products to aid impoverished communities all over the world. it gets complicated when considering which symbols resonate with Everyone so it can be used. anyway. i find it all interesting and helpful, and thank you for this video.
The newest airport in Kansas City, MO (MCI) is as close to what Mr. Ruggiero is talking about. It is a miraculously designed airport.
Wow, smart design can really save the day! 🛫
What about the terminals during the renovation/construction. I was at Addis Abeba once while it was under construction. It really was a construction site with some fencing (inside the terminals) with barely any signs telling you where to go.
Other then that, signs for information (where to go for which gate etc.) should be the highest priority I think. Floor plans and subtle hints where to go might work, but people want absolute certainty that they are going in the right direction and will make it in time (maybe not all, but I certainly do). Some airports have walking times on signs for gates, I find those really helpful for figuring out if I have time to get something to eat or when I have to start moving towards the gate when at a pleasant waiting spot.
Good guy, good talk, good video. Apart from LGA, could include some airports outside the US to show some great examples.
This was an awesome video
Singapore airport is great too!
The older terminals are a mess at Singapore. Wear and tear with poor maintenance. Singapore Changi Airport is really only good because of how willing Singapore is to introduce cutting edge technology like automated passport control gates before any other country.
Apparently the only reason why the think about making it easier to navigate the airpot is so that we spend more. And still many airports, even modern ones, are still a pain to navigate. Heathrow for example is just tiring.
Really awesome. I would love if I could redesign our hospital and department. Utilize our medical knowledge and integrate not only the patient satisfaction and calming components to architecture
I am curious when these design tricks started to be used. Especially the check-in desks. There are many airports that I can recall from 20 years ago that had the check-in desks in that configuration long before you had check-in kiosks and online check-in
come to Changi Airport in Singapore! you'll find the perfect examples of intuitive wayfinding in its terminals!
Until you start seeing all the wear and tear. Overrated airport
I fly quite often and I still find most airports confusing. I just follow the herd of people and keep reading and still can get lost. My hunch is the people who design these terminal don’t travel often and are pretty much clueless. Case in point try to find out where to meet Uber at SFO. Good luck with that.
I fly more than you.
More than likely they fly too much and lost the sense being an inexperienced traveler.
The recent SFO major redesign happened before iPhone. Ride share services are retrofitted into it.Also, ride shares are the most disruptive form of transit on vehicle flow leaving an airport due to its operational pattern, putting it out of the way of other traffic makes sense. I had no problem locating the ride share pick up spot in SFO.
The Uber and Lyft pickup area at SFO wasn't originally designed to be a pickup area. Uber and Lyft were causing so much congestion in front of the terminals that the airport had to find another place to move them, so they chose the top of the parking garage between the terminals. Not ideal, but others airports came up with much worse procedures. Last time I was at LAX, you had to take a bus to a pickup area for rideshares.
Most International major Airports use those very similar layouts. When I was at Lisbon Portugals airport I noticed these layouts shown in this video.
do security checkpoints really require a low ceiling?
Parallel divestment is tremendously inefficient in my opinion. Especially when an overzealous bag screener pulls multiple bins for secondary. Just creates chaos on the other side of the queue and backs up the entire line as not enough bags can be processed by the scanner in time. It’s a bandaid solution.
only big airport i know fairly well is Schiphol and it definitely implements some of what he mentions
Korea’s airport is designed in this way, with sideways countertops. I believe in Canada as well. Didn’t realize the reasoning for that.
I personally enjoy spending an hour or two just looking for a place to sit at any bar or restaurant in an airport. It really adds to the awesome experience of commercial flying.
Bro commercial flying ain’t an awesome experience 😭
6:32 should see new Terminal 3 Jakarta, Indonesia airport,the whole airport itself is L shape
I am interested to see someone analyze this airport
I like the architect digest channel's video about airport design much more, it explains the problem different airport tried to solve or optimize for, this one, seems quite shallow
Best airports I’ve been to are definitely Changi and Dubai.
I'd give top marks to Doha, and I wouldn't mind an extended layover in the new Istanbul terminal. Changi has the annoying gate checkpoints, and Dubai is basically one long badly-lit shopping mall.
@ Best airports I’VE BEEN TO. Read that again slowly.
Way-finding systems may as well be an airport's most important asset as far as efficiency and experience are concerned.
We did a lot of these in indianapolis decades ago.
I HATE being constantly manipulated to walk around shops, and forced to wait in busy areas of shops by manufactured delays in reporting gate numbers. This increases stress. It is clear, even from this video, that the goal is not primarily to get people onto planes, it’s to get them to shop more. It’s vulgar.
Nearly all the major international airports are designed this way. I was recently at Heathrow, Dublin and Frankurt airports. They have duty free shops where you have to walk through both on arrivals and departures. I get that they are trying to increase their business by having more foot traffic but it slows down people who have to find their way around window shoppers and gawkers.
Hey it’s the times we live in. Majority of the revenue made by airports comes from retail, food concessions and parking fees. I think it’s something like 75%. It’s how they keep the lights on. lol. That’s not going to change anytime soon unless you want government pay for everything and send up your taxes. Just so you know there was a famous architect who tried to eliminate retail from the design of the new Berlin International Airport, when got to the higher-ups of what he did, he was overruled by his colleagues and fired. The redesign took several months and cost the city government millions.
@@jehiahmaduro6827 Well, these times suck. They need change. Whether taxes pay it or it’s in the ticket price, or it’s in the price of food and goods at the airport, it all still comes out of our pocket. I’d rather the funding method that reduces stress and annoyance, not increase it.
last time I flew out, my home airport had ONE functional elevator in the terminal. unfortunately, with my wife having mobility problems, and no direct path from parking to check in, we had no choice but to use that elevator.
so this is the guy to blame for why I have to walk through endless duty free shops at airports.. when all I want to do is get home
They’re finally learning from every gift shop ever built.
Makes me think of Singapore’s Changi Airport
i love that the WSJ is using 2002 as the baseline for comparing passenger growth. it was probably the lowest year in decades after 9/11
How about this: Pearson airport. Mixed domestic & international check in. Systemic failures due to volume. All avoidable with proper planning & resources.
The only "memorable" aspect I need at an airport is how fast I got through security and how on-time my flight was. Don't send me through mandatory shopping space like I'm in Ikea.
6:57 "passengers may actually be more comfortable spending time in the terminal shopping. (laughs)"
They don't care about a pleasant experience for the travellevers, they want us to spend money !
Hey, win-win if it means it's more pleasant and nice to be in I'm happy to spend more loll
for many its a pleasant experience to spend money in overpriced stuff
You clearly haven't been to Changi where they manage that exceptionally with the airport being a destination in of itself that you want to visit, spend time at and shop without even flying.
obviously. everything a company does is to make money. they gift you stuff without expecting it to have a positive effect on their business.
I think there are ways to create calming and engaging cultural experiences that aren’t just about making money (although most airports are looking to just maximize revenue) I think airports like Schipol that has a version of the Rijksmuseum or Changi that have gardens are examples of how to create non-shopping programming
Munich airport is big af but so efficient and nice