Airports Authority of India is expanding Chennai International Airport’s domestic and international terminals.
Airports Authority has chosen plans by a team of architects Frederic Schwartz Architects, Hargreaves Associates, Gensler, and New Delhi-based Creative Group. It will be completed in 2010; this project will transform Chennai, into India’s greenest airport. Project is estimated about $300 million.
A parking garage with a green roof will create what the designers describe as a “green gate” to the terminal. “The folding geometry of the green roof captures and directs rain water during the rain season to the elliptical openings in the roof, creating shimmering ‘rain curtains’ as the water falls through the garage to cisterns below. This stored water is later used during the dry season to irrigate the green roof and maximize the site’s sustainable resources.”
Images: Courtesy Frederic Schwartz Architects, Architectural Record
Creative Group notes that rain harvesting is mandated by Indian law. But Chennai’s decision to go green was largely a voluntary one.Via