Mexico New International Airport

Mexico City’s New International Airport will revolutionize airport design and the experience of traveling. It creates an infrastructure that will last for the entire 21st century and become an icon for Mexico.

The new airport will be constructed in phases. Three runways will be built in the first phase, granting a capacity of up to 70 million passengers annually. The second phase will add three more runways, increasing the capacity to up to 120 million a year.

This “Airport of the Future” is designed with inspiration from the past. The shape, the symbolism, the sheer monumentality of the building are all drawn from Mexican art and architecture.

From the sky, the new airport appears as a luminous, X-shaped continuous structure. The roof of the terminal represents an eagle with its wings open ready to take flight. The terminal entrance will have a lush cacti garden with the access roads designed in the form of a snake. Rich and intense colors that represent the Mexican culture will be used for the functional components of the building facade.

Inside, travelers experience a vast, column-free space—uplifting and luminous. The central hall of the structure will be illuminated with bright colors that represent the Mesoamerican symbol of the sun. With a typical internal roof span of 9 mt it is nearly three times that of a conventional airport.

The lightweight glass and steel structure and soaring vaulted roof sit atop the largest base-isolation system of its kind that includes a “floating” platform, designed for Mexico City’s challenging soil conditions. Its unique prefabricated system can be constructed rapidly, without the need for scaffolding, ensuring that the new airport will be a showcase for Mexican innovation, built by Mexican contractors and engineers. This is an airport that ensures a sustainable future for all of Mexico. The design ensures few level changes, shorter walking distances, and easy navigation—avoiding the need for internal trains and underground tunnels for internal transport. The roof is made of lightweight glass and steel.

YEARS

2014-2020

STATUS

On-Going

SCALE

792,861 m² /

8,534,284 ft²

LOCATION

Texcoco, México

 

CLIENT

Grupo Aeroportuario de la Ciudad de México (GACM)

 

PARTERNSHIP

In collaboration with Foster and Partners and Netherlands

Airport Consultants

 

PROJECT CREDITS

ARUP

NACO

Inpros

Aba Consulotría

AKF

Colinas del Buen

Constribum

Saad Acústica

L+F Iluminación

Gleeds

Ingeniería Experimental

inhabit

GDU

La Metropolitana

PIG

PARE

Pragma

THREE

Trimble

Geovizion

RWDI

Tornado

 

CONTEXT

Commissioned by the Federal Government of Mexico, it is the largest new infrastructural project in Latin America. It will be the most sustainable airport in the world and revolutionize airport design.

 

AWARDS

2017 AEC Excellence in Infrastructure by Autodesk for the BIM Model

2021 Rethinking The Future Award, Category Concept Transportation

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Forbes, March 2020