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Sure, not denying that the ideal mix is the best deal, but getting it right is harder! Maybe (in my understanding) when BIAL took charge w.r.t the deadline they decided a modular expandable terminal would be a better idea then a fancy looking PTB (something like HIAL). Also what is built is built, and changing ii would be time consuming, and might end up looking like a mix of both - better of none! 

Again, I too, do not like an airport that is unappealing in anyway, but this again does not depend on the external structure. You see, inside the terminal building there can be murals, sculptures, galleries, all sorts of visually appealing items that make this a very entertaining place! Interestingly, The TATE Modern in London was a power station and now is a beautiful art gallery! So without physically building expensive structures, a simple layer of culture/art can be added to give this place a more vibrant look and feel!

In fact a official from BIAL mentioned that such ideas are in place and will happen shortly over the next year maybe. So that is some relief...I also learnt that since there was lot of presssure on BIAL fromt he technical angles they were not able to spend too much time on this aspec. But it is in store.

About your comment, "but I am hard headed when it comes to pushing limits.. cant we do it better?"   - I totally agree! But lets push in directions no one pushed before. Let see if we can create an airport where you can check in 15 mins before the flight! What if we made a new record in getting passengers off the plane and into the parking lot faster than anyone else?

As a designer, my job is to make things look good :) but now with all my experience I have learned that no one cares about good looks  (including me!) in public areas its all about effeiceny!  Good looks may get you a few more brownie points but it never rakes in the moolah!

So I sincerely hope that AIrport City is something out of this world. I still hope it will stick to some ecological ethics and not pump the living daylights out of nature!

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A commercially oriented machine, without heart or soul Business sense ‘Small thinking has sunk in in the infrastructure at BIA’ Says ANAND PARTHASARATHY of the Hindu Reading, day in, day out of the challenges facing Bangalore’s spanking new international airport, one begins to wonder whether proximity to a few hundred information technology companies might not have rubbed off on the airport as well, afflicting it with this high tech disease: instant obsolescence. In normal circumstances, it would seem to be a fairly bizarre situation, when a new facility like an airport which is presumably planned by experts reaches the limit of its rated capacity on the very day it opens — or so we are told by the many committees that are bending their minds to the question: How do you solve a problem like BIA? Clearly it cannot be solved so smoothly as the problem like Maria, that enthralled us in our younger days in The Sound of Music. Having passed through the airport a day after it was opened — and about half a dozen times since then, I emboldened to share with readers, my theory of why people continue to grumble and curse when talking about what should be the pride of India’s Silicon City. The issue is not a few overflowing trash cans, or leaky toilets or aerobridges with teething problems. All that can be changed. But attitude cannot. I am coming round to the belief that the airport was conceived and executed by small minds, who either lacked the vision of what the mature, internationally savvy passengers who patronise the airlines serving Bangalore came to expect — or just decided that the interests of their shareholders would be best served by getting away with the narrowest definition of contractual responsibilities… and cutting every corner in sight. Here are some examples: The pre-boarding waiting areas is where passengers, especially on international flights, tend to spend most of their time in airports — up to 2 hours is common. So world over, designers provide the most comfortable seating they can. The new Terminal 5 at Heathrow has invested in a number of corners with literally “sink in” sofas in which one can cacoon oneself in comfort. Incheon, Korea; Changi Singapore, the new Hong Kong airport on Lantau island, are all examples of thoughtful seating. But at BIA, they have standardised on a particularly hard and unyielding upright chair that will have you squirming within a few minutes. There are, in my experience, only two international airports worse in this respect — Bangkok’s Suvarnabhoomi, where they have gone all metal, and Frankfurt, that has created a unique torture instrument: a rounded metal bar on which one is expected to balance one’s posterior. Is this a German thing? BIA after all is part owned by Zurich Airport and that reputed name Siemens — both bywords for efficiency and quality. BIA is a poor showcase for your brand, mein damen und herrn. Elsewhere, small thinking has sunk in — literally — into the infrastructure. You will be hard pressed to find smaller display boards for flight information, anywhere in the world. They have made do, with standard home theatre sized LCD TV screens, which cannot be read (at least by me) without spectacles. And at that size, they are unable to display enough lines and cannot show a departure that is just an hour away. This is a disgrace by any international standards. After a hue and cry about lack of public phones, they have stuck a few portable coin operated phones among the departure gates — the type your corner grocery store keeps on the counter. This is the IT capital of India: It would have sent a splendid signal to the world, if arriving passengers found a few computer terminals with free Internet to check their mails. You can see them in Hong Kong, and in some 20 locations in Changi, Singapore — with two at every departure gate. One could go on and on… Bangalore has waited for over a decade for a decent airport that measured up to the splendid image that its IT industry has created for India. What it has got is a cold, commercially oriented machine, without heart or soul. It may work — just — but it will never thrill. We deserved better.

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{removed]

Stick to the thread please - first hand experiences as much as possible, or pointed discussions around experiences posted here.

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Cargo has started flowing in, but the warehouse has a gap between the roof and the wall. In some cases there is no wall, or no shutter.  It is completely unsecured and not read.

Photographs are there, but I do not know to post it on Praja, so instead I request Praja members to visit my blog article.  For your convenience, I have put the link to open in a new window, hence you can read the article and then post comments, on Praja and if you want on my blog.

-----------------------

Regards

Devesh R. Agarwal

Visit my aviation blog at http://aviation.deveshagarwal.com

 

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Comments by a set of frequent flyers ( Iam not one): 

1)
Having travelled recently ,my two bits:
a) The new airport LOOKS modern,steel and glass etc-completely non-descript. Could be anywhere in the world with no distinctive feature.Maybe my expectations were too high.But obviously an improvement over the old dump.
b) Looks badly and inadequately planned with an eye on minimising investment.
-the smallest loos on the departure side in probably any airport in India.A narrow passage leads to it and there are queues!
-highly crowded ,with most seats taken at 5pm .I am sure it is rush hour but still.....
-passages are narrow,unlike other modern airports.
c) Could do with an escalator rather than a straicase on arrival.
d) Though there are many doors to enter the building, as usual the police have only one door mannedand the rest locked,hence queues to enter!
Overall,looks very small and inadequate.


2)
Would like to second - have been to the airport multiple times now and have had a bad experience all along. The departure terminal is inadequate for so many people. There is n’t even enough seating. We had to stand on a Sunday evening (non peak). It is clearly under designed - one felt quite let down and cheated. Don’t see how they can scale this up in a hurry.

The loos are not only small, they are not clean either.

I am assuming the stairs coming half an hour late, the baggage coming an hour late are all teething problems.

3)
Looks like a shoebox with skylights!!! Classic case of zero programming before design....An civil engineer's approach to building design..

Broadly in addition to s's comments,
a) bad circulation. ...stairs are too narrow ,loos too small, inadequate wayfinding,small monitors(42" Tv's) awkwardly placed to show arrival/ departure,
b) Bad acoustics,very noisy inside cannot hear announcements (haven't they heard of Bose systems? anyway which international airport still has annoucements? )
3BAdly and crudely finished..
c) Parking pick up and drop not thought of

All in all quite disappointing. ...Wonder who the architect was? :) :(.......


4)
Yes, I echo the views, though I bow to N's superior wisdom on design.
My major crib though is that there was an opportunity to depict something or demonstrate some character which has been missed.This is just another inadequate facility.

Muralidhar Rao

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