London Southend Airport

The design of a new two storey terminal building at Southend Airport. The building replaces an existing terminal and relocates the passenger operation to integrate with a new railway station. Our designers were also involved in the delivery of the Airport’s 2nd phase, to extend the terminal northward whilst complimenting the existing profile, creating an additional 2000m² to cater for circa 2 million passengers annually. 

Solution

The new building replaces an existing terminal and comprises the following specialist areas:

• Check in concourse, arrivals concourse, arrivals and retail space - (ground floor, landside)
• Departures concourse, customs, passport control, baggage reclaim, retail space and 3 departure gates (ground floor, airside)
• Security (first floor, landside)
• Offices (first floor, airside)

To provide efficient floor areas for each terminal process and unrestricted passenger flow, our architectural team opted for a two-storey design. This provided the check-in concourse and departures lounge at ground level with the security facilities and offices at first floor.

The steel frame building included a curved roof allowing for a recessed plant deck over the central first floor. It was designed using BIM technology and a BREEAM level of ‘Very Good’ was achieved. Other RPS services included fire engineering and 3D visualisations.

Landside, covered walkways were provided from the terminal to the railway station. Airside works included the design of ten new aircraft stands and a taxiway link to the existing taxiway network.

The second phase extension continued with the same building envelope. Our design team undertook an extensive consultation with all the terminal stakeholders to ensure that disruption was minimised and there was no impact on their operations. The completed terminal provides the airport with the capacity to handle 2 million passengers annually.