黑洞社区

The challenge of expanding the UK鈥檚 aviation capacity sure is keeping the country鈥檚 architects busy. Since Foster + Partners unveiled its highly

ambitious Thames Hub proposal - a scheme also worked on by engineer Halcrow - a host of rival firms have revealed plans of their own.

Gensler has put forward the idea of a floating four-runway airport which - like Fosters鈥� scheme - would be located in the Thames Estuary, while Make Architects is working up a scheme to expand Stansted.

Urban planning guru Terry Farrell favours improving connectivity between existing airports such as Gatwick and Heathrow while Weston Williamson came forward in October with a plan for a new four-runway airport at Luton.

In this context, you might be forgiven for sighing at another leading architecture firm entering the fray. But a new scheme by Grimshaw, unveiled exclusively in 黑洞社区, is very different from what鈥檚 come before.

The plan, called 鈥淟ondon: Hub City鈥�, is the brainchild of the firm鈥檚 chief executive Jolyon Brewis and aims to tackle the fundamental challenges of meeting the need for more airport capacity in the UK without proposing a single 鈥渟uperhub鈥� airport.

With an independent inquiry under way on airports, led by former Financial Services Authority boss Sir Howard Davies, the plan comes at a vital moment. And given the tens of billions of pounds of investment and hundreds of thousands of jobs at stake, it could influence a debate that is pivotal to the fortunes of the construction industry.  

Rather than the 鈥済rand projet鈥� approach taken by, for example, Fosters鈥� Thames Hub, the plan from Grimshaw - the firm that designed the Eden Project as well as masterplanning Heathrow鈥檚 aborted third runway - envisages a more incremental, more British approach starting with a vision for the capital.

鈥淢ost of these proposals effectively ignore London,鈥� Brewis explains. 鈥淭hey lack a singular vision for the city building on the best of London鈥檚 attributes, around which an integrated transport strategy might be formed. At best, they indicate ways to bypass the metropolis.鈥�
A hub airport takes advantage of combining local and transfer passengers to offer flights to more destinations more frequently than local demand alone could support. Offering low minimum connect times (MCT) of less than one hour, they tend to be built relatively far outside cities, allowing space for associated infrastructure and expansion.

But the Brewis blueprint questions whether this airline-driven orthodoxy is right for the UK and argues that London boasts the size and cultural vibrancy to be itself the hub, to become the world鈥檚 first 鈥渉ub city鈥�. The idea is that this would result in London deriving more economic benefits, spread more evenly across the city, as a result.

City breaks

It contends that London - like just a handful of other world cities such as Hong Kong and New York - has the attractions necessary to persuade a large proportion of transfer passengers to extend their lay-over and spend their time between flights in central London rather than an airport lounge. After all, a recent study found over 30% of international passengers travelling through Heathrow leave the airport and spend more than 拢500 per head in central London. Airline Virgin Atlantic has also noted that its passengers prefer travelling through Hong Kong than the Middle East for similar reasons.

To make London: Hub City work, Grimshaw envisages splitting aviation capacity between a number of existing airports and, crucially, achieving a step-change in the speed and reliability of transport links into the city.

Especially given the recent performance of the UK Border Force, the scheme clearly also relies on improvements in baggage handling and passport and immigration checks and might also benefit from an Oyster-type travel card for transferring passengers.

鈥淭he focus would be on allowing passengers to reach the city centre less than 30 minutes after leaving the aircraft, meaning that passengers can choose a meaningful connect time that includes a number of hours spent in the city,鈥� Brewis says. 鈥淎irports are therefore located in relatively close proximity to the city centre and, as a result, are limited in their potential for expansion.鈥�

But doesn鈥檛 the idea lack ambition? Given that rival airports on the continent boast several runways - Amsterdam鈥檚 Schiphol has six - isn鈥檛 Grimshaw inviting us to tinker with a problem which really needs to be grasped with both hands? Brewis insists not, saying his scheme is ambitious in its own way, sustainably making use of existing airport infrastructure and turning London into the world鈥檚 most accessible city.

He says: 鈥淏ritain has a terrific pedigree of finding ingenious solutions that are pragmatic, creative and efficient. We should seek a similarly ingenious answer to our current aviation needs.鈥�

He agrees that Fosters鈥� Thames Hub is an attractive proposition, but calls it 鈥渄angerous鈥� as well as visionary.

鈥淚t is a curiously un-British way of doing things and it arguably has way too much ambition,鈥� he says. 鈥淭he sustainability side is something we should focus on and aviation is a very difficult sector to predict long-term.

鈥淭here is a real risk that any 鈥渟uper-hub鈥� airport could become a white elephant or vanity project.鈥�

Brewis claims his scheme could also cater for the 鈥渟ignificant proportion鈥� of passengers who do not wish to extend their lay-over and simply want the shortest connect time. He says that Heathrow already offers MCTs of 45 minutes and says this could be provided for more passengers through鈥漰hysical improvements鈥� and the dispersal of some of its traffic.

And what would this actually mean for the airports around London? Grimshaw says all alternatives should be considered including developing the capabilities of Heathrow, Gatwick, Luton and Stanstead and a potential new airport to the east of the capital. But the firm says that Heathrow is currently closest to operating in the right way to support a hub city and controversially says a third runway must be considered as part of its plan.

With many including the mayor of London implacably opposed to Heathrow expansion and committed to a hub airport in the east, Grimshaw still has its work cut out.

What do you think about Grimshaw鈥檚 proposal to make London into a 鈥榟ub city鈥�? Have your say below