Terminal four sprang up as a gigantic expansion project I decided to undertake during the summer of 2005. The airport already had three terminals and two runways but my fondness of airport overviews – Toronto – and the freedom of being able to build new ambitious and exciting projects is what got me going. Perhaps it’s also due to the frustration of the development problems met at Juan Santamaría Intl. airport in Alajuela that I felt the need of designing such a considerable complex. Terminal four is indeed much larger than the three terminals altogether and also possesses an entry freeway, which allows traffic to flow more directly into the four main parking garage towers.
Yet the idea of introducing large roads and more traffic may seem provocative in an era where sustainable development is a major issue. As a result to this, my intention was not to draw a replica of one of the many airports where the only mean of transportation is an automobile. Even though I delight in drawing roads, my plan was to connect a train line to the national – efficient & electric – railroad network that spreads out into the whole country. At first it was thought for cargo, as a solution to diminish traffic density, pollution – due to the amount of gas used by individual vehicles – and the hard impact left on the surface of the roads.
Nevertheless, connecting public passenger transportation to the national network can also be a solution to the above-mentioned problems, therefore the logical reason of inserting a passenger train station within the airport grounds. But finally, to me the most exciting aspect of an airport is its way of linking the world together. You can indeed enter a building in one part of the planet, walk through the jetway, enter the plane and arrive in another building through some other jetway and finally walk out and you’re on the other side of the globe.
