Delivering Construction Projects Within A Live Airport

Airports need to maintain operations while their buildings and infrastructure are upgraded, expanded or adapted. Passengers continue moving through terminals, staff need access to workplaces, and essential systems must remain available. For a construction project, these requirements influence everything from the initial brief to the final handover.

At Gebler Tooth Architects, our airport experience spans passenger lounges, baggage facilities, cargo buildings and aircraft maintenance infrastructure. Across these different project types, understanding the operational setting is an essential part of the design process. A proposal needs to work as a completed facility, but it also needs a practical route through construction.

Establishing the operational brief

The first task is to understand how the airport uses the project area and the spaces around it. This includes identifying passenger and staff routes, servicing arrangements, security boundaries and connections to adjacent facilities. It also means establishing which activities must continue throughout the works.

These requirements should inform the brief from the outset. A space that appears available on a drawing may provide an essential access route or accommodate equipment serving another part of the airport. Understanding these relationships helps the team assess what can be changed, what needs protection and where temporary arrangements may be necessary.

The operational brief should develop alongside the architectural brief, giving the client and design team a shared basis for decisions.

Bringing the right stakeholders into the design

An airport project can involve several teams with different responsibilities. The client, airport operator, facilities managers, security teams and engineering specialists may each identify requirements that affect the design or construction sequence.

Early engagement helps establish these requirements before the proposal becomes too fixed. For example, a preferred layout may need adjustment to maintain maintenance access, preserve an existing route or accommodate a security requirement. Addressing these matters during design gives the team more options than discovering them once construction has started.

Architectural coordination involves bringing these inputs together, recording decisions and making their implications clear. Regular review also helps identify changes in operational requirements as the project progresses.

Investigating existing buildings and services

Reliable information about existing conditions is particularly valuable when working within an operational airport. Record drawings provide a starting point, but surveys and investigations may be needed to establish the location, condition and capacity of structures and services.

The extent of investigation should reflect the proposed work. A lounge refurbishment might require checks on existing ventilation, drainage and electrical provision. A baggage or maintenance project may involve more extensive interfaces with operational equipment and infrastructure.

Access for surveys can itself require planning. Where information remains uncertain, the team should identify the assumption, explain its potential effect and agree when it will be checked. This allows the design and programme to reflect unresolved conditions rather than treating them as confirmed facts.

Designing the construction sequence

Phasing is a design consideration as well as a construction activity. The sequence of work can determine where boundaries are placed, how entrances are arranged and whether temporary services or facilities are required.

For example, replacing a facility in stages may require one area to remain in use while another is completed. Each stage needs workable access, appropriate separation and the services necessary for its intended use. The transition between stages also needs consideration.

Developing this approach with the client, operational teams and contractor helps test whether the proposed sequence is achievable. It can also reveal where a small design adjustment would simplify delivery or reduce the number of temporary interventions required.

Planning access and construction logistics

Moving people, materials and equipment into an airport construction area requires a clear logistics strategy. Contractor access, delivery routes, storage space and waste removal all need to be considered in relation to the surrounding operation.

These arrangements can affect design decisions. Large components may need to pass through restricted openings, while limited storage may influence how elements are assembled or delivered. A suitable installation route needs to be established before equipment or building components are specified.

Construction boundaries also need careful coordination. Hoardings, temporary doors and diversions should provide appropriate separation while maintaining the routes needed by passengers, staff and emergency services. Their position should be reviewed as the works move between phases.

Coordinating service changes and shutdowns

Alterations to existing services require an understanding of what those services supply beyond the immediate project area. A connection within the construction boundary may support another occupied space or an operational system elsewhere.

The design team therefore needs to coordinate proposed changes with the relevant engineering and airport teams. Where a shutdown is required, its scope, timing and prerequisites should be established through the project’s agreed procedures.

Temporary supplies, advance installation and staged connections may help maintain continuity, depending on the circumstances. The architectural design must accommodate these arrangements, including space for equipment and access for installation, inspection and maintenance. Service coordination is consequently part of developing the building layout, rather than an issue to resolve after it.

Maintaining clear information during delivery

Once construction begins, changes and discoveries need to be assessed against both the design intent and the operational requirements. An apparently minor adjustment can affect access, servicing or the agreed sequence of work.

Clear drawings, defined responsibilities and a consistent process for reviewing changes help the team manage these interfaces. Site observations and contractor proposals should feed back into coordinated information so that everyone works from the same agreed position.

The aim is to make decisions with an understanding of their wider consequences, while keeping the project moving.

Preparing for completion and use

Handover needs to be considered early enough to accommodate testing, commissioning, inspections and any operational preparations required before occupation. Completion may occur in stages, with different areas becoming available at different times.

For GTA, delivering projects within live airports means connecting architectural design with the practical requirements of construction and operation. Establishing these relationships early helps create facilities that meet the client’s brief and can be brought into use through a coordinated, workable delivery process.