Meet and greet

hen David Bartlett became BAA’s director of design in 2004, he inherited a Terminal 5 project that had changed radically since Rogers Stirk

Harbour+Partners had won the competition to build it in 1989. A protracted public consultation process that compromised the area the terminal could occupy, post-9/11 security changes and the UK’s eschewal of the Schengen agreement, which allows passport-free travel across mainland Europe, meant that the design had become a very different animal.

It was also a complicated beast, so huge that consultants were appointed to add specialised knowledge to aspects of the terminal’s design. While RSHP retained its position as design architect, Pascall+Watson was appointed as executive architect, HOK took on the rail and Tube station design, Chapman Taylor advised on the retail elements, and the product designer Priestman Goode was employed to advise on check-in desks.

Priestman Goode came on board with good credentials, having worked with Airbus on the design of its aircraft interiors. At Terminal 5, its commission to design BA’s desking blossomed into a far more significant role.

Bartlett was initially concerned by the task facing him. ‘I was brought in to oversee the £4.3bn turning of BAA’s assets into a coherent and branded passenger experience,’ he explains, ‘so the first thing I did was to get all of the teams into one room to take me through the whole airport experience from a passenger perspective. Having seen the presentations, I saw that each company was adopting different way-finding strategies to their particular areas.

‘I felt that what was called for was a far more holistic approach and a family of product designs. I decided to hand this aspect over

to Priestman Goode to allow them to concentrate on developing a new standard range, and one that could get rolled out into the future development of Foster+Partners’ Heathrow East terminal.’

The brief that mushroomed

So, after starting simply as check-in desk designer, Priestman Goode had greatness thrust upon it, becoming creator of the way-finding strategy for Terminal 5, and consequently BAA’s whole portfolio. The consultancy was well aware of the magnitude of the task but, having worked on the design of Virgin’s Pendolino train, it had skills not only in the mass production and economies of scale of public transport but also the whole passenger experience.

‘There are high levels of stress associated with the process of getting to and passing through an airport – and now, more than ever, it’s a journey beset by obstructions and barriers,’ says Paul Priestman, founding director of the consultancy. ‘For us, a key aspect was to understand the people flows, and to create specific “set-down points” that allowed users to rest, collect themselves and orientate themselves within the space.’

As Priestman goes on to explain, this was no mean feat. There may be a boldness and grand simplicity to RSHP’s massive roof, but beneath is a ziggurat of spaces containing departures, arrivals, baggage handling and enormous retail areas, compactly stacked one above the other.

Passing through the airport involves surmounting the ziggurat as you move from landside to airside. Priestman says: ‘It was our priority to maintain clarity despite the routing complexity of the building, and to do so through developing a highly recognisable kit of parts for the fit-out. But we didn’t want this to compete with the architecture. We wanted the fit-out to be more of an understated “blank canvas” rather than looking like some kind of design flourish in itself.’

So how was it done? A significant factor was the development of a robust concept of what constituted ‘building’ and ‘product’. Priestman describes anything that touches the floor of the terminal as ‘building’ and any element that can be touched by passengers as ‘product’. This allowed the firm to create hierarchies in its product design.

Check-in desks comprise two distinct elements: the powder-coated steel bases, rising up from the granite floor, echo the metallic feel of the building’s high-tech aesthetic while the desk surfaces, fronts and computer housings are in black and white Staron, a solid surface material which is warm and tactile and also replaceable as user requirements and technologies change. The desk design is an attempt at future-proofing the product, anticipating a fully self-service check-in by passengers. ‘With the ubiquity of the internet, we bore in mind the fact that technology will at some point make the check-in desk, as we know it, a redundant item,’ Priestman says.

The huge 8m-tall ‘zonal beacons’, the primary organisational and information totems for the terminal, integrate flat-screen technologies, speakers, emergency lighting and air-conditioning outlets, all neatly contained within a powder-coated steel frame topped off by BAA’s signature amber signs.

The consultancy unsuccessfully proposed the muting of this livery to a pastel yellow against a deep-blue background. Priestman, nevertheless, sees the finished article as a triumph of information and service integration, unifying more than 30 functions in one form and ‘getting the product to work for us in a truly multivalent way’.

Hierarchy of finishes

The Priestman Goode strategy for BAA goes into fine details, including a hierarchy for the product finishes. ‘All our bollards are the same design,’ says Priestman, ‘but in the car parks they are galvanised and in the terminal they are polished stainless steel.’ The change in material has a subliminal effect on passengers, he argues, helping them to understand their environment and orientate themselves within the space.

With the airport being a private business operation, rather than a public utility, all the consultants involved in Terminal 5 were aware that there would be enormous retail pressure on the design. Priestman Goode was realistic about the retail requirement but was determined to ensure that, as far as possible, this aspect was integrated into the infrastructure of the airport rather than being an addition to it. This led to the development of a glass wall with integrated electronic media screens, which has been used throughout the terminal.

Bartlett is particularly proud of this detail. ‘A lot of work went into the development of the modular system, and the design is a breakthrough,’ he says. The wall systems, designed with cladding firm Permasteelisa, are backpainted glass and contain advertising screens, surface-recessed service access panels, and even defibrillators. Nothing extraneous can be added, as it’s not possible to drill through the glass, but the modular nature does allow the future incorporation of pop-out panels and installation of sign boxes without ruining the visual integrity of the wall. Bartlett feels that the product design has married aesthetics and pragmatism in a way that has optimised the performance of both.

Confidence about Priestman Goode’s track record made RSHP happy to take a back seat, says project partner Mike Davies, and concentrate on its own contribution to the way-finding experience, which was the loose-fit ceiling support system, with Unistrut grid, tucked away behind the characteristic silver dishes that make up the suspended ceiling in arrivals. Again, the grid is fundamental to the flexibility of the space; it not only holds up the ceiling but supports signage, smoke alarms, antennae and cameras – all part of a greater holistic strategy.

Dealing with retail component

Was RSHP concerned about the retail component interfering with the clarity of orientation from landside to airside? Davies says not.

‘Marrying the idea of direct access to gates and drawing passengers through retail areas would seem to be at odds, but we developed the idea of retail being “on the way” rather than “in the way”.

‘It’s a subtle methodology that directs passengers to the south or the north of the terminal through a retail “street”. The corridor that you walk down, while curving, is clearly legible and understandable. We never had any problems conceptually with Priestman Goode’s approach. Everything they did was through a process of discussion, and carried out with a common view. We always respected their expertise.’

Bartlett, too, judges the collaboration to have been a great success. He believes that Priestman Goode’s way-finding strategy is implicit to the success of the finished design: ‘Terminal 5 has very much been about a clear wish to create a genuine customer experience, combining amazing internal and external views, and creating drama and excitement for passengers.’